BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
About KELIN
KELIN is a human rights NGO working to protect and promote health-related human rights in Kenya. We do this by providing legal services and support, training professionals on human rights, engaging in advocacy campaigns that promote awareness of human rights issues, conducting research and influencing policy that promotes evidence-based change. KELIN advocates for a holistic and rights-based system of service delivery in health and for the full enjoyment of the right to health by all, including the vulnerable, marginalised and excluded populations in four thematic areas.
Job Summary
The Business Development Manager leads KELIN’s business development and resource mobilisation function, with responsibility for expanding, diversifying, and strengthening the organisation’s funding and income base in line with its strategic priorities. The role goes beyond conventional donor fundraising to include grant mobilisation, strategic partnerships, consortium building, client and market development, and the identification of mission-aligned earned-income opportunities.
The Business Development Manager is responsible for building a balanced resource mobilisation portfolio across institutional donors, foundations, corporates, strategic partners, fee-for-service opportunities, and other sustainable income streams. The role works closely with Programme, Finance, Communications, and leadership teams to ensure opportunities are strategically positioned, financially viable, and aligned with KELIN’s mandate and delivery capacity.
The Business Development Manager works closely with Programme and Finance teams to ensure that resource mobilisation is grounded in KELIN’s priorities, delivery capacity, and financial realities, aligning what we pursue with what the organisation can realistically deliver and sustain. Beyond coordinating proposals, the role also shapes positioning, partnerships, and where the organisation prioritises its effort.
Over time, this role is expected to play a foundational role in the growth of the KELIN Development Company Limited (KDCL) and, subject to organisational transition decisions, will ultimately transition into KDCL to drive enterprise development, market positioning, client acquisition, and revenue growth for KELIN’s mission-aligned commercial services.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
- Lead the development, implementation, and periodic refinement of KELIN’s resource mobilisation strategy in alignment with the strategic plan.
- Expand and diversify KELIN’s resource base across grants, contracts, partnerships, philanthropy, corporate engagement, and mission-aligned earned income.
- Identify new and emerging financing opportunities that reduce overdependence on a narrow donor base.
- Develop and maintain a strong opportunity pipeline covering bilateral, multilateral, philanthropic, corporate, and other strategic funding sources.
- Build a donor and partner intelligence system covering priorities, giving patterns, funding cycles, decision-makers, and positioning opportunities.
- Analyse trends in the funding environment and advise management on strategic shifts needed to sustain and grow income.
- Work closely with the Associate Director – Programmes & Impact to ensure funding priorities are aligned with programme strategy and delivery plans.
- Work with the Associate Director – Finance & Operations to ensure resource mobilisation approaches are aligned with cost recovery, financial sustainability, and organisational priorities.
Proposal Development & Bid Management
- Lead and coordinate the end-to-end development of high-quality concept notes, proposals, expressions of interest, and tender submissions.
- Coordinate internal bid processes, including opportunity assessment, go / no-go decisions, timeline management, inputs consolidation, quality assurance, and submission.
- Support structured go / no-go decision-making in collaboration with senior management to prioritise the most strategic and realistic opportunities — and to be deliberate about what KELIN does not pursue.
- Lead pre-positioning and engagement with donors and partners to improve the quality and competitiveness of proposals.
- Provide input into programme design and positioning to ensure concepts are fundable, relevant to the market, and aligned with donor and partner priorities.
- Draft and/or oversee development of technical narratives, capability statements, partnership positioning, implementation approaches, and other strategic proposal sections.
- Work with Finance and Programme teams to ensure compliant, competitive, and realistic budgets.
- Ensure all submissions meet prospective donor and client requirements on technical quality, value for money, compliance, safeguarding, and risk.
Strategic Partnerships and External Relations
- Identify, cultivate, and manage strategic relationships with donors, foundations, corporates, intermediaries, research institutions, NGOs, and consortium partners.
- Lead development of partnership strategies that increase KELIN’s visibility, positioning, and access to opportunities.
