Ghent Metropolitan Area
As Strategic Partner manager, I lead a team that is responsible for the long-term fundraising strategy regarding foundations and partnerships with companies. We also strengthen relationships with philanthropists and people who wish to include Médecins Sans Frontières/Artsen Zonder Grenzen in their will. Moreover, we do organize events, launch campaigns and ensure smooth and transparent communication to our donors and partners so they feel strongly involved with our humanitarian work.
To meet the growing demand for professional development in MSF, the Mentoring & Coaching Hub has established a pool of internal coaches of which I'm part off. The goal is to offer team and individual coaching to both field and HQ staff. Coaching is proposed when the needs identified are generally related to a career perspective and/or to broader performance improvement on a certain set of skills.
As Support & Deployment L&D team leader my main tasks consisted in co-design, develop, support, coach and advise the Learning & Development profiles in the field. This support and advice focused on the MSF L&D Mission’s strategies, policies and tools. The goal was to ensure that these strategies and action plans are connected to the operational needs in the mission and integrated into the HR mission strategy. Another focus was to ensure that the L&D offer is known and deployed for all MSF Staff. This position contained 4 axes : team management, support of L&D field focal points, deployment of the L&D initiatives, insure a fluent internal and external communication.
Coordinating three teams in charge of: Press & Positioning, Direct Dialogue fundraising and Acquisition of new donors and followers. (Youth, events, digital approach, national campaigns)
Coordinating a team of 5, working on strategic partnerships with companies and foundations. Acquisition of new major donors and cultivation of current donors. Growing the network of MSF/AZG with companies, major donors, foundations and run legacy campaigns.
- Reinforce the links between companies and MSF/AZG by organizing different events for donor and prospects - Brainstorm and create partnerships which involve clients, employees and suppliers. - Facilitate the exchange of expertise between the different MSF/AZG departments and companies - Develop targeted digital communication actions for donors and prospects - Analyze the results and defining a long term strategy - Follow up of the donor database - One to one presentations for prospects and donors
The logic next step after my coaching and fundraising experience was to become projectleader and to coordinate a team of canvassers of various ages. Job interviews, accept people, train, motivate and coach 16 canvassers were important tasks. Other major challenges were: developing a strategy on the long term, managing the annual budget and stock, establishing a weekly work scheme and analyze the achieved results in general and per person. During those 4 years the team succeeded to increase yearly and significantly the number of donors.
The face to face teams in Belgium have a crucial role in raising a regular income for the MSF/AZG projects in the field. After being a fundraiser for six months in combination with acting I had the opportunity to coach the french and dutch speaking canvassers in Belgium. My day to day tasks consisted of motivate, train and evaluate the teams. A rewarding experience which helped me work on how to give advice and to train listening and motivational skills.