Principal, Partner Support

**ROLE**

The Partner Support team seeks a motivated, talented, and dedicated team player who is passionate about capacity strengthening and behind-the-scenes support to enhance our global initiatives and serve regional priorities. The Principal, Partner Support will work on and across several teams to support our grantee and operational partners in their pursuit of impactful work in communities, and to gather and share lessons from this work. The Principal will design and lead cross-Luminate Partner Support initiatives and work closely with several Luminate regional, funding, and programmatic teams. Activities will include responding to Help Desk queries, developing and streamlining processes, organising global events, administering top-up grants, and designing capacity-strengthening programs for colleagues and partners.

**OPPORTUNITY**

Luminate doesn’t just make grants; we build partnerships.

We form trust-based relationships with those who share our aspirations for impact, we learn about their goals and obstacles, and we offer them “beyond-the-grant" support. We believe that when organisations are resilient, healthy and inclusive, and well-networked, they are more effective. And we believe that more effective organisations deliver greater impact. Luminate offers its partners both non-monetary services (e.g., advice, convenings, trainings, peer learning opportunities, pro-bono guidance) and monetary offerings (e.g. top-up grants to address a particular issue).

**TEAM**

The Principal, Partner Support, will be an integral member of our small team. They will serve as our main liaison with Luminate’s Latin America team, our global programmes team, and all of our exiting teams. They will take a lead role in designing a framework and process for Luminate’s partner onboarding and exits. The Principal, Partner Support will be based in São Paulo, Brazil. They will work very closely with the Principal, Partner Support based in Nairobi, Kenya, and will report to the Director, Partner Support, based in the USA. We are seeking to build a team with racial and gender diversity and are actively building an inclusive workplace culture where representation from minority communities is hugely sought after.

**RESPONSIBILITIES**

Our Partner Support team divides its responsibilities into four categories, as listed below.

**Develop and lead global/cross-Luminate Partner Support initiatives**
- Design and implement global initiatives, such as stipend programs for partners
- Develop a framework for the Grantee Lifecycle, from due diligence, onboarding, partnership and portfolio management, to exits
- Respond thoroughly and rapidly to queries that come through our Help Desk Service
- Conduct research and/or due diligence on capacity-building organisations globally and improve the usability and representation of the Luminate Consultant’s Database

**Serve and collaborate with Luminate’s regional / programmatic teams**
- Serve as Partner Support liaison for several teams at Luminate (LatAm, Programmes, all exiting teams); stay informed of their priorities and strategic plans, coordinate closely with their Partner Support lead
- Conduct regular workshops on reflection and planning of our regional teams’ partner support initiatives
- Support the execution of regional teams’ priorities, such as security trainings, gatherings of partners, rapid response initiatives, etc.
- Note: In the first 2 years, the Principal will be heavily involved in setting up security trainings for partners, and supporting those partners whose grants from Luminate are ending

**Contributions to the** **Partner Support team**
- Contribute to visioning and strategic planning
- Collaborate closely with other team members on priority projects (both proactive and reactive)
- Execute contracts and other administrative/logístical duties
- Ensure partner support objectives and milestones are clearly designed, monitored, assessed, and reported regularly
- Improve the design of Partner Support materials, and translate into Spanish/Portuguese where appropriate

**Direct advising and support to partners**
- Provide direct operational support — especially for early-stage organizations — such as financial modeling, fundraising, organizational strengthening, advising, etc.
- Help partners identify advisors/mentors/peers or help them hire appropriate consultants
- Address queries from exiting organizations whose Funding Leads have departed Luminate and have an urgent substantive issue that Luminate needs to address

**EXPERIENCE & SKILLS**- You have a passion for social change work. You have spent your time working with non-profits and/or philanthropy and/or other social change organizations.
- You have a background in advising, consulting, and/or capacity strengthening related to organizational development (e.g., strategic planning, fundraising, organizational design, financial planning, monitoring, evaluation, learning, impact measurement).
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