Development Associate, FOLU at World Resources Institute (WRI)

As the Development Associate, you will play a critical role in advancing FOLU’s fundraising and donor engagement efforts across the Coalition. Working closely with the Head of Development, you will help maintain a dynamic and well-coordinated development function that engages donors, unlocks Country Platform and Partner-led fundraising, and builds high value funding proposals. This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to grow their existing skills in donor engagement, philanthropy, and international development. You will report to the Head of Development, FOLU and the FOLU Director, Kenya.

What you will do:

Support to Country and Partner-led Fundraising (60%):

• Support Country Platforms and International Partners with their fundraising strategies, through background research and donor intelligence.
• Help draft, refine and quality assure proposals to strengthen positioning with donors and the likelihood of success.
• Efficiently manage donor proposal timelines and requirements to ensure timely submissions.
• Assist in budget preparation by working closely with FOLU’s finance and technical teams.
• For cross-coalition proposals, help coordinate inputs across multiple country teams and partners to ensure timely, high-quality submissions.
• Help develop and deliver training and resources for Country Platforms and International Partners on donor engagement, assessment of opportunities and proposal development processes.

Knowledge Management, Donor Intelligence and Coordination Support (40%):

• Enhance the Coalition’s donor intelligence capabilities and capacity by leveraging approaches and tools (including AI) to monitor calls for proposals, identify prospective funders, track philanthropic trends, and prepare informative donor profiles and briefings for senior leaders.
• Strengthen FOLU’s donor intelligence systems (Asana, Salesforce, Excel) by consolidating existing tools into a unified platform, ensuring the intelligence is current, accurate and utilised.
• Coordinate and provide logistical and administrative support for donor meetings — including scheduling, agenda development, drafting papers, developing slide packs, minutes, and follow-up actions.
• Draft and refine donor-facing strategic briefing notes, presentations, and other materials by working with colleagues from across the Coalition.
• Facilitate strategic collaboration across the Coalition to align tightly focussed fundraising activities, prevent duplication and enable effective and efficient targeting of efforts.
• Support the preparation of materials for Coalition-wide planning, FOLU Governance, and fundraising strategy sessions.

What you will need:

• Education: You have a completed bachelor’s degree in international development, environmental studies, public policy, business administration or a related field.
• Experience: You have 3+ years of experience in a fundraising, business development, partnerships, or programme support role—preferably in a non-profit, think tank, or international organization.
• Demonstrable English writing, editing, and research skills, with an ability to tailor impactful messages to different audiences.
• Demonstrable organisational skills.
• Experience with knowledge management.
• Comfortable working with cross-functional and culturally diverse teams, responding to and managing multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Familiarity with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) and good understanding of fundraising principles and donor landscape of the food-land system.
• Experience in sustainable development, food systems, and climate-related work is desirable.
• International work experience is an advantage.
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position is based.