Social Finance Advisor

About this position

POSITION TITLE: Social Finance Advisor  
POSITION LOCATION: Ottawa preferred, flexibility on remote working for the right candidate
REPORTS TO: Chief Programs Officer
CONTRACT TERM: 1 Year (flexibility to be part-time or full-time)  
APPLICATION DEADLINE: December 17 2019
EXPECTED START DATE: January 2020

Are you a social finance and development practitioner? WUSC is currently looking for a social finance advisor to provide support to our expanding portfolio.  

BACKGROUND

WUSC (World University Service of Canada) is a Canadian non-profit organization working to create a better world for all young people. We bring together a diverse network of students, volunteers, schools, governments, and businesses who share this vision. Together, we develop solutions in education, economic opportunities, and empowerment to overcome inequality and exclusion for youth around the world, particularly young women and young refugees. WUSC currently works in 25 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, with an annual budget of approximately CAD $40 million. We have over 90 staff in our Ottawa office, and over 200 people overseas implementing 16 development projects in collaboration with donors such as Global Affairs Canada, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank.  

The Social Finance Advisor will play a crucial role in refining and implementing WUSC’s strategic focus in social finance including impact investing. For WUSC, this includes a focus on women and youth as well as a broad range of activities from investing to ecosystem building to research. WUSC has a growing portfolio of advisory work and commissioned research on social finance for youth development, and has undertaken a small number of program-related investments. The Social Finance Advisor will be central to realizing WUSC's ambition to leverage this early work to build out a series of targeted social impact funds in collaboration with key strategic partners.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Chief Programs Officer, the Social Finance Advisor will join a team of internal technical advisors who provide support to ongoing WUSC programs, new business development as well as bring support to strategic corporate work. In addition, the Social Finance Advisor will be responsible to lead and grow WUSC’s Social Finance portfolio. Responsibilities include:

Lead the development of a large education finance initiative:

• Develop a fundraising strategy for the education fund, including identifying potential investors and donors.
• Build partnerships with complementary organizations and facilitate the creation of a consortium to target social impact investing in education in emerging markets;
• Lead the structuring of investment instruments for social impact investing in education;
• Lead major proposals to funders for education finance.

Lead the development of a youth enterprise fund:  

• Design the fund in collaboration with the program design team;
• Design relevant tools and processes for the successful implementation of the fund;
• Provide support to program staff working on the fund.

Strengthen and/or develop organizational processes and tools for impact investing:

• Support the development of adapted due diligence tools;
• Support the development of investment impact metrics and alignment with organizational impact frameworks;
• Lead the development of pipeline development processes in collaboration with relevant staff;
• Other tasks as relevant.

Lead and grow WUSC’s social finance portfolio:

• Develop an investment fundraising approach to grow WUSC’s social finance portfolio;
• Identify potential funding leads;
• Contribute to, or lead relevant proposal processes;
• Develop relationships with donors and potential partners;
• Manage small initiatives;
• Incorporate social finance consideration into relevant corporate processes and products;
• Lead the dissemination of social finance knowledge to relevant WUSC staff.
• Represent and position WUSC in external events and foras.  

QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in a related field or commensurate experience;
• Master’s Degree would be an asset.  

Experience & Competencies

• A minimum of 7 years of experience working in social finance, innovative finance, impact investing, access to finance for international development organizations, preferably in developing countries and in Canada;
• Demonstrated technical knowledge of impact investing;
• Strong analytical and research skills;
• Proven ability to work productively with a variety of stakeholders to lead participatory processes and meet tight deadlines with an emphasis on producing quality products;
• Excellent capacity building skills, with demonstrated experience in effective training, coaching and facilitation;
• Effective interpersonal and influencing skills, including the ability to build relationships, network, communicate and represent at a senior level are essential;
• Flexibility, with a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit to accommodate high levels of responsibility and multiple priorities;
• Passion and commitment to gender equality and youth empowerment;
• Preference for working in teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Curious, enthusiastic and willing to innovate and adapt.

Languages

Complete fluency in English is required. Knowledge of French is a strong asset.

WHY WORK WITH WUSC?

Join Us. Our work is important, cutting-edge, and fast-paced. We encourage curiosity, innovation, and flexibility. And we provide a phenomenal learning experience.  

WUSC offers a dynamic international work environment with a diverse intercultural workforce. We offer employees exciting opportunities to apply their skills and gain experience all while making a difference in the lives of youth around the world. Employees at WUSC work hard to create lasting change in education, economic opportunities and empowerment.

The WUSC office is centrally-located in Hintonburg, Ottawa. We offer competitive benefits, four weeks of annual leave (for full-time employees), safe and healthy working conditions, and fair compensation.

APPLICATIONS

WUSC’s activities seek to balance inequities and create sustainable development around the globe; the work ethic of our staff, volunteers, representatives and partners shall correspond to the values and mission of the organization. WUSC promotes responsibility, respect, honesty, and professional excellence and we will not tolerate harassment, coercion, sexual exploitation or abuse of any form. Successful applicants will be required to undertake an enhanced criminal record check where appropriate.

WUSC is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

Only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. No telephone calls please.

If you wish to apply for this position, please follow this link to register on WUSC’s candidate database.

To apply please follow the link 

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