- Work closely with Programme Leads and the Associate Director – Programmes & Impact to identify and develop partnerships that strengthen programme delivery and positioning.
- Support negotiation of partnership arrangements, teaming agreements, consortium roles, and collaboration frameworks.
- Represent KELIN in relevant external platforms, partnership forums, and pre-positioning discussions.
- Support the Executive Director and senior leadership in donor stewardship and high-level relationship management.
Earned-Income and Enterprise Development
- Identify and assess mission-aligned earned-income opportunities that build KELIN’s long-term financial sustainability.
- Work with internal teams to package KELIN’s technical capabilities into market-ready advisory, training, knowledge, and other fee-based offerings.
- Work with programme teams to package KELIN’s technical work into practical, market-ready offerings that are both relevant and deliverable.
- Support development of pricing approaches, service concepts, client targeting, and market-entry strategies for non-grant income streams.
- Generate and track leads for consultancy, training, strategic advisory, and other service-based opportunities.
- Contribute to the design of business cases for new revenue streams that are legally compliant, strategically aligned, and financially sound.
KDCL Transition and Business Development Support
- Support preparatory work for KDCL’s business development function, including service packaging, market positioning, client acquisition strategies, and partnership mapping.
- Contribute to transition planning, systems development, and handover arrangements as KELIN operationalises KDCL.
- Support KDCL market positioning, branding, client engagement, and commercial pipeline development for mission-aligned services and products.
- Transition to KDCL — subject to organisational approval and implementation timelines — to lead or strengthen its business development and revenue generation function (the KDCL strategy envisages a business development team during the service launch phase and growth of commercial offerings over time).
- Support the Executive Director in transitioning KDCL, in accordance with the transitional arrangements set out in the KDCL Strategy and Policy.
Portfolio Tracking, Performance, and Learning
- Maintain a live dashboard of funding, partnership, and business development opportunities.
- Track proposal conversion rates, donor engagement levels, revenue trends, and pipeline health.
- Monitor the balance of income sources and advise management on progress toward KELIN’s diversification goals.
- Use pipeline and performance data to advise management on where to focus effort, where to scale back, and where to invest.
- Prepare regular reports for leadership on pipeline status, submissions, wins, losses, partner engagement, and emerging opportunities.
- Document lessons learned from bids, donor engagement, and business development efforts to improve performance over time.
Education Experience and Competencies Desired
- Bachelor’s degree in International Development, Public Health, Social Sciences, Business Administration, or related field.
- Master’s degree in Development Studies, Public Health, International Relations, or Business Administration is an advantage.
- Minimum of 5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in resource mobilisation, business development, partnership development, or institutional fundraising in the NGO, development, social enterprise, or advisory sector.
- Proven track record in securing donor funding and/or generating mission-aligned revenue through grants, contracts, partnerships, or fee-based services.
- Demonstrated experience coordinating complex proposals, consortium bids, or strategic pursuits.
- Experience engaging major donors, foundations, private sector actors, and other financing partners.
- Demonstrated experience working closely with programme and finance teams to align resource mobilisation with delivery and sustainability is an added advantage.
- Experience supporting enterprise growth, service development, or income diversification is an added advantage.
- Proposal and business case development
- Donor intelligence, pipeline management, and opportunity positioning
- Partnership development and negotiation
- Market scanning and income diversification strategy
- Financial literacy for budgeting, pricing, and commercial viability assessment.
Diversity Statement:
KELIN is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment and welcome applications from all qualified individuals, regardless of gender, age, disability, religion, ethnicity.
Recruitment Disclaimer:
Please note that KELIN does not demand or charge any fee/charges from the aspiring candidates for considering their candidature, or at any time during the recruitment process, nor have we authorized any individual, agency or firm to recruit candidates for us. Any person seeking employment with KELIN needs to be cautious and not trust any agency or individual claiming to be our representative and charging fees for providing/securing employment with us.
All applications received will be subjected to a fair and competitive review process.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
The application deadline for this role is Monday 29th June 2026 2.00 PM EAT
