Government, Multilateral and Climate Funding Manager
Permanent. Full Time. Hybrid working (minimum of 2 days in the office per week)
Location: This role can be based in any of our UK offices - Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Warrington
Salary: £48,576 per year for Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Warrington. £53,549 per year for London (including London allowance)
About us
Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We are a global movement of people, churches and local organisations who passionately champion dignity, equality and justice worldwide. We are the changemakers, the peacemakers, the mighty of heart.
We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and recognise the value this brings in forming strong, creative and high performing teams. We welcome applications from all sections of the community, and from those with experience from outside of the voluntary sector. And no, you don’t have to be Christian to work here – we encourage people of all faiths and none to apply. We just ask that everyone lives out our values of dignity, equality, justice and love. We value a good work-life balance, so we’re open to part-time and flexible working. We also offer hybrid working for our office-based colleagues.
About the role
Reporting in to the Partnership and Business Development Lead, the Government, Multilateral and Climate Funding Manager is responsible for driving sustained growth in income and impact outcomes by actively engaging and cultivating strong relationships with existing and new institutional and climate funding partners.
The role co-creates and leads bidding with MCCs and Global Programmes teams, securing multi-year, multi-million government, multilateral, and climate funding awards.
The post-holder will co-lead and deliver the government, multilateral and climate funding strategy, positioning Christian Aid and its partners to access and scale climate finance, including adaptation, resilience, loss and damage, and nature-based solutions funding.
The role ensures a strong long-term pipeline of funding opportunities, aligned to organisational priorities and climate justice commitments, maximising both income and programme impact.
Some of the main areas of responsibility for the Government, Multilateral and Climate Funding Manager include:
- Working with the Partnerships and Business Development Lead and Heads of Impact to implement an ambitious long-term strategic framework to enhance engagement and build strong partnerships with Government, Multilateral and Climate Funding Partners (including Global Climate Funds such as the Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund, UN agencies, World Bank climate windows, Regional Development Banks, and bilateral donors including UK and devolved Governments, European and other Governments), setting clear objectives and key areas for collaboration, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and climate justice priorities.
- Acquire, develop and retain key Government, Multilateral and Climate Funder relationships and strategic partnerships by building a wide network of contacts across Government Departments, development finance institutions, and climate finance mechanisms, ensuring sustained engagement and strong positioning over time.
- Build and maintain a forward-looking, multi-year pipeline of institutional and climate funding opportunities, identifying emerging climate finance trends and positioning Christian Aid to access strategic funding, collaborating closely with CA Ireland and global teams to maximise funding growth.
- Oversee agreed Supplier Framework Agreements, including those linked to climate and environment programming, working with MCC Business Development Managers in taking forward pipeline opportunities.
- Collaborate across the Partnerships and Business Development Team and MCC BD Team on tenders and grants, leading bid preparation and ensuring alignment with funding requirements, including integration of climate considerations and compliance with donor requirements (e.g. climate rationale, safeguards, and reporting).
- Collaborate with Impact colleagues to onboard new programmes, including those funded through climate finance mechanisms, working with MCC Contracts and Portfolio Managers to ensure readiness for delivery and compliance requirements.
- Develop and proactively pitch new strategic Signature Programmes, including climate-focused and climate-integrated programmes, in agreement with Directors and MCCs.
- Strengthen internal capability by supporting colleagues to integrate climate considerations into programme design and funding approaches, sharing knowledge and best practice on climate funding requirements.
- Represent Christian Aid externally, strengthening organisational visibility and positioning within climate finance spaces.
- This level role may include line management responsibilities of an adviser level role.
Role Characteristics
- Permanent, income-generating role aligned to multi-year institutional and climate funding cycles
- Focus on sustained pipeline development and relationship management
- Requires long-term positioning with government, multilateral, and climate funders
- Builds and retains organisational expertise in complex and competitive funding mechanisms
- Critical to delivering predictable income growth and scaled programme impact
Strategic Context
This role is critical to ensuring Christian Aid can:
- Compete effectively in an increasingly climate-focused and competitive funding landscape
- Build and sustain high-value institutional and climate funding partnerships
- Access and scale climate finance as a core income stream
- Deliver long-term, impactful programmes aligned to climate justice priorities
The permanent nature of this role reflects the long-term horizon of institutional and climate funding, and the need for sustained engagement, expertise, and strategic positioning.
