The Innovative and Digital Partnerships Unit was recently established within the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) to facilitate the development of creative partnerships and programs that accelerate progress towards the SDGs, raise non-traditional revenue streams for UNDP, and increase the organization’s advocacy and reach.
Individual giving is among the fledgling initiatives led by the unit and was revitalized at UNDP as a result of the COVID-19 crisis response mechanism in 2020 to meet demand from UNDP country offices (COs). Today it consists of central fundraising donor journeys (give.undp.org) as well as individual giving/crowdfunding campaigns to support COs (featured on undp.org/impact-giving).
The unit seeks to leverage an existing digital fundraising platform (Classy.org, payment processing through WePay), digital marketing tools (Mailchimp, Google Ad Grants, Google Display, Facebook/IG), internal partnerships (http://altfinlab.org), and initiatives (Crowdfunding Workshops), and modes of advocacy and engagement wherever possible, with an aim to focus attention on those that are scalable or replicable. These objectives are in line with UNDP’s Strategic Plan and its emphasis to become more nimble, innovative, and enterprising. Central to this approach is testing and piloting new approaches and initiatives. The unit also provides a means to organize, track, and ensure transparency over the financial resources generated.
The Digital Fundraising Integration Specialist is expected to strengthen this digital giving infrastructure in a variety of ways, with a particular focus on streamlining financial reconciliation and reporting capacities, applying and operationalizing best practices in financial management, and contributing to the use of technology to support, scale and automate the existing infrastructure.
The position requires the ability to troubleshoot and problem solve in a constantly evolving landscape of projects and occasionally ambiguous context. Hands-on technical and financial skills are essential to success. Prior experience working in a financial operations capacity at UNDP or another UN agency is a plus.