Africa Partnerships Portfolio Manager

Applications open for submission through 12th June, 2025

About the Opportunity:

Blood:Water exists to resource and invest in local community-led organizations on the frontlines ending health disparities across East and Southern Africa. We believe communities are the experts and the rightful custodians of their development priorities and processes. We recognize highly impactful development solutions are already present in local communities and see our partnership as catalytic to leverage existing resources and expertise for expanded reach and impact.

We are recruiting for the role of Africa Partnerships Portfolio Manager to lead grant-making to our growing portfolio of partners across Eastern and Southern Africa. You will be the primary steward of the relationships between Blood:Water and its partners. The role also ensures the Blood:Water grants management processes remain responsive and are mutually conducive for the relationship. The AP Portfolio Manager's role is deeply connected to our institutional theory of change. To contribute to this, you will facilitate technical and programmatic strengthening initiatives impacting the partners financial viability and autonomy over the 8-year partnership.You will also hold a collaboratively supportive function to partners as they drive their organizational strengthening (OS) milestones in conjunction with the OS team.

Success in your role will mean strong mutually thriving relationships with our partners and that they grow programmatically year on year, deepening their impact while growing their ability to manage projects and grants as well as diversify their funding portfolios. You will report to the Director of Africa Partnerships and collaborate closely with other team members who are in charge of strategy and positioning, Impact and Learning and Organizational Strengthening.

What you will do:

1. Manage Blood:Water's grantmaking program and relationship management of partner organizations (50%). Serves as lead on partner relationship management, grants management, administrative compliance, and coordinates support to partners through the grant cycle continuum. Ensures Blood:Water grants management policies and systems are robust and applied appropriately, internally and across partners.

Facilitate partner-specific strengthening with individualized backstopping and support towards their health and growth milestones (30%). Cultivates partners' health and growth milestones specific to their individualized improvement plans, program quality improvement and financial viability aligned with the desired results in the theory of change.

Collaborate across the department for joint goals (20%). Coordinates partner-focused departmental processes to ensure achieving the department strategic objective on need-based partner organizational strengthening.

Key Responsibilities, Actions and Results include the following, while other duties may be assigned:

Key Result #1 – 50% - Managing Blood:Water's grantmaking program and relationship management of partner organizations

• Oversee and lead all processes, workflows, systems and staff related to our partner's grants management workflow.
• Lead on partnership relationships with partners, building strong mutually thriving relationships: Understand their work and approaches deeply, set expectations clearly, coordinate well in the AP team, work towards the health and growth of our relationship, staying mindful of typical power dynamics of grantmaking.
• Ensure timely execution of new and renewing grants (after every two years). Collaborate with each partner in an intensive proposal editing process, leveraging learnings and feedback from previous grant cycles, and guide the development of 2-year grant agreements that are sound, evidence based and measurable (incl. clear and relevant program goals, plans and matching budget). This requires coordinating team members for collaborative participation while working towards specific deadlines.
• Ensure all partners are onboarded effectively, including setting expectations, providing training and developing materials that equip partners for successful management of their grants and relationship with us.
• Leads the content and flow of routine all-team partner calls ensuring continuity from previous touch-points, finalizing the agenda and determining what is communicated back to the partners overall through consensus building across the team
• Support the quarterly grant reporting and feedback process with each grantee by ensuring that narrative and financial reports are complete, content is of quality, and that any queries are resolved and reconciled.
• Conduct monitoring visits to provide in-person relationship building, spot-checks, program audits, verification of work and/or other grants management supervision as needed.
• Responsible for internal documentation related to role-lead travel or program activities etc. (reports after field visits, updates on partner relationships, etc.)
• Manage the grant disbursement schedule, liaising with Finance internally.
• Oversee ongoing monitoring on partner administrative compliance and grant performance to inform Africa Partnerships' decision making on partner risk, and feasibility of relationships over time. Be attentive to and flag performance and compliance breeches.
• Lead the execution of the selection of new partners, aligned with internal process guidelines and in conjunction with annual strategic priorities framed by the Director of Africa Partnerships. Oversees the collaborative team engagement through all stages from RFA circulation to the final consensus based decision making process.
• Ensure Blood:Water grants management policies and systems are robust by regularly reviewing and improving them. Raise observations and strategic questions for discussion in the larger team.

Key Result #2 – 30% - Facilitate partner-specific strengthening with individualized backstopping and support towards their health and growth milestones.

