DEPUTY DIRECTOR, PARTNER FUNDING

your mission Maliasili is a dynamic and innovative organization that is taking a different approach to drive locally-led conservation impact in Africa. We find the best local African conservation organizations and make them better by strengthening their organizational performance, leadership, and resourcing so that they can achieve greater impact. Our partner portfolio includes outstanding local and national organizations at the forefront of wildlife conservation, land restoration, and coastal fisheries. Our partners are pioneering conservation approaches grounded in community and indigenous land rights, generating economic opportunities from nature-based businesses, and restoring ecosystems across many of Africa s most important landscapes. Since its founding over a decade ago, Maliasili has built a portfolio of roughly 55 partners working across over 64 million hectares of critical landscapes and ecosystems in seventeen countries. We have helped our partners generate or leverage more than $27.3 million in funding for their work, developed a growing set of tools to help improve their organizational performance, and supported many of our partners to grow their impacts in the field significantly. Our goals are to build a portfolio of Africa s best local conservation organizations, help them collaborate and learn from each other, and scale up their community-based conservation work on the ground and their leadership capacity within the conservation field. your profile Role Summary The Deputy Director, Partner Funding, executes Maliasili's partner funding strategy by developing fundraising methodologies, leading direct fundraising support to partners, and serving as the primary fundraising interface with the portfolio team. This role is instrumental in building the fundraising capacity of both partners and Maliasili's own team, ensuring that portfolio partners have the strategies, skills, and opportunities to secure long-term, flexible funding. Working under the strategic direction of the Director of Collective Action and Funding, the Deputy Director translates funding strategy into practical tools, guidance, and support. This role requires the ability to move between practical, on-the-ground work with partners and higher-level strategic thinking, assessing partners funding needs and supporting them to find clear, actionable solutions while also working to shift funder systems to build more and better money for local organizations. The Deputy Director also deputises the Director, Collective Action and Funding, co-holding the strategic direction of the Collective Action & Funding pillar and ensuring leadership continuity. This is a remote, hybrid work-from home/occasional office position that will require frequent travel. Strategic Context This role is central to achieving Maliasili's 2026-2030 strategy and directly supports all four strategic goals. By building partners' fundraising capacity, the role strengthens their organizational resilience (Goal 1) and empowers their leaders (Goal 2). By developing methodologies for securing more and better funding, it directly advances Goal 3 (Improving and Increasing Funding). And by ensuring partners are well-resourced, it enables their full participation in collective action and advocacy (Goal 4). This position is critical to achieving Maliasili's targets of mobilising $65 million through the VUMA Fund. Responsibilities Partner Fundraising Strategy & Support • Conduct strategic diagnoses of partners' fundraising challenges and collaboratively design effective, context-specific solutions. • Provide direct, hands-on fundraising support to partners and portfolio managers on complex or high-stakes funding opportunities and challenges, serving as a trusted advisor and strategic thought partner. • Design and lead clustered fundraising workshops and gatherings, creating peer-learning environments that build skills and generate new funding opportunities. • Identify and broker new funding opportunities for partners, connecting them with aligned donors and supporting their engagement strategies. • Provide dedicated fundraising strategy and support to VUMA and other partner-led funding mechanisms, helping them build their own resource mobilization capacity. Strategic Funding Initiatives • Support the fundraising and strategy for the VUMA Fund, engaging donors and building momentum to secure the necessary resources. • Support the Director in implementing the overall resource mobilisation strategy to achieve the $65M goal, with a focus on innovative, partner-centric approaches. • Identify and explore new funding sources that can improve partners' access to flexible, long-term capital. • Contribute to thought leadership on the role of Maliasili partners in conservation funding, drawing on direct experience with partners. Portfolio Team Interface & Collaboration • Serve as the primary interface between the Collective Action and Funding (CAF) team and the portfo...