Program Officer

ABOUT THE EQUALITY FUND

The Equality Fund is transforming the way that resources—and power—flow into the hands of women, girls, and gender expansive people worldwide. Designed by feminists for feminists, it is a model for sustainably resourcing feminist movements everywhere, through global grantmaking, gender-lens investing, policy advocacy, and feminist philanthropy. Launched in 2019, the Equality Fund has activated $100 million to date which flows to more than 1,000 organizations working across 100 countries.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Under the leadership and supervision of the Director of Program Strategy on the Global Programs team, the Program Officer will play a key role in the analysis of trends related to women’s rights and feminist movements and advancing gender equity, particularly in the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and grantmaking mechanisms that include systems, policies, and practices.

The successful candidate will bring knowledge of regional and thematic trends in women, girls, and trans rights—including feminist organizing—with competencies in grantmaking design and implementation, feminist and participatory approaches, and partnership development and relationship building. The Program Officer liaises with and provides direct support to grantee partners, organizes capacity-building opportunities, and represents EF work across the ecosystem. The Program Officer also contributes to our grantmaking meeting compliance requirements, including financial and narrative reporting to donors and other relevant stakeholders. This role requires a strong understanding of results based management and contributes to preparing key program deliverables such as work plans, budgets, and reports.

SCOPE & RESPONSIBILITIES

Partnerships in Grantmaking

• Maintains good knowledge of trends in geographies where EF works and thematic specialization. The Equality Fund supports and strengthens feminist organizations and movements through feminist grantmaking, accompaniment, amplification, knowledge building, and mutual learning. Areas and issues where Equality Fund is looking to strengthen expertise includes LGBTQI movements, youth movements, disability movements, and climate justice;
• Supports development of programming and collaborations within EF and with external partners and stakeholders to advance the work of women’s rights and feminist organizations and movements, sister funds, in ways that strengthen the feminist funding ecosystem;
• Oversees and manages all aspects of designated grantmaking portfolios, including grantmaking plans, writing and/or contributing to docket preparation, receiving and reviewing grant reports, and collaborating with the grants operations and finance teams;
• Provides ongoing support and accompaniment to grantee partners;
• Acts as the main liaison for grantee partners and maintains strong and flexible relationships in the field to inform EF’s work;
• Supports efforts to bring the voices of grantee partners to discussions of resourcing feminist movements, advancing women’s rights and gender equity, and movement building to diverse audiences—including philanthropy, policy makers and the international development sector;
• Represents EF with external partners and stakeholders, including in affinity groups, meetings, and conferences as required;

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Contributes to EF’s feminist monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems in collaboration with the Learning and Impact team;
• Documents progress, lessons learned, and success stories, and reports to funders, working closely with the Learning and Impact team, and GP staff.
• Supports other program needs as required;

Other horizontal organizational activities

• Leads in the documentation and dissemination of program experiences and lessons learned; contributing to organizational communications needs;
• Participates in the onboarding of new staff members and mentors team members who may be working remotely in multiple locations across multiple time zones;
• Acts in accordance with our policies around nurturing a safe and respectful work environment; never engaging in harassment, coercion, sexual exploitation or abuse of any form, or anything else contrary to our code of conduct.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 5 years of programmatic grantmaking experience, preferably in a similar program officer role; other relevant professional experience in international development, programming for gender equity, program design, and implementation is an asset.
• Knowledge of and experience working on global feminist issues relating to women, girls, and trans rights in the global majority and current trends relating to gender equity, the rollback of rights, women’s rights, social justice, and international development
• Substantive knowledge of and experience with Middle East and North Africa feminist movements and networks is required; Central and Eastern Europe and Balkans knowledge is an asset.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate in-depth knowledge of intersectionality and awareness of complex power dynamics
• Demonstrated success in building positive, trust-based relationships
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation communication skills in English plus professional working competency in written and spoken Arabic is required.
• Ability to work and communicate with diverse audiences and stakeholders including activists, donors, and community members
• Strong digital proficiency, including GSuite, MS Office, and experience with database/reporting tools. CRM experience is an asset.
• Knowledge and experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, with knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative methods and the ability to analyze data, interpret, and communicate findings is an asset

REQUIREMENTS

• Must be legally eligible to work in Canada
• Able and willing to travel within Canada and to regions where EF has partners, for up to 3-4 weeks per year
• Willing and able to work remotely on mostly computer-based work
• Occasional evening and weekend work may be required.