Integration with Senior Leadership
This role will be complemented by senior strategic oversight, ensuring strong alignment between operational delivery and high-level engagement with key funders, strengthening Christian Aid’s positioning, influence, and ability to secure large-scale funding opportunities.
About you
Who we are looking for:
Essential:
- Highly developed communication, networking, consulting and relationship-building skills, including but not limited to Government Departments, INGOs, NGOs and Private Sector and country missions
- Highly developed interpersonal skills at senior levels with advanced negotiation and conflict resolution
- Highly developed research skills for identifying strategic funding and partnership
- Highly developed organisational, planning, and prioritisation
- Substantial knowledge and experience of humanitarian programming and humanitarian donor funding modalities with UN, EU and bilateral donors and/or international climate funding architecture, Global Climate Funds, donor accreditation and management modalities
- Developed skills and experience in strategy development, decision-making, and managing high-pressure
- Substantial experience and a proven track record of securing multiple multi-million-pound
- Substantial experience with project design, as well as monitoring and evaluation
- Substantial experience in developing, writing, and budgeting technical grant and service contract bids, and strong excel and budgeting skills.
- Detailed understanding and knowledge of institutional donor programming and partnership models, especially with Governments and Multilateral donors.
Desirable:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
- Developed in synthesising complex information
- Demonstrable experience in line management and managing teams remotely and providing coaching support.
- Medium level proficiency in speaking and writing in French or Spanish
- Understanding in negotiating government grant and supplier contracts, including compliance agreements.
Further information
At Christian Aid we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer and recognise the value that this brings in helping to build strong, creative and high performing teams.
We are actively encouraging racialised minorities, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people with caring responsibilities, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women, and older workers to apply. This is because these groups are under-represented within our teams, especially at senior level, and we recognise and value the contributions members of these groups make to strong, creative and high performing teams.
We have a strong Christian ethos and we encourage applications from all faiths. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of and sympathy with Christian Aid’s faith identity.
All successful candidates will require a DBS/police check appropriate to the role and location and a Counter Terrorism Sanction check as part of your clearance for commencing your role with us. We also participate in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information as part of the referencing process from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.
This role requires applicants to have the right to live and work in the country where this position is based and undertake the role that you have been offered. If you are successful and we make you an offer for the role, we will be required to conduct a right to work check on your immigration status in the UK. We will contact you regarding the documentation you will need to provide to evidence this.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
About the Investment team
The Investment team is responsible for selecting portfolio partners, managing our charity investments and supporting our portfolio partners to improve and scale their impact.
The Investment team also leads the Impetus Leadership Academy, a leadership development programme to support talent from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK youth sector to progress into senior leadership roles.
The team is made up of 18 people, including former teachers, charity chief executives, charity impact leads, management consultants, social investment portfolio managers and impact consultants.
The team is led by a Portfolio Director who sits on the Senior Management Team. The Portfolio Director has 5 direct reports: a Deputy Portfolio Director, three Sector Leads (who lead our work in school engagement, school attainment and employment sectors) and an Impact Lead. Sector Leads line manage 6 Investment Directors between them. Investment Directors line manage Investment Managers (currently 7). Investment Directors and Investment Managers tend to primarily focus on a sector but might have mixed portfolios, depending on need, experience and interest.
The Investment team has a good track record of role progression. All four Leads and a number of our Investment Directors were promoted from within the team.
About this role
We believe that all young people deserve to succeed in school and in work, whatever their background. As we enter a challenging time with rising inflation and a likely recession, our work feels more vital than ever before. The role of Investment Director presents an exciting opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the charities portfolio partners we serve, the team itself and the whole of Impetus.
We support a portfolio of 23 high potential charity and non-profit partners in the youth sector, helping them deliver benchmark-beating employment and education outcomes for young people, and to grow.
We believe the strength of our approach resides in three things:
- Building deep, trust-based, sustainable relationships with charity leaders by, investing time, kindness, integrity and honesty.
- Providing our charities multi-year, unrestricted funding to help them become sector-leading organisations and scale their impact.
- Offering tailored advice to charity leaders’ most pressing and strategic questions, including their mission, programme design, performance management, growth planning, and financial resilience.
Working with our portfolio partners is a privilege. The leaders we support are incredibly talented, passionate and keen for external advice, and the issues we work through with them are stimulating and stretching. Our senior management relationships are some of the most fulfilling relationships many of us have had in our careers, while the growth and impact performance of our partners are testament to charities’ commitment to disadvantaged young people and the influence we have on their development.
