Senior Director of Advocacy, Europe, Middle East, and Asia October 2023 1
Eleanor Crook Foundation
About the Eleanor Crook Foundation A child dies of malnutrition every 11 seconds. Entirely preventable, malnutrition remains the leading cause of death for children, claiming three million lives each year.
advocacy team and high performing grantees. In addition to our bilateral donor advocacy, we also host Stronger Foundations, the main coalition of philanthropies focused on malnutrition.
The Eleanor Crook Foundation was founded in 1997 with a single goal: to eradicate global malnutrition. We invest in research that proves what methods work, policy analysis to drive systems reform, and advocacy that makes the case for urgent action to address this global crisis. ECF is an active investor and our team of experts prides itself on being accountable and informed. We ask tough questions and go beyond our grantmaking to serve the global nutrition sector as a key convener, advocate, and thought leader.
We are now embarking on a major global advocacy expansion, which this position will lead. The Senior Director of Advocacy will leverage our advocacy strength and know-how in order to build successful new ECF advocacy offices in 3-4 new donor countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. We expect that the first phase of advocacy engagement will be centered in Europe, with additional markets in the MIddle East and Asia to be evaluated in a phased approach over time.
In 2017, the Foundation pledged $100 million over the next decade towards the elimination of global malnutrition. We are well ahead of meeting that target. In 2023, the Eleanor Crook Foundation was awarded an additional $25 million for advocacy and programs through Open Philanthropy’s Regranting Challenge.
Our work and achievements:
Over the past 8 years, ECF has become a leader in global advocacy on malnutrition. Headquartered in Washington, DC, we have a long track record of successful partnership with and advocacy to the U.S. Government. As the largest funder of global malnutrition advocacy in the U.S., we also support a dynamic community of advocacy partners. In more recent years, we have established an advocacy portfolio in the U.K., where we now also have a small but well established
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Eleanor Crook Foundation
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This is a unique opportunity to build a highly influential advocacy network that spans the globe, and can raise billions of urgently needed dollars to stop deadly malnutrition. An advocacy and public policy expert who is persistent, “sick of business as usual,” highly creative and diplomatic, and wants to have a lasting impact on global health, hunger, child survival, and malnutrition will thrive.
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It is in this context that the Eleanor Crook Foundation creates this NEW pivotal role of Senior Director of Advocacy, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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The new Senior Director of Advocacy will: • Oversee the Foundation’s advocacy efforts and investment in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Our team is currently engaged in a process to identify 2-3 high priority markets in Europe where
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we believe we can achieve major wins. The Senior Director would be charged with establishing strategies and portfolios in these markets, and assessing opportunities in additional markets in the Middle East and Asia. We also anticipate that the Senior Director will take on oversight and leadership of our more established advocacy portfolio in the UK. Develop and execute an ambitious advocacy strategy to drive attention, awareness and action on the issue of malnutrition in multiple donor countries; Engage directly with policy makers including through regular meetings, and participating in frequent ECF-funded parliamentarian trips to see malnutrition programming; Oversee a multi-million dollar portfolio of grants to the most renowned foreign assistance advocacy organizations in each priority market, and build close relationships with senior leadership at these organizations; Have the opportunity to grow the Foundation’s in-house advocacy team to support the advocacy expansion in these markets and in the UK; Develop close relationships with senior government officials, build coalitions and cultivate new advocacy partners, launch major new initiatives and campaigns, oversee creative communications strategies, and represent the Foundation at major events; and As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, play a central role in supporting the overall management and performance of the growing Foundation team
The Role Role:
Senior Director of Advocacy
Reports to:
The Chief Executive Officer
Location:
Remote (with particular interest in the UK, France and Ireland)
Salary:
Competitive with benefits package
Expected Travel:
Approximately 35% of the new appointee’s time, overseeing expansion and engagement efforts.
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Job Summary Note that this is a senior leadership position. We would expect though not require that a successful applicant has at least 1015 years of experience in global health or global development advocacy or policy. We don’t expect or seek “perfect” candidates. We encourage all interested candidates to apply. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we would strongly encourage you to apply.
