How does it all work?

Global Fund for Children (GFC) works to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong, and valued. We partner with innovative, locally led organizations, helping them deepen their impact and build their capacity for social change. By pairing flexible funding with targeted capacity development services, we help our partners grow stronger and more responsive to challenges on the ground. Since 1997, we have invested more than $44 million in over 700 organizations.

GFC launched the Spark Fund, a youth-led fund that invests in youth-led and youth-focused groups tackling important issues such as inequality, climate change and mental health, in 2021. The Spark Fund places key funding decisions in the hands of young people representing their communities. Youth panelists design the grantmaking processes, select grantees and award funding. Spark Fund grantees have access to capacity development support and the opportunity to build connections with other amazing young leaders around the world. Coupled with flexible funding, this support enables them to experiment, collaborate and learn. In the first two years, Spark Fund panels funded 56 partners in 13 countries. We are now excited to be launching our first Spark Fund round in Southeast Asia.

What will you be doing?

The Spark Fund – Vietnam Specialist will join a multinational team of caring and committed individuals and will be responsible for the roll-out, facilitation and day to day running of the Spark Fund in Vietnam – a global youth-led participatory fund – in Southeast Asia (initially Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). This role sits in GFCs regional and global Programs team and will work in collaboration with the core Spark Fund team and regional panels to co-design a participatory grantmaking process that channels funding to youth-led groups and organizations in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam working to address climate change and promote climate resilience. This role will also work closely with the GFC Learning and Evaluation team to support GFC and an external learning partner engage in a participatory learning journey of the Spark Fund. This is a pooled fund with youth-participation as a core component in every step of its programming, learning and evaluation. You will report to the Senior Regional Director for Asia with regular check-ins with the Regional Co-Director Europe and Eurasia/GFC Lead for the Global Spark Fund.

The Spark Fund Vietnam Specialist will be responsible for:

Participatory Grantmaking:

• Work with Spark Fund Thailand Specialist to identify and onboard a diverse group of youth panel members from Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as co-creators of the Climate Justice Spark Fund
• Prioritize inclusion and access in all aspects of the trilingual participatory grantmaking process – including panel facilitation, the online platform for applicants and reviewers, and in person and online gatherings to name a few
• Coordinate participatory co-design process with panelists and develop external application materials
• Act as first point of contact for applicants and reviewers throughout the participatory grantmaking process
• Set up and run participatory processes on our Spark Fund decision making platform
• Manage and oversee grantmaking for the Southeast Asia Spark Fund in the grantmaking database Giving Data

Overall Project management:

• Manage and report on the day-to-day progress of the Southeast Asia Spark Fund within Global Fund for Children and to key external stakeholders
• Work in collaboration with the Spark Fund Specialist in Thailand, the Learning and Evaluation team and the core Spark Fund team to support participatory evaluation and learning throughout the life cycle of the initiative
• Ensure that the grantmaking platform and other outreach materials are updated and accessible
• Represent GFC at external meetings and events

Partnerships management and Learning:

• Establish trust-based relationships with Spark Fund grantee partners and act as the GFC focal point for them
• Work closely with the GFC Learning and Evaluation team as well as external learning partners and communications leads to collect and highlight stories, learning and successes from grantees to demonstrate the impact of grantees and the initiative
• Work in collaboration with the grantee partners and peer networks to build and strengthen networks
• Conduct periodic site visits and regular check ins with Spark Fund grantees, both one on one and in a group
• Conduct capacity building activities and identify additional resources as needed to help partners address needs specific to the initiative

Global Spark Fund Support:

• Work with the Global Spark Fund team to process and document learning from the Spark Fund pilot round and Southeast Asia round, taking unstructured information and data and creating structured knowledge that can be disseminated and used as good practice
• Support global network building through helping to make global connections between Spark Fund grantee partners
• Share good practice and methodologies for youth participation across the GFC team
• Work with other regional teams and the Spark Fund global team to identify and capture good practice from other regions and build on this to develop new approaches in Southeast Asia

Are you the right person?

We are looking for someone who absolutely loves working with young people ages 18-30. You have experience with creative and empowering facilitation approaches that truly accompany a grantmaking process as it unfolds. Ideally, you have experience with groups of young people representing diverse geographies, identities, and experiences and thrive in environments with people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Within this type of space, you are committed to upholding safeguarding principles and fostering wellbeing among group members. You are a critical thinker, extremely organized, deadline-focused, and thrive with empathy by creating welcoming and inclusive spaces and navigating group dynamics. You are comfortable with online spaces and facilitation and have also facilitated groups in person. You have strong skills in spoken and written Vietnamese and are at ease communicating in English with speakers of other languages. You will be comfortable with calls that accommodate different time zones and have a reliable internet connection. As all or nearly all the youth panel members and grantees you work with will hail from Vietnam it is ideal if you do as well.

Additional essential skills include:

• Experience in grant management
• Strong experience with learning, monitoring and evaluation is desired, including familiarity with data analysis; qualitative research methods, especially if they are participatory; and comfort with using Excel
• Experience of using a CRM, database or other tools to track projects, grants or similar
• Good problem-solving skills
• Willingness to travel regularly within the region, including regular overnight stays
• Strong commitment to youth-led participatory programming and the Global Fund for Children’s mission, values and vision
• Comfortable using digital technology and learning new systems and processes
• Experience in managing large budgets and/or multi-donor budgets

How to apply

If this sounds like a fit, please email careers@globalfundforchildren.org with “Spark Fund-Vietnam Specialist” in the subject line. Please include a resume or curriculum vitae and a detailed cover letter, inclusive of your rate requirements.

Candidates will be contracted on an initial 1-year consultancy basis, with the option to extend. The monthly compensation range for this position is $2900-$3000 USD per month, based on an average commitment of 160 hours per month.

GFC is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We particularly encourage applications from groups and communities that have been under-represented in philanthropy.

Job Email id: careers(at)globalfundforchildren.org