Charities and funders often comment on the quality of our people. Our team is analytical and data driven; we are deeply relational, low-ego and collaborative. We actively invest in our colleagues holding regular training and community of practice sessions, and use skills-based assessments to tailor development.
As an organisation we seek to embed diversity of thought, background and experience in every aspect of our work and actively challenge our assumptions to better deliver change. Over the past two years we have taken action to help reduce racial inequality in the youth sector. In 2021 we launched our Connect Fund to support diverse leaders and their robust solutions to the entrenched employment gap faced by young people from ethnic minority backgrounds compared with their white peers. We have also built a highly regarded Leadership Academy for emerging youth sector leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds, with generous funding from State Street Foundation.
If you are looking for a role combining strategic thinking, analytical insight and influencing emerging leaders, as well as the opportunity to work with a supportive team to transform young lives, I hope you will apply to work with us.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sebastien Ergas
Portfolio Director
Key responsibilities
Finding high potential charities and non-profit partners for our portfolio
- Identifying potential charitable organisations for investment.
- Leading and delivering in-depth due diligence process within the scope of a grant round, to assess and build partnership foundations with potential partners – covering leadership and governance, and their impact, scale, and partnership potential.
- Modelling from first contact of origination, our approach to engaged and trust-based investment management support.
- Developing and presenting high quality investment propositions to our Investment Committee.
Managing partnerships with portfolio partners
- Managing relationships with partner Chairs and CEOs.
- Agreeing Service Funding Agreements, including appropriate annual investment milestones to allow for a clear assessment of re-investment potential at end of phase.
- Regularly monitoring and assessing partner progress / risks against milestones and making evidence-based recommendations on progression or exit to Leads, Portfolio Director and the Investment Committee.
- Escalating key risks on performance, leadership and safeguarding.
- Conducting annual partnership reviews with Sector Leads and partner CEOs.
- Working with Impetus finance colleagues to ensure timely distribution of grant payments, in line with Service Funding Agreements.
Supporting portfolio partners
- Providing high quality advisory support to CEOs and senior colleagues on key strategic topics, using a mix of at least monthly one-to-one meetings and group facilitation to:
- clarify theory of change
- define long term ambition
- develop growth strategy
- achieve a step change in the delivery and performance management of outcomes
- strengthen leadership (individual and collective) and governance capabilities
- develop path to scale
- build financial resilience
- Scoping and project managing pro bono capacity-building projects (in addition to providing direct management support). Ensure projects are delivered to a high standard and contribute to charity progression.
- Identifying engagement opportunities for our donors and supporters with portfolio partners that are aligned with the partner’s activities and do not distract or undermine their core work.
- Collaborating with the Impetus Philanthropy team to support the development of additional funding opportunities for portfolio partners, enhancing their ability to deliver impact at scale.
- Effectively leveraging the support of investment managers to advance the objectives developed for each portfolio partner that is managed by an Investment Director.
Support to Impetus
- Developing expertise about “what works” in the sector through cultivation and use of expert input and engagement as well as investigation into key research and evaluative literature.
- Contributing insights and learning from portfolio work to inform Impetus’ strategy, model and delivery, providing evidence based recommendations to senior colleagues
- Contributing to internal priorities and working groups, bringing expertise and insight from portfolio work (e.g. team strategy discussions, digital improvement initiatives, or equity, diversity, and inclusion).
- Contribute towards Impetus’ public affairs and philanthropy objectives through input into case studies, research and policy campaigns, donor reports and fundraising events.
- Sharing the learning from our work across the team, across the organisation and externally working within Impetus strategy and agreed forums.
- Engaging in Impetus pro bono, communications, and advocacy events, and engage portfolio partners appropriately in these events.
- Line-manage and support one or more Investment Managers, setting clear objectives and providing coaching, feedback and development opportunities to enable them to deliver high quality work and achieve their individual, project and team goals
- Embedding inclusive and equitable practices in portfolio work, ensuring diverse perspectives are considered and barriers to participation are identified and addressed
Person specification
Essential
- A commitment to Impetus’ mission.
- Senior level responsibility and a strong track record of building trust-based relationships with senior stakeholders, advising them on key strategic decisions, and challenging them in a respectful and collaborative manner.
- A talent for strategic thinking around complex issues.
- Strong financial acumen and analytical skills.
- Understanding of impact measurement and evaluation fundamentals.
