About the Fixed Term Learning and Storytelling Consultancy
This is an incredible opportunity to make a significant impact on the Open Society Foundations' work to promote democratic practice and leadership globally. If you are passionate about storytelling, monitoring, and learning from successes and setbacks to inform innovation, we encourage you to apply!
Timeframe: Fixed-term 18-month consultancy contract with an initial six-month trial period. Possible renewal option.
Location: Flexible, with a preference for candidates based in and with deep geographic knowledge of countries in the Global South, East / Global Majority countries. Occasional travel required and will be reimbursed.
Background/Context: The Open Society Foundations aim to create vibrant and inclusive democracies where governments are accountable to their citizens. Our grantmaking model focuses on specific, time-limited initiatives and established partners, allowing us to respond swiftly to emerging needs. Our mission is deeply rooted in rights, equity, and justice, inspiring every action we take.
Our new five-year program strategy, Catalyzing Champions for Democratic Practice, aims to support open society advocates in a nonpartisan way and build resilient, values-based public service leadership, especially among women, young leaders, and underrepresented communities. This strategy includes working closely with partners to provide nonpartisan educational tools and technical support for champions, ensuring resources meet essential requirements and can be adapted based on user feedback.
Consultancy Overview:
- Key Responsibilities:Knowledge Management and Documentation:Develop a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) strategy for a grant making initiative that prioritizes storytelling.
- Design an easy-to-use learning architecture for information gathering and analysis in collaboration with key external partners and across diverse organizational and geographic contexts.
- Seek out, suggest, and help implement best practices regarding the intersection of MEL and storytelling.
- Understand Start-Ups and the Minimum Viable Product approach and ensure that the monitoring and learning strategy and architecture is complementary to these actors and approach.
- Layout, organize and lead learning spaces and activities that seamlessly connect internal and external players.
- Gather and transform complex data into stories to communicate successes and setbacks and inform strategic decisions and innovation.
- Technical Support and Capacity Building: Provide guidance, technical resources, and toolkits to OSF staff, partners, and grantees to engage them in capturing key learnings and communicating them through storytelling.
- Monitor, gather and edit grantee-generated data and content for storytelling, communicating standards and expectations as needed.
- Help identify and solve issues related to the monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) workplan and deliverables.
- Additional Responsibilities: Serve as a resource for internal and external communications and transform stories for different audiences and purposes.
Key Working Relationships:
Consultancy Reports to: Associate Director Programs - Catalyzing Champions for Democratic Practice
- Other Relationships: Strategy and Impact Unit, Communications and Advocacy teams; Geographic Leads and Policy Groups; Program teams; Managing Directors’ offices; and Grantees
The Ideal Candidate:
- Educated to a degree level (or equivalent).
- Prior career progression designing and managing programmatic monitoring, learning strategies, and transforming learnings into internal and external communications in the international not-for-profit, public, or private sectors, or as a journalist.
- Demonstrated ability to use storytelling to communicate learning from successes and setbacks and to inform programmatic innovation and strategies.
- Experience working on issues within our priority areas of democratic practice.
- Knowledge of philanthropy and grantmaking.
- Exposure to ‘start-ups’ and their learning opportunities and challenges.
- Understanding of the Minimum Viable Product approach and strategies to support monitoring and learning among actors who use this approach.
- Experience in incorporating storytelling into communications strategies and campaigns in support of advocacy objectives.
- Excellent project management skills.
- Ability to manage multiple stakeholders, interests, complex political and cultural factors, and long- and short-term goals.
- Strong writer, creative and quick at pulling together engaging and clear content in English; fluency in other languages is highly valued.
- Geographic knowledge of countries in the Global South, East / Global Majority.
Attributes that Catch Our Eye:
- Collaborative: Demonstrate reliability, humility, and low-ego leadership. Comfortable working collaboratively and virtually across time zones and with different teams. Familiar with Microsoft Teams.
- Positive and Proactive: Maintain a positive attitude and drive implementation, even amidst uncertainty. High-energy self-starter.
- Diplomatic and Communicative: Engage transparently and honestly with high-level stakeholders, avoiding silos. Build relationships with internal and external partners and have a “we’re in this together” mindset to solve collective challenges or seize opportunities to make them actionable.
- Innovative and Creative: Think outside the box, improvise, and find new solutions to problems.
- Passionate and Self-Confident: Believe in the mission, the coalition of actors, and your abilities.
- Critical Thinker: Ability to understand the experiences of external partners and grantees, translating technical language into layman’s terms that are intuitive for a global audience.
Travel: Ability to travel for a minimum of 7 days per month.
The Application Process: Submit an up-to-date CV and concise cover letter through the email ccdemocraticpracticeteam@opensocietyfoundations.org. Let the subject of your email application be in this format: Name_Learning and Storytelling Consultant_Application (e.g., Jane Doe_Learning and Storytelling Consultant_Application).
Next Steps:
We truly value your interest in considering applying for this fixed-term consultancy. Please be aware that only those candidates whose qualifications closely match our needs will be contacted. If you have not heard back from us by May 2025, it is likely that your application has not been successful. Thank you for your understanding.
This position was originally posted by the Open Society Institute and has been curated by PurposePhil Career. To apply, please visit the original listing on the link. We are not affiliated with the employer organization of this job ad or consultancy, and provide this curated listing as a service to our users.
