About the role
Mastercard Strive focuses on solutions that benefit the growth and financial resilience of small businesses around the world. The Grants and Community Manager will empower the delivery of this work by supporting operations and the deployment of innovative digital projects around the world, bringing together a community of grantees and generating impactful insights. The Grants and Community Manager will be involved in end-to-end program and community management across our entire portfolio. This will include supporting the implementation of a new EU Innovation Fund and assisting in the delivery of existing global initiatives. Capturing insights and supporting the dissemination of learnings from across the portfolio will also be integral to the role. The role will include:
1. Program delivery for innovation funds and direct grants: (working with Senior Manager, Programs and Senior Innovation Fund Manager):
• Support processes across all stages of project management, from sourcing to shortlisting and selection – including documentation – and implementation.
• Ensuring a smooth and constructive journey for applicants; this could include helping applicants to navigate the submission portal or incorporate feedback during the project development phase.
• Work with the Senior Managers and grantees to develop and agree on the project scope, milestones and budget for the grant contract.
• Track and review grantee deliverables, milestones and reporting, flagging to the Senior Manager any risks or changes.
• Lead implementation and oversight of a collection of grant projects, with support from the Senior Manager.
• Prepare program memos for the Strive Advisory Group.
• Provide timely input into slides, presentations and reports, including donor reports.
2. Communications and community building (working with Head of Communications and Senior Insights Manager):
• Co-create the non-financial support package and learning community series for grantees, acting as grantees’ first point of contact.
• Support partners to ensure learnings and best practices that emerge through implementation are communicated in progress reports and shared with the Senior Insights Manager.
• Plan and draft blog posts, web copy, Linkedin posts, press releases and other communications content based on program activity.
• Update website content based on program activity and create basic graphic designs and imagery to complement both the website and social media content.
• Recruit and/or liaise with videographers, creative and communication agencies, copywriters/editors, and other communication service providers as needed.
• Ensure partners’ content appropriately acknowledges Strive and adheres to brand guidelines.
• Facilitate peer-to-peer learning between grantees through innovative approaches and established processes, possibly including running workshops and ideation sessions.
• Co-create events in collaboration with the Events Director, such as innovation fund pitching days or grantee product launches, and support on the preparation needed for both content and attendees, e.g. for IF judges/applicants.
• Support in creating content and aggregating program updates for Strive Directors, and Mastercard, e.g. via briefing packs, speaking notes, slide decks, etc.
About You
• Circa 5+ years experience, some being in a similar role.
• You care about impact funding, community building, encouraging digital innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Experience working with start-ups and the impact investor ecosystem, especially in Europe, would be beneficial.
• Experience with grantee selection and management is a plus.
• A do-er, who sees what to do and makes it happen independently, which is particularly important as Caribou Digital is a fully remote organization.
• Experience in both public and private sectors is advantageous.
• Great broker of partnerships and relationship manager.
• Ability to network and build a strong global community of potential partners, including digital platforms, fintechs, MNOs, and other digital-first companies.
• Experience working with Canva, or any other graphic design tool, is a plus.
• You have an eye for a story and can analyze complex initiatives to pull out the most impactful angles for specific audiences.
• Adept at adapting writing style to suit various communication channels and platforms.
• Experience creating and/or running virtual and in-person events.
• Experience working and delivering across teams, e.g. tracking projects on software such as Notion, and working via Slack/Google Suite is an asset.
• Multilingualism always helps. Outputs and your day-to-day working life will be in English, but our grantees will be all over the world, and many will be in Europe.
• This is a fully remote role, but you must be based +/- 3 hours of GMT.
• Willing and able to travel internationally at least 1-2 times a year.
• Respectful of everyone, everywhere, inclusive and supportive of colleagues, and fun to work with.
Job application procedure
Interested and qualified? Click here to apply
More Information
- Address Kampala, Uganda, East Africa
