Fundraising Strategy Development Consultant

About RRI

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is a global coalition of over 150 organizations dedicated to advancing the forest, land, and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, Afro-descendant Peoples, and in particular the women within these groups. RRI’s members capitalize on each other’s strengths, expertise, and geographic reach to achieve solutions more effectively and efficiently. RRI leverages the power of its global coalition to amplify the voices of local peoples and proactively engage governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector actors to adopt institutional and market reforms that support the realization of rights.

Background

To date, RRI has not had a dedicated fundraising or development team or staff members. The work of fundraising and new business development has been done primarily by the President and key senior staff members. Although RRI has been successful in raising funding from a variety of organizations, foundations, and governments, there is a clear need for a well-developed strategy to guide future efforts of fundraising and the plans to appropriately staff such efforts. The funding portfolio that RRI currently holds consists of European bilateral grants and US foundation grants. At present, funding is not solicited from the general public nor is there a strategy for individual giving. 

Objective 

To develop a resource mobilization strategy and establish a clear overview of current and potential funding opportunities for RRI to increase the long-term sustainability of the organization.  

Scope of Work

• Fundraising analysis: Review RRI’s history, strategic plan, annual work plan, project proposals, as well as vision, mission and focus areas. Speak with key stakeholders in RRI’s staff, board, or other. Develop an understanding of the organization’s current and past donors and review its fundraising approach and practices.
• Fundraising Strategy Development: Develop a fundraising strategy that is tailored to the organization’s strategy, work plan, vision, mission and focus areas. The strategy should define the needs of the organization, fundraising priorities, and goals in view of the current organizational strategy. Resources needed should be outlined, including potential roles that may need to be created. The strategy should also anticipate donor priorities, fundraising trends and adaptation measures.
• Fundraising Mapping/Framework: Together with the fundraising strategy, a Fundraising Framework and Donor Mapping should also be developed to identify funding opportunities. This framework should outline and categorize donors and funding opportunities by thematic area, region, alignment/donor priority and/or focus, funding success probability, type of application (LOI, NOFO, Application…etc.) among other key information, and include a timeline (funding deadlines). This plan should include funding opportunities with bilateral aid agencies and embassies, multilateral organizations, private foundations, philanthropic organizations, as well as other donor funding/resource mobilization initiatives.

Deliverables

• Proposed schedule of meetings to be held with key stakeholders.
• Fundraising Strategy
• Fundraising Mapping/Framework

Preferred Qualifications

• In-depth understanding of the funding landscape, donor priorities, and compliance requirements related to institutional funding.
• Demonstrable competency in supporting development of fundraising and strategic partnership strategies within an international development setting, preferably with organizations of similar size, mission, and sector.
• Professional fluency in English required, ability to read and write in French or Spanish a plus.

Key Contract Terms

This will be a fixed price contract. The consultant will be paid based on completion of each deliverable at an agreed upon rate and schedule. 

Proposed Timeline

Activities will begin as soon as the agreement is executed, ideally in June 2024. The contract length and key due dates should be proposed by the consultant based upon realistic expectations of the process.

Proposal Requirements

Please submit your proposal through this website with the documents listed below.

1. Narrative proposal describing your understanding of the tasksand your approach to delivering the project (no longer than 2 pages);
2. Summary of qualifications describing how your background, or that of your team, positions you to deliver the project (no longer than 1.5 pages);
3. Workplan in Gantt format (no longer than 1 page);
4. Financial proposal with all costs to deliver the project;
5. Annexes, including CVs for relevant team members (each no longer than 2 pages), and any other relevant information.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be scored based on the following parameters:

• Proposed approach (35%)
• Understanding of the work and previous similar engagements (20%)
• Consultant work history and experience (20%)
• Costs (25%)

Deadline 

Proposals must be submitted no later than June 9, 2024.