The new Senior Advocacy Director responsibilities:
• Oversee the day-to-day efforts of ECF’s UK, European, Asian, and Middle Eastern advocacy. In close consultation with the CEO and Managing Director, the Senior Director will have the opportunity to foster an expanded world class team of influential advocates. • Develop and execute multi-year advocacy strategies in and across focus markets (inclusive of the UK and new markets, initially identified as France and Ireland) that will guide the efforts of ECF staff, consultants, and grantees. This will include significant time engaging directly with senior government decision makers and with partner organizations in each country. We imagine that at least 50% of the incumbent’s time would be spent engaging directly with policymakers across focus markets. • Be an expert or seek out the best local expertise on politics, government affairs, and foreign assistance strategies in each donor advocacy market in the portfolio.
• Leverage ECF’s strong political networks in the U.S., the U.K., and elsewhere to build ECF’s brand and value proposition in new focus advocacy countries. • Develop close working relationships with government decision makers and influential stakeholders influencers in each focus country. • Bring the global malnutrition advocacy community to the next level by providing high-level thought leadership, encouraging and contributing to bold, outside-the-box thinking, and identifying and funding new effective strategies and tactics. • Design new grants, engage new advocacy partners, and build and convene new advocacy coalitions. • Represent the Foundation at major advocacy events and regularly engage with other leading global advocacy donors. • Regularly attend relevant advocacy events to further inform the Foundation’s understanding of sector developments as well as grantee progress, concerns, and opportunities to drive impact. • Seek synergies and opportunities for interface between ECF’s advocacy initiatives and ECF’s research and policy teams. Work with ECF’s communications team to ensure our communications efforts are in support of our overall advocacy objectives. • Serve as a member of ECF’s Senior Leadership Team, helping to provide overall management support to the growing ECF team, identifying new opportunities for collaborative and streamlined systems, and ensuring our entire team is appropriately supported to reach our ambitious objectives.
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Job Summary You could be the ideal candidate if:
• You have a strong understanding of international development donor markets. • You’ve spent time working in government, at relevant UN agencies, multilateral institutions, and/or bilateral donor agencies. Generally speaking, we’re looking for candidates who have a nuanced understanding of the levers of change in these types of institutions. • You know how to conceptualize and advance advocacy campaigns. You have a knack for dreaming up creative approaches - big and small - and seeing them through from idea to execution. • You know how to manage high-performing teams across multiple locations and are adept at government relations and building strong relationships with policymakers and influential stakeholders. • You have an ability to step back from current practice and imagine future frontiers. You’re willing to assess opportunity even when it stands against the status quo and you like the challenge of inspiring action in others. • You’re willing to jump into the details of malnutrition programming and policy and
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have the ability to digest nuanced information and communicate it clearly to more generalist audiences. We don’t expect candidates to have worked in global malnutrition before. You have a high level of interpersonal skills and cultural sensitivity and you can effectively interact with all levels of internationally-based partners and staff. You enjoy holding staff and partners to high standards of excellence, while maintaining a positive work environment. You can manage multiple tasks and projects and meet deadlines. You are adept at managing competing priorities, holding internal teams and external partners accountable for ambitious deadlines, and building coalitions of the willing in the process. You’re excited by the chance to jump in and build world-class teams and investments at a growing foundation. This requires attention to details both big and small, flexibility, and an unrelenting desire to do better, together. Native level English both written and verbal. Proficiency in French is not a requirement, but a definite bonus!
How to Apply All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter as two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit. The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last NameDocument Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV102023-EleanorCrookFoundation or Pat-JonesCoverLetter-102023-EleanorCrookFoundation.
Timeline:
Closing Date: 1st December 2023 Candidates will be reviewed on a rolling basis. First stage interviews:
TBC
Final interviews:
TBC
Selection Process
All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.
Equality Statement
The Eleanor Crook Foundation is committed to fostering and celebrating diversity and inclusion, both within our Foundation and across our global community of partners. We seek out and welcome differences in experience, thought, and perspective. We believe that a world in which every child receives the nutrition they need to thrive can only exist by fostering the inclusion of a wide range of voices across our work. We hold our policies, our practices, and ourselves accountable to this commitment in everything that we do.
Queries
If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at eleanor-crook-foundation@ oxfordhr.com in the first instance.
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About Oxford HR Exceptional leaders can inspire change and propel purpose-led organisations towards reaching their world-changing goals. Finding such leaders can be a challenge; and yet their transition into leadership is vital to an organisations mission and success. Oxford HR is a global leadership consultancy dedicated to searching for and supporting remarkable leaders and teams in purpose-led organisations. We understand the nuances of purpose-led leadership because we’ve worked in organisations across the breadth of the sector ourselves. We’ve also worked with such organisations since 1995; so we appreciate just what benefits impactful people can bring.
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Eleanor Crook Foundation
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