Funding Manager

Workplace Circumstances

• Environment: Office
• Languages: English, Khmer
• Location: Siemreap Province

Position Summary

PURPOSE

The Funding Manager provides strategic and operational leadership for Free To Shine’s Funding Department. The role is responsible for securing sustainable income, growing and stewarding financial partnerships, managing grants, and overseeing communications that drive funding outcomes.

Leading a small team, the Funding Manager ensures the department operates efficiently while prioritising high-value funding and partnership opportunities. Operating in alignment with Free To Shine’s values, the role collaborates closely with the Country Director, program, and finance teams.

Through effective management of people, systems, and resources, this position directly supports the safety, education, and long-term empowerment of girls in rural Cambodia.

Works closely with: Program Manager; Operations Manager; Funding team; and financial partners including individuals, businesses, trusts and foundations and other non-governmental, non-profit organisations.

Reports to: Country Director

Direct reports: Grants Officer, Communications and Fundraising Officer, Communication and Fundraising Assistant

HOURS

Full-time (1.0 FTE), or 4 days per week (0.8 FTE) by agreement.

Duties & Responsibilities

• LEADERSHIP AND DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT
• Departmental Direction: Lead an efficient, high-performing Funding Department aligned with Free To Shine’s strategy, annual priorities, values, and budget.
• Planning & Accountability: Translate organisational strategy into clear departmental objectives, annual workplans, KPIs, and reporting arrangements in collaboration with the Country Director, continuously monitoring progress and adapting approaches using data, feedback, and learning.
• People & Capacity Management: Manage team capacity, workload, performance, and professional development through regular supervision, constructive feedback, and quarterly Satisfaction, Progress, and Performance conversations.
• Systems & Operational Efficiency: Strengthen departmental workflows, systems, tools, and processes to improve quality, eliminate duplication, manage operational risk, and maximise staff time and resources.
• ROI & Resource Allocation: Track the effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and return on investment (ROI) of departmental activities, utilising findings to optimise priorities, budgets, and resource allocation.
• Governance & Compliance: Ensure departmental policies, procedures, and records are up to date, consistently applied, and reviewed on schedule.
• Ethical Standards & Safeguarding: Ensure that all departmental operations adhere to Free To Shine’s privacy, confidentiality, child-safeguarding, risk-management, and ethical-storytelling requirements.
• FUNDING AND GRANTS MANAGEMENT
• Pipeline Strategy: Lead a diversified funding strategy and pipeline that secures income aligned with Free To Shine’s strategic and program priorities.
• Opportunity Identification: Identify, assess, and pursue grant, philanthropic, corporate, and individual funding opportunities, applying thorough due diligence and organisational alignment checks.
• Proposal Development: Oversee the development of high-quality funding proposals, concept notes, budgets, and submissions in collaboration with program, finance and communications colleagues.
• Grant Administration: Manage grant and funding agreements to ensure compliance with budgets, delivery commitments, reporting obligations, and internal financial controls.
• Partner Stewardship: Build and steward long-term, high-trust relationships with financial partners, philanthropic organisations, grant-making bodies, and major supporters.
• Unrestricted Funding Growth: Drive growth in unrestricted income through regular giving, individual philanthropy, Gifts in Wills, and targeted campaigns.
• STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
• Partnership Strategy: Develop and manage strategic partnerships with aligned organisations, businesses, tourism operators, networks, and community groups to expand reach, reputation, and sustainable income.
• Due Diligence & Alignment: Conduct partnership due diligence to ensure alignment with Free To Shine’s mission, values, safeguarding commitments, ethical standards, capacity and reputational-risk requirements.
• Agreement Management: Develop and oversee partnership proposals, agreements, activation plans and relationship management processes, with clear roles, commitments, communications and review cycles.
• Partner Stewardship: Cultivate strong partner engagement through high quality, timely communication, recognition, impact reporting, relationship reviews, and meaningful connection to Free To Shine’s work.
• Performance Evaluation: Monitor partnership performance, benefits, risks, and ROI, using insights to strengthen, refine, or conclude partner arrangements.
• A MILE IN SEREY’S SHOES (AMISS)
• Program Growth: Lead the growth of the A Mile in Serey’s Shoes funding stream.
• Referral Networks: Develop and maintain referral partnerships with travel operators, tourism businesses, conference organisers, and other relevant partners to generate qualified leads.
• Operational Oversight: Ensure high-quality management across all participant enquiries, bookings, workshops, communication, testimonials, and post-experience follow-up.
• Performance Tracking: Monitor income, costs, conversion rates, participant feedback, and referral sources to optimise delivery and resource allocation.
• COMMUNICATIONS AND DONOR ENGAGEMENT
• Strategic Alignment: Lead external communications explicitly designed to drive financial partner acquisition, supporter engagement, and income growth.
• Content & Brand Management: Oversee the development and quality assurance of all external communications ensuring content is accurate, child-safe, ethically produced, engaging, brand-consistent and appropriately approved.
• Channel & Calendar Management: Maintain an effective content calendar and ensure public-facing channels, communications platforms and enquiry responses are current, accurate, timely and professionally managed.
• Supporter Engagement: Drive ongoing supporter stewardship through high quality communications, impact updates, recognition initiatives, and responsive relationship management.
• External Representation: Represent Free To Shine with financial partners, key stakeholders, and supporters, expanding organisational visibility through targeted speaking opportunities, events, and third-party networks.
• OTHER DUTIES
• Perform other relevant duties as directed by the Country Director.