• Provide generalized backstopping on program design applying best practices in community development, WASH and HIV/AIDS.
• Lead partner learning and adoption of these best practices into project proposals and implementation strategies supporting an evolution of higher impact interventions over the 8-year relationship.
• Be attentive to partners' capacity to deliver on grant management. Support them as needed throughout the partnership lifecycle, providing assistance, training and troubleshooting spanning proposal development, systems/process troubleshooting and general project management as needed.
• Serve as a thought-partner to the partner Improvement Plan development and implementation. Provide support to advance OS goals that are partner-owned and driven. Engage the Organizational Strengthening Lead for OD-technical advisement as needed.
• Advance partner financial viability by expanding access to potential new funding opportunities aligned with missional focus, preferably with flexible and multi-year private funding mechanisms.

Key Result #3 – 20% - Collaborating across the department for joint goals.

• Actively participate in larger strategic discussions in the team around our work, and help shape and implement emerging strategic growth initiatives.
• Engage the Organization Strengthening Lead for initiation of the Institutional Development Framework (IDF) process that is paired with the grant cycle as well as other targeted organizational development (OD) assistance needs that emerge outside scope of expertise.
• Engage with the Organizational Strengthening Lead for collaboration, creation and delivery of programmatic and technical specific learning administered through the Leader Collective broadly that is responsive to partners' emerging needs/priorities.
• Engage the Impact & Learning team on partners' capacity strengthening needs relating to monitoring, evaluation and reporting capacity that emerge throughout grant development and partner touchpoints.
• Serve as the main liaison between partners and the wider organization, for mutual needs, communications or other relational engagement.
• Coordinate field visits and other partner-access needs from other departments ensuring clear expectations for all parties. Safeguard the partner and their communities during visits. This includes sharing in AP co-leading responsibilities for vision and story trips.

What - and Who - are we looking for?

We are looking for an experienced public health practitioner who is adept in integrated programming.You have worked within an implementing context for health programs in Africa. You understand the value of M&E for its ability to support, validate, and celebrate programmatic efforts, rather than it being a contractual requirement to backstop accountability monitoring (M&E experience is an added advantage). You are adaptable and excited to roll with the punches in a fast-changing environment. You are willing to be flexible and tolerant with the growth pains of a small organization. You are an expert at building relationships and find fulfillment in being a thought partner to organizations .You are teachable, know when and how to seek help, admit mistakes and are not ego-driven.You have high initiative and self-drive. You confidently bring ideas into the team, ask questions where you need and speak up for yourself.

The successful candidate is deeply mission-driven and puts community-driven development above competing dynamics and interests. You are disciplined with priorities, Professional in demeanor including written and oral communication. You are committed to excellence in the development and growth of the organization. The ideal candidate is an African based in Nairobi, Kenya
At our core we believe all people are equally created and purposed by God – this person joins a team of people driven by Christian faith and values, coming together because Christ motivates us to do this work.

Skills, Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in relevant fields such as International Development, Public Health or a related field . A Masters degree is an advantage, but not a requirement.
• You have vast experience in public health programming: You have at least 5-8 years of relevant experience, in some of which you took a birds-eye view on the sector, for example in a technical advisor, community health systems in a sub-granting or grant making role. Experience and knowledge in WASH and/or Monitoring, Evaluation and learning is an added advantage.
• You have successfully built capacity in individuals and organizations to design, manage, document and report on grants and projects/programs - based on your own track record and strong abilities in the project/program management cycle
• You are a strong relationship builder with vast experience managing individual and institutional relationships. You consciously focus on building healthy relationships, examining underlying power dynamics and intentionally enter each conversation with the aim of building true partnership and understanding.
• You are highly self-driven and very productive in a remote team and low-supervision role.
• You are a fast learner and pride yourself in your ability to absorb and synthesize a broad range of new information.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with an advanced ability to relay information clearly and effectively to a wide range of audience. You are sensitive to power and cultural dynamics in your communication.
• Ability and willingness to travel throughout Africa and the US to fulfill responsibilities (up to 30%)
• Experience and ease with Apple iOS, MS Office and Google Apps software.

Learn more at

Our Mission: Blood:Water is an international nonprofit that partners with African community-driven organizations to end water and HIV/AIDS health disparities through organizational strengthening and financial support.
Our Vision: To share in the joy of ending the water & HIV/AIDS crises – with our partners & in this lifetime.
Our Values: Community, Dignity, Teachability, Responsibility, Integrity

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