Philanthropy Support Team Coordinator

Responsibilities

Strategic alignment:

• Ensures that the priorities and work of Writers and Enablers are aligned with the Unit's strategies and yearly objectives.
• Supports clear prioritisation when demands exceed available capacity or when priorities conflict.
• Ensures that Writers and Enablers receive regular feedback on their services and products and that relevant learnings are followed up.
• Supports the Unit in making effective use of data and business analysis for planning and decision-making.
• Brings relevant insights from the support functions into Unit-wide discussions.
• Ensures that the Unit's needs from Operations and Finance are clearly understood and addressed.
• Works with the relevant colleagues to develop solutions and prepares the analysis and arguments needed for the Head of Unit to raise issues requiring senior-level support or decisions.

Team coordination:

• Provides people management for the Writers and Enablers, including recruitment, performance management, development and support.
• Enables Writers and Enablers to contribute their expertise directly and effectively, while ensuring clarity on priorities and workload.
• Avoids unnecessary bottlenecks in validation and ensures that Enablers and Writers continue to work directly with relevant colleagues.
• Intervenes when competing requests, workload constraints or unclear responsibilities cannot be resolved directly between colleagues.
• Contributes directly to support work when needed, particularly during periods of high workload, staff absences or specific priority needs.
• Manages the support-function expense budget and coordinates annual planning and reviews for Writers and Enablers.
• Ensures that issues requiring a Unit-wide decision are brought to the Philanthropy Management Team or Head of Unit as appropriate.

Management of a poll of high-value donors:

• As a Senior Philanthropy Advisor, the Support Coordinator is accountable for the income from and management of a portfolio of selected high-value donors.
• Develops tailored engagement and growth strategies, including personalised proposals and reports.
• Presents and defends MSF's case for support to donors.
• Leads negotiations and multi-year funding discussions.
• Ensures high-quality stewardship and long-term partnership development.
• Represents MSF in high-level external engagements.

Your profile

Education

• Advanced university degree in business administration, international relations, social sciences, public policy, economics, or a related field.
• Additional training in fundraising, compliance, data analytics, or leadership is an asset.

Experience

• Minimum of 3 years of demonstrated experience leading and developing multidisciplinary teams.
• Minimum of 5 years' experience in philanthropy in a large organisation with professional philanthropy support in place.
• Experience in philanthropy at MSF is a strong advantage.
• Proven experience managing high-value and complex donor relationships.

Languages

• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Working proficiency in either French or German is required.
• Good knowledge of additional Swiss national languages is considered an advantage.

Skills/ Technical competencies

• Strong understanding of philanthropy and institutional funding cycles, including prospect management and portfolio structuring.
• Understanding of due diligence frameworks and risk management principles.
• Familiarity with business analytics tools and performance dashboards.
• Strong understanding of financial planning, donor-funded project management, and reporting standards.
• Competencies and a vivid interest in the use of CRM and other tools for philanthropy.
• Competencies in data protection, performance and results management are an advantage.
• Understanding of compliance requirements in philanthropic partnerships.
• Competencies and a vivid interest in the use of CRM and other tools for philanthropy.
• Competencies in data protection, performance and results management are an advantage.
• Understanding of compliance requirements in philanthropic partnerships.

Personal Abilities/Qualities

• Proven leadership and team management skills, with the ability to lead experienced staff and build diverse, inclusive teams in a participatory way.
• Mature leadership with consistency in decision-making, sound judgement, and high integrity.
• Strategic mindset: forward-looking, systems-oriented, and open to change.
• Ability to translate strategic objectives into clear priorities and adjust workload and resources when needs change.
• Strong communication and influencing skills.
• Donor-centric mindset and service orientation.
• Solution orientation focusing on improvement and practical outcomes.
• Excellent ability to work successfully in a multicultural environment and to demonstrate commitment to and support for diversity.

Terms of employment

• Full-time position 100% (40h/week)
• Open-ended contract
• Working place: Geneva
• Ideal start date: beginning of January 2027
• Gross annual salary (for 100%): from CHF 94'440.- to CHF 111'432.- (salary commensurate with equivalent experience and internal salary grid)
• Paid vacation: 25 days per year, prorate temporis, plus any Swiss public holidays falling within the contract period.
• Pension plan: pension contribution covered 3/4 by MSF, 1/4 by staff member.
• Relocation support available for eligible candidates.

How to apply

Candidates are invited to submit their application exclusively through our recruitment platform, following these guidelines:

• CV (maximum 2 pages)
• Cover letter (maximum 1 page)
• Documents must be submitted in either English or French.

The application deadline is November 30th 2026.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier if we receive a sufficient number of quality applications.

All applications will be treated confidentially.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Please note that we do not wish to use the services of recruitment or placement agencies.