- Resilience, tenacity and initiative.
- Ability to adapt personal style to different leadership contexts, working inclusively and effectively with diverse leaders and organisations.
- Growth mind-set to seek out and act on feedback and a commitment to continuous learning and development.
- Proven ability to work independently, and to exercise good judgment.
- Strong planning and time management skills.
- Experience contributing expertise to team or organisational priorities, including sharing learning and supporting others’ development.
- Interest in partnering closely with charities that are doing what it takes to get better.
- A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
Desirable
- Experience in the non-profit (charity or social enterprise) sector, through work, as a pro-bono volunteer or Trustee capacity.
- Experience in consulting, investment management, senior charity management, or other in-depth grant making and advisory work.
- Knowledge and expertise in UK education or youth employability sectors.
- Board experience in private, public or third sector.
- Understanding of or experience with commissioning impact evaluations.
About Impetus
At Impetus, our focus is on helping young people achieve positive education and employment outcomes to increase their chance of leading fulfilling and successful lives, irrespective of their background.
We tackle the three most difficult challenges that affect a young person’s ability to succeed in life in Britain today:
- Lost learning through absence, suspensions, exclusions from school
- Stagnation in education attainment outcomes, which means many are missing out on key qualifications like GCSE English and maths
- The large numbers of young people out of education, training and employment
We use our deep expertise and high calibre networks to give the best non-profits working in these sectors the essential ingredients to have a real and lasting impact on the young people they serve.
Through a powerful combination of long-term funding, direct capacity building support from our experienced team and our pro bono partners, alongside research and policy influencing to drive lasting systems change, we work towards a society where all young people can thrive in school, pass their exams and unlock the doors to sustained employment, for a fulfilling life.
We are resolutely focused on outcomes and impact, driven by quality evidence.
You would be joining a team that is passionate, rigorous, determined, creative and warm. We care deeply for our colleagues, our portfolio partners and the young people we serve.
Impetus is a registered charity and our charity number is 1152262.
Our Values
In 2022 the Impetus staff agreed the following set of Values to act as our guiding principles as an organisation and help us to remain focused on achieving our mission to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We are brave and curious
We are bold and brave in our pursuit of better outcomes for young people. We lead with curiosity and stay open to new perspectives. We support one another to take considered risks and learn together.
We bring high trust, high challenge
We build strong, long-term relationships through honesty, kindness, integrity, and respect. We create the space for open, constructive challenge, where colleagues, partners and supporters feel safe to speak up, hold each other to account, and bring their best in pursuit of our mission.
We are evidence led and results driven for young people
We pursue excellence for the young people we work with, are wholly committed to better outcomes, unapologetically results driven, and accountable for our actions.
We thrive through diversity
We seek to embed diversity of thought, background and experience in every aspect of our work. We are open, thoughtful and proactive in better understanding and challenging our assumptions to better deliver the change we seek.
We always seek collaboration
We will not succeed alone. We seek meaningful, productive partnerships with others to achieve our mission and drive systems change for young people.
Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion
We believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more open, creative and gets better results.
We want our team at Impetus to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our team to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.
We want to reach a diverse pool of candidates. We are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.
We recognise the importance of a good work/life balance. We do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, working part-time job shares and other arrangements.
Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.
Impetus is an equal opportunity employer and is determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. We value diversity and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.
Our employee benefits
Impetus appreciates the invaluable contribution made by all employees and wishes to encourage and reward loyalty, motivation and experience. We therefore offer a range of benefits and policies which aim to assist employees during various stages of their lives and careers. For more information on these, please download the job information pack from our website.
How to apply
Please click on the "Apply for this job" button at the top of the page.
You will need to:
- Complete the online form (including the equal opportunities monitoring form)
- Upload a comprehensive CV and supporting statement.
The supporting statement should be no more than two sides of A4 and should address the criteria in the person specification.
You should also include the contact details of two referees, one of whom must be your current or most recent employer. Referees will only be approached with your express permission.
As part of our commitment to flexible working we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at interview stage.
The deadline for applications is 2026, Sunday 21st June 2026, 11:59pm.
Interviews:
1st Interviews will take place on w/c 29th June 2026.
2nd Interviews will take place on w/c 6th July 2026.
You will also be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK.
Personal Data
Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.
Registered Charity
51 - 100
Impetus transforms the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds by ensuring they get support to succeed in school, in work and in life.
