About GiveDirectly
GiveDirectly (GD) provides cash grants directly to people living in extreme poverty. GD has raised over $800M since launching in 2011, delivered cash to more than 1.2 million recipients, and launched offices in 11 countries. We’re continuing expansion across the Global South. Over the past decade, GD has also supported large-scale, experimental research, expanding the evidence that cash has a positive short and long-term impact on recipients. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.
Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and agile. We work alongside 750+ individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. Team members at GiveDirectly attest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but a fundamental part of our culture and values. We actively seek to recruit individuals from the communities we serve, and use DEI as a lens in our hiring practices, programs, and initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a workplace where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel valued and respected for who they are. We continue to grapple with balancing inclusivity of all cultures and experiences while maintaining cohesion in our values. While there is much that we are still learning, we take care of one another, have fun, as well as provide flexible working hours wherever possible.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or any other status protected by law.
Location: This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa time zone by at least 4 hours. In order to effectively participate in key policy influencing opportunities, a location with good access to key global and regional hubs will be preferred e.g. Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Geneva, London, Brussels, New York. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time.
About this role
This new role, reporting to our new VP Partnerships, is an exciting opportunity for a senior technical expert with experience of cash programming in a range of contexts and a track record of effective policy influencing, to join our team. We want you to lead our long-term policy influencing efforts around the potential of cash to address poverty – supporting both our own programming, but also our wider mission to increase the proportion of development assistance provided as unconditional cash. GiveDirectly is involved in an exciting range of cash programming – including to address extreme poverty, malnutrition, gender equality, and the climate crisis.
Reports to: VP, Partnerships
Level: Director
Travel Requirement: 30% travel
Language Requirement: English- Professional working proficiency
What you’ll do:
- Lead & coordinate the development and execution of GiveDirectly’s long-term global policy influencing efforts on cash transfers, working closely with the Research Director, Advocacy Director and other senior leaders to ensure coherence.
- Lead relationships with external stakeholders (other relevant organizations & institutions) advocating in the cash space at the national, state, and local levels, collecting learnings & best practices to inform GiveDirectly’s policy & advocacy strategy. This may include representing GiveDirectly at external-facing events and supporting other team members to do the same.
- Lead the organization’s efforts to map and engage with key cash and social protection networks/working groups working on policy, and supporting appropriate representation by colleagues across the organization. Support Regional Directors and Country Directors to engage with and understand regional and national policy frameworks relevant to our work.
- Advise on how global/international and donor policies relating to cash should be incorporated into the design and development of ‘best in class’ cash programming and research.
- Coordinate the development of thematic policy and advocacy strategies as needed, working closely with advocacy, research and communications teams.
- Develop and review public messaging and materials, including policy and advocacy language, for presentations, press, online materials, and other materials as needed.
- Ensure new policy developments are disseminated internally throughout the organization, including through the development of summary materials and communications to the Executive Leadership Team and wider staff.
What you’ll bring:
- Required: 7+ years senior leadership experience in a similar role or function.
- Preferred: practical experience designing and delivering cash transfer programmes, ideally in more than one country context and in both humanitarian and development contexts.
- Knowledge of key social protection policy debates and ability to engage effectively in influencing the sector, particularly regarding links between humanitarian cash/nexus issues and longer-term social protection systems, and combining larger cash lump sums with longer term social protection systems.
- A strong understanding of the evidence base for multi-purpose cash transfer interventions across a range of different outcomes.
- Demonstrated track record of coordinating between multiple teams both internally and externally.
- Strong, succinct communications: Skilled in speaking, writing, presenting, and negotiating across multiple stakeholders.
- Proven ability to manage the urgent alongside driving persistent, continual improvement and quality.
- A deep understanding of one or more specialist areas such as: gender equality and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), cash and social protection policy, disability inclusion, cash for climate, graduation approaches etc., is a plus.
- A belief that people living in poverty deserve the dignity to choose for themselves how best to improve their lives
- Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.
Compensation
At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s total compensation package (base compensation + bonus) falls within the 75th percentile of similar roles, at similar organizations. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles.
- The Kenya base salary for this role is $105,000 USD.
This role is fully remote. If you are not based in Kenya, we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.
Why work at GiveDirectly?
At GiveDirectly, we work to ensure that you have everything you need to excel in your role and on your team, including:
- A positive and supportive team with opportunities for advancement
- A demonstrated commitment to helping all staff develop and grow
- A competitive salary, including bonus
- A robust health benefits plan (exact details will vary by country)
- Unlimited PTO (that we encourage staff to take!)
- Desk allowance and flexible work location
Read more about our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here and about our decision to move our central support teams to remote first here.
Read more about our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here and about our decision to move our central support teams to remote first here.
About the hiring process
Format: The hiring process follows the same general outline for all open roles:
First interview (30 mins)
Take home skills assignment (~2 hours)
Second interview (1 hour)*
Third interview (1 hour)*
Final interview (1 hour)
Reference checks (30 mins each)
*For some roles, second & third interviews are combined into a panel interview. If there are adjustments or variations on this process, those changes will be communicated during the first interview.
Venue: We conduct interviews over Google Meet with camera on (unless communicated otherwise).
Accessibility: Closed captioning is available during all Google Meet interviews, and interviewers will also post interview questions in the chat box throughout the call. If you need assistance accessing either of these features, please let your interviewer know at the start of your interview!
We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible application process for all of our open roles. If there are questions or concerns you have about the accessibility of our hiring process, we warmly invite you to reach out to careers@givedirectly.org.