**Position summary**:
Working as part of an international team of fundraising professionals, the Manager, Institutional Relations and Strategic Alliances, Mesoamerica is responsible for fundraising with institutional donors (multilateral and bilateral agencies, corporate and private foundations) as well as with companies, financial institutions, and others for RA priorities in the region. The Manager will coordinate with regional teams to manage the fundraising portfolio, develop multidisciplinary partnership opportunities, lead and/or facilitate donor prospecting, cultivation, stewardship, and reporting. This role is part of both the Mesoamerica regional team and the global Institutional Relations (IR) team, and will report to the Mesoamerica Sr. Director, with a matrixed reporting line to the Senior Manager, Institutional Relations. They will also coordinate closely with the Director of Partnerships and Development.
They will proactively lead fundraising in the Mesoamerica region, coordinating with the global IR team and program colleagues to ensure that regional fundraising targets are met. This includes linking global and regional priorities and funding strategies, building and monitoring a funding pipeline, facilitating or leading engagement with donors and partners, creating persuasive messages and materials for communications, and assisting with the development and submission of proposals and reports. Maintaining a strategic portfolio of institutional donors and donor prospects, they will develop and regularly update a region-wide engagement plan, ensuring timely follow-up actions, and helping to further strengthen relationships with key institutional donor and partner contacts in the region. They will be responsible for building functional alliances to scale-up our impacts in Mesoamerica and beyond, harnessing the institutional strategy of driving landscape and sector transformation. They will also safeguard the Rainforest Alliance's reputation and collaborate with the Mesoamerica team and functional areas such as Markets; Advocacy Themes; Partnership, Communications; Standards Assurance; IR; Supply Chain Excellence; Innovation, Finance Administration; and HR.
**Responsibilities**:
- Institutional Fundraising_
- The Rainforest Alliance's Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate.
- Write, adapt, and edit proposals, concept notes, compelling project ideas, and reports for field projects and programs, working closely with program staff, Global IR, Country Directors and field teams;
- Advance and implement a regional fundraising strategy and annual plans to secure bilateral and multilateral funding, as well as corporate and foundation revenue, with specific fundraising targets identified for the short and long term;
- Develop and maintain a portfolio of key local and regional contacts for priority donors and other institutional partners to strengthen RA's position regionally and capture intelligence relevant to funding priorities;
- Proactively identify funding opportunities and cultivate long-term relationships with senior leads and decision makers from governments, companies, aid agencies, and donors within Mesoamerica;
- Serve as a key point of contact between the Global IR team and technical staff based in Mesoamerica, collaborating closely with both on a day-to-day basis;
- Ensure that fundraising data for the Mesoamerica program is up to date and accurate within donor database, in coordination with the Manager, IR, South America;
- Represent RA externally with a funder audience through in-person meetings, presentations, phone calls, and written communications;
- Support development of high-quality reports for selected institutional donors, ensuring consistency with donor requirements and coordination with global grants management team;
- Support grants management for projects implemented in Mesoamerica;
- Create and manage key performance metrics to build awareness of and communicate priorities and performance on fundraising in Mesoamerica;
- Develop engagement plans and action items for key donors in Mesoamerica, and;
- Other tasks as assigned.
- Strategic Alliances_
- Develop and maintain strategic partnerships with Rainforest Alliance clients, donors, partners, NGOs, government representatives, and other stakeholders in Mesoamerica as relevant, working in collaboration with global leadership, including in the Regions, IR, and Corporate Engagement and Partnerships departments;
- Contribute to the design and implementation of a relationship strategy for Mesoamerica in close coordination with Country Directors and Managers.
- Represent the Rainforest Alliance at key events, presentations, policy forums and roundtables in Mesoamerica enhancing the Rainforest Alliance's reputation, credibility and positioning;
- In collaboration with the communications team, position the Rainforest Alliance for thoug