Program Assistant

 Department/Program Summary: 

GMF's South and Wider Europe Program focuses on the "Global South", which plays an increasingly important role amid geopolitical shifts; the Mediterranean, a crossroads for trade, energy, migration, and security; and the Balkans and Black Sea regions, which are vital to Europe’s economic and political trajectory. The program consists of three strands.  

The Black Sea strand strengthens regional cooperation, civil society, and democratic foundations in the wider Black Sea region through research, track-two and -three dialogues, fact-finding missions, and grant-making. Combining policy engagement with strategic grantmaking, it supports regional cooperation, dialogue, security, stability, and welfare in countries such as Armenia, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine. 

Job Summary: 

The Program Assistant is responsible for implementation of all grant-making programs of GMF Bucharest Office alongside the Program Officers/Managers respectively. These responsibilities are related to a) general grant management (life of a grant and other GMF Bucharest internal policies and procedures); b) carrying out background checks on applicants, desk research, networking; c) review of intermediary and final reports (financial); d) assisting with drafting of reports to donors, memos and other program -related documents; general admin responsibilities as required. 

Essential Duties/Responsibilities (in order of importance): 

• Performing grant management tasks as required by GMF Bucharest internal policies and procedures. 
• Liaising with the Finance team for financial reporting, payments and audit inquires. 
• Submitting payment requests and risk assessment questionnaires to the Finance team. 
• Maintaining and updating databases of awarded grants and their status. 
• Performing a security check of the organization and the organizations’ legal representatives before grant approval and payment request submission using the platform Bridger Insight. 
• Peer-reviewing the summaries of project proposals and compiling them into a single document. 
• Preparing and circulating the Action Sheet following a PRC. 
• Archiving grant agreements and documents pertaining to the grant implementation process. 
• Assisting in drafting annual reports – general grant information, overview of project results based on Monitoring & Evaluation procedures and Indicator Tracking Table, budgets’ information, etc.  
• Reviewing intermediary and final reports (financial) from grantees, including the supporting documentation. 
• Other administrative duties related to grantmaking as assigned. 

Additional Duties/Responsibilities (in order of importance): 

• Identify participants for the GMF Bucharest Office events, such as seminars, roundtables and conferences. 
• Help disseminate online calls, as well as products and announcements published by the GMF Bucharest Office 
• Provide help with everything is needed for the activities carried out by the GMF Bucharest Office – especially convening and outreach. 

Internal/External Contacts: 

Internal: 

• Director – direct supervisor; 
• Program Officers/Managers – program related activities; 
• DC finance team – for payment requests and grantmaking reporting; 

External: 

• GMF partners for policy and convening events. 

 Autonomy and Responsibility: 

• Assists the Deputy Director, Senior/Program Officers and Director on all issues related to the implementation of all grantmaking programs. 
• Full confidentiality is required. 

Knowledge and Skills Needed: 

• A demonstrable interest or background in democracy, civic sector, advocacy as well as a familiarity with Black Sea region’ policy issues, internal/foreign politics and civic sector is strongly required; 
• Commendable analytical capabilities about foreign policy/international affairs, preferably with an emphasis on the Black Sea region; 
• Demonstrated experience in a non-profit organization (minimum 1-3 years) focused on project management,  grant management/monitoring and evaluation; 
• Strong organizational skills and work ethic; 
• Excellent writing and editing skills in English. Romanian is to be an advantage; 
• Working knowledge and experience of Microsoft Excel. 
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to appropriately represent GMF externally; 
• Ability to work in a dynamic, challenging and team-based environment; 
• Ability to set and handle multiple priorities and deadlines; 
• Initiative driven, responsible and creative. 

Education: 

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in International Relations, Security Studies, Social Sciences or a related field is required.