Grants & Partnerships Specialist (Donor Relations)

Kandahar Refugee Organization (KRO) is a national-level, non-political, non-profit, non-governmental organization working for humanitarian and rehabilitation roots in Afghanistan. Further, KRO is an Afghan organization that is committed to the development of the local economy and building local capacity for sustainable development. Thus, we have an established specialized network in many provinces of the country in order to design, implement related activities in the field of food security, research, capacity building, disaster management, and placement.

The Grants & Partnerships Specialist (Donor Relations) leads KRO’s institutional donor engagement and partnership liaison at national level. The role is responsible for managing multi-donor relationships, maintaining a live grants pipeline, coordinating high-quality donor submissions (concept notes, proposals, reports), and supporting partnership processes across the grants cycle—from opportunity identification and donor communication to agreement follow-up and compliance tracking.

This position serves as a focal point between donors/partners and KRO internal teams to ensure timely, strategic communication, competitive submissions, and strong stewardship of funding relationships.

A) Donor Relations & Partnership Liaison (Core)

• Manage and strengthen relationships with existing institutional donors and stakeholders through structured engagement, follow-up, and strategic updates.
• Represent KRO in donor meetings, coordination fora, workshops, and partner events at national level.
• Maintain a stakeholder engagement plan (donor contact mapping, meeting tracker, action points, next steps).
• Promote KRO’s comparative advantage, program results, and operational capacity to potential donors and partners.

B) Opportunity Scanning & Pipeline Management

• Monitor and identify relevant funding opportunities from UN agencies, bilateral donors, pooled funds, INGOs, and foundations.
• Maintain an updated donor mapping and grants pipeline (opportunities, stages, deadlines, partners, win themes, risks) and share periodic updates with senior management.
• Track donor strategies and funding trends to support strategic positioning (where KRO should compete, with whom, and why).

C) Proposal & Submission Coordination (Quality and Compliance)

• Coordinate development of EOIs, concept notes, and full proposals by consolidating inputs from program, MEAL, finance, and operations.
• Ensure submissions are donor-compliant (formats, templates, eligibility, branding/visibility requirements) and internally quality-checked before submission.
• Support development of partnership documents where relevant (teaming agreements, MoUs, sub-grant agreements) and coordinate internal review.

D) Grants Coordination & Donor Compliance Tracking

• Maintain a grants calendar for donor reporting and key compliance deliverables; flag delays/risks early to management.
• Support program teams in coordinating donor communications, approvals, and amendments when required.
• Maintain organized records of donor agreements, submissions, and correspondence for audit/readiness.

E) Knowledge Management

• Develop and update donor-facing materials: organizational profile, capability statement, one-pagers, presentations, and briefing notes.
• Document lessons learned from donor engagement and submissions to improve win-rate and quality.

F) Other

• Perform other duties as assigned by management.

• Bachelor’s degree in International Development, Business Administration, Social Sciences, Communications, or related field (Master’s preferred/asset).
• Over 7 years’ experience in donor relations, partnerships, grants management, project development, proposal coordination, or institutional fundraising with NGOs/INGOs/UN projects.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple donor relationships and coordinating donor submissions and/or grant processes.
• Strong knowledge of Afghanistan humanitarian/development donor landscape and coordination environment.

Skills & Competencies:

• Excellent professional writing/editing skills (proposals, reports, donor communications).
• Strong stakeholder management and diplomacy; confident in meetings and negotiations.
• High attention to detail (compliance, deadlines, document control).
• Strong coordination skills across departments.
• Fluency in English required; Dari and/or Pashto strongly preferred.

Inclusion Statement

KRO maintains a stringent zero-tolerance policy towards any behavior that contradicts its objectives, encompassing sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. Moreover, KRO is committed to upholding comprehensive child safeguarding principles. Consequently, all prospective candidates will be held accountable to these high standards and principles, necessitating thorough reference and background checks. These checks will involve verifying academic credentials and employment history. Additionally, selected candidates may be requested to furnish supplementary information to facilitate the background check process.

The intersted applicants can submit thier application by clicking the apply option below.