UMI Fund
UMI Fund seeks an experienced professional to lead and manage high-impact, cross-functional initiatives that align with UMI Fund´s strategic goals. This role requires a hands-on, self-motivated individual with strong direction-finding and project-management skills. The successful candidate is a highly collaborative facilitator who can unify a group around shared goals, committed to diversity and inclusion. The Special Projects Director will report to the Executive Director (ED) and work closely with key stakeholders to ensure the successful execution of projects that drive innovation, efficiency, and growth within and outside the organization.
In particular, this role involves working effectively with external partners and peers, to deliver UMI’s convening responsibilities for The Climate Movement Regranters’ Group. This includes driving the collaborative processes for group direction and governance in partnership with the Group’s Steering Team and coordinating initiatives across workstreams and working groups.
About UMI Fund
UMI Fund stands for Urban Movement Innovation Fund. We connect, align, resource and strengthen people's power for a more socially just, zero carbon future.
UMI Fund is a donor’s collaborative founded by international philanthropies that supports, incubates and accelerates strategic elements of the climate movement, through cooperation with partners for disruptive, scalable, greenhouse gas mitigation. We are a convenor of the field, an advisor to philanthropy, and a grant maker. We work to build the power needed to ensure pressure for climate action becomes relentless and unignorable. We are a relatively new and dynamic fund that is rapidly growing.
Background to Climate Movement Regranters group
The purpose of the Climate Movement Regranters Support Group is to provide a forum for regranters to share, problem solve, advocate and collaborate. It's a self-organised platform intended to foster the health, and increase the impact, of the climate regranter ecosystem. As a service to philanthropy, it offers a place for discussing strategies and solving challenges. It is also a place to build relationships, solidarity and cooperation between regranter teams.
Specifically, the group has set a goal to increase the impact of climate movements by 10X and to implement a “Regranters' Roadmap” (a plan intended to help deliver this 10X impact, while also increasing efficiency and delivering better service to the field). The group acts through multiple work strands, including working groups focused on understanding the philanthropic landscape and their agency within it, collaborating on Operations and MEL, exchanging and cooperating on movement and field building.
Main responsibilities
- Lead special projects and initiatives
- Work closely with the Executive Director to ensure that specific UMI Fund strategic initiatives (including the Climate Movement Regranters’ Support Group, detailed below) are executed effectively, acting as a liaison between the ED and other areas, ensuring that the vision and directives are communicated and implemented across the organisation;
- Lead specific cross-functional initiatives and projects within UMI, identified with the ED, ensuring timely, successful execution and within budget;
- As requested: provide the ED with critical information, advice and analysis to inform decisions; prepare reports; conduct research and offer strategic insights;
- Facilitate communication within the organisation ensuring that different areas and projects are aligned and working towards the agreed strategy;
- Plan and conduct well-organised, results-oriented meetings and workshops;
- Provide support in a participative and collaborative way to contribute towards building constructive team culture and creating successful program strategies;
- Liaising with UMI board members, advisory group members and field partners as appropriate, to support relevant meetings, communications flow and improve resonance between partners and UMI's strategy;
- Represent the UMI Fund ED where appropriate and as requested.
- Leading UMI Fund´s coordination of the Climate Movement Regranters Group (we estimate a minimum of 60% of the time dedicated to this function)
- Collaborate with the UMI Fund Executive Director and the group’s Steering Team in coordinating all the activities across workstreams and working groups, with focus in overseeing the planning, execution, and completion of projects or tasks within the group of members;
- Convene the Steering Team and working groups; identifying new trends and opportunities for effective, collaborative work; providing advice and ensuring decisions and plans are implemented;
- Liaise with group members, participants, consultants and other relevant stakeholders ensuring smooth communications and collaboration between them, as well as negotiating priorities;
- Implement project management tools to track progress against the work plans;
- Set annual meeting schedule and agendas and facilitate the steering team, ED, and other working group calls as needed;
- Support Steering Team/members with funder engagement on collective asks;
- Oversee information management and sharing platforms;
- Organise the annual group in-person meeting in collaboration with the UMI Fund team (both events logistics and agenda planning in conjunction with the steering team, facilitator and UMI Fund team);
- Identify and capture additional group needs or opportunities for the expansion of the support offered by the group peer-to-peer or via central coordination;
- Manage or oversee administrative support, budgets, and project reporting.
Role Requirements
● Minimum of 8-10 years of experience in a leadership role overseeing complex, multicultural projects;
● A resilient, flexible and collaborative leader who can handle a fast paced, and highly collaborative team culture across a wide range of responsibilities;
● Ability to operate effectively in complex hierarchies: managing inclusive processes; negotiating alignment; facilitating emergent strategy and collective decision finding; while also providing vision and drive to the group;
● Demonstrable skill and experience facilitating and coordinating diverse groups.
● Substantial skill and experience in project management, process and meeting facilitation.
● Familiarity with working remotely and across different geographies.
● Experience working in coalition spaces with environmental and social justice issues.
● A commitment to climate justice, ability to respectfully communicate across cultural differences, and willingness to engage in the transformative work of systems change and people power.
● Understanding of philanthropy and the philanthropic ecosystem (particularly regranters) is welcome.
● Ability to travel for at least two international meetings/ year, with the possibility of travel for up to 5 - 6 total meetings annually.
● Willingness to get involved in implementation and take on tasks as needed in order to ensure project success.
Competencies
● Leadership: ability to lead and inspire teams towards a common vision.
● Strategic Thinking: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to develop and implement effective strategies.
● Cultural Competency: Deep understanding of diversity and inclusion issues, including race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, and other dimensions of diversity, and the ability to navigate complex cultural dynamics.
● Interpersonal and communication skills: Must be an excellent networker and team leader, with the ability to motivate and collaborate with groups working remotely.
● Resilience: Ability to work independently and remotely; setting direction and retaining momentum with sometimes limited team collaboration on the tasks required.
Terms of the contract
Compensation will be determined according to location of hiring and the relevant salary range will be shared on request.
Benefits include paid vacations, parental leave, health, vision and dental plan, life Insurance.
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY:
We are committed to equal employment opportunity principles and providing all employees with a safe work environment free from discrimination and harassment. We welcome you regardless of your race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age, physical ability, nationality, or any other status unrelated to the performance of the job or protected by law.