Benefits

• 18 days paid Annual Leave
• 7 days Special Leave (which includes sick leave)
• All public holidays as specified by the government
• Local health and accident insurance
• Visa and work-permit support, where required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in business, international development, communications, marketing, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and substantial professional experience.

Work History

• Sector Experience: Funding, partnerships, grants, or communications within a not-for-profit or social-impact organisation for 5 years as a minimum
• Leadership Experience: At least in successfully leading and developing a team for 3 years as a minimum

General & Technical Skills

• Demonstrated experience managing an effective and efficient team or department, including setting priorities and workplans; allocating work and resources; monitoring performance and quality; and improving systems, processes and results.
• Funding & Grant Management: Demonstrated experience developing income pipelines, securing grants, producing high-quality proposals and budgets, and managing financial partner relationships and reporting compliance.
• Partnerships & Communications: Proven track record in developing strategic partnerships and overseeing external communications, impact reporting, digital content, and public campaigns to drive supporter engagement.
• Safeguarding & Governance: Demonstrated understanding of child safeguarding, ethical storytelling, privacy, confidentiality and gender equality in fundraising, communications and partnership work.
• Experience working in Cambodia, Southeast Asia or another cross-cultural international development context.
• Proven track record in regular giving, philanthropy, Gifts in Wills, and tourism-sector partnerships.
• Experience managing digital fundraising, campaigns, or brand-management activities.

Soft Skills

• Strategic, practical and values-led leadership, with the ability to lead a small, high-performing department through competing priorities and changing circumstances.
• Strong people-management skills, including supervision, coaching, delegation, performance management, workload planning and capability development.
• Ability to improve departmental effectiveness and efficiency through clear priorities, sound resource allocation, strengthened systems and workflows, reduced duplication and consistent quality assurance.
• Strong fundraising, grants-management, partnership-development and donor-stewardship capability.
• Excellent written communication and editing skills, including the ability to develop and quality-assure persuasive, accurate and audience-appropriate proposals, reports, donor correspondence and public-facing content.
• Strong relationship-building, influencing, negotiation and stakeholder-engagement skills, with confidence representing Free To Shine externally.
• Sound financial, analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to interpret budgets, performance information and return-on-investment data to inform decisions.
• Strong organisational and project-management skills, including the ability to manage workplans, pipelines, agreements, reporting deadlines, campaigns and multiple concurrent priorities.
• High attention to detail, sound professional judgement and integrity, with a commitment to confidentiality, safeguarding, ethical storytelling and Free To Shine’s values.
• Cultural humility, emotional intelligence, resilience and the ability to remain calm, respectful and solution-focused in challenging situations.