Founded in 2000 by a group of conservationists, African Parks is a nonprofit organization responsible for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in Africa in partnership with governments and local communities. Its approach entails achieving financial sustainability of the parks by combining long- term donor funding with tourism revenues, related business enterprise, and payment for ecosystem services, which all serve as a foundation for economic development and poverty alleviation. It is African Parks’ belief that making wildlife parks socially and economically viable, particularly for the benefit of local communities, will contribute to their survival in the face of competing forms of land use. African Parks manages 10 parks in seven African countries: Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, the Congo, Rwanda and Zambia. By 2020, the organization aims to have responsibility for a portfolio of 20 parks covering an area of approximately 10 million hectares and 10 biomes (large communities of plants and animals that occupy a distinct region). Due to the geographic spread and representation of different ecosystems, this will be one of the most ecologically diverse portfolios of parks in the world.

African Parks’ main governing body, African Parks Network (APN), is registered as a nonprofit organization in South Africa and is headquartered in Johannesburg. APN coordinates the efforts of affiliated organizations that partner in building financial support for the parks and a conservation-led tourism economy. These affiliates include the Stichting African Parks Foundation in The Netherlands and the African Parks Foundation of America, and APN is exploring the creation of additional affiliates elsewhere in Europe and beyond.

Funding of African Parks’ operational needs and institutional overheads is highly dependent on donor income from individual and institutional sources. Donor income has constituted approximately 80 percent of total annual revenues for African Parks during the past few years, rising from $13.4 million in 2013 to $16.6 million in 2014 to approximately $21 million in 2015. African Parks’ base of support includes prominent, high-net-worth individuals and respected institutional funders such as the European Union, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), The Walton Family Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, adding further credibility to fundraising efforts. Popular-culture icon Taylor Swift also recently pledged all proceeds from her video “Wildest Dreams” to supporting African Parks.

Sustaining African Parks’ existing portfolio of parks and continued growth will require corresponding growth in donor income. Annual fundraising needs in 2020 are projected at $50 million, more than twice their current level and far exceeding current long-term donor commitments. In order to honor its long-term responsibility to respective parks and meet this significant resource development challenge, African Parks’ has created the Head of Global Fundraising position. The Head of Global Fundraising functions as the chief development officer for African Parks and reports to the chief executive officer. The Head of Global Fundraising is responsible for the development and execution of a global, organization-wide, comprehensive fundraising strategy that coordinates the efforts of the African Parks Network and its fundraising affiliates.

The Head of Global Fundraising manages a five-member team, including fundraising directors based in The Netherlands and United States, as well as a Johannesburg-based staff comprised of the institutional fundraising manager and the fundraising administrator. The global fundraising strategy for African Parks must cover all aspects of funding, including bilateral and multilateral funding through institutional sources such as nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations and governments; private philanthropy via foundations and individuals; and corporate funding, which has not been an area of focus to date. The Head of Global Fundraising must also plan and execute against fundraising goals that incorporate an optimal balance of short and long-term, restricted and unrestricted, and private and institutional funds. Further, individual giving shall include a continued focus on major and planned gifts, while also developing lower-level and annual giving pipelines secured through a variety of platforms that may include online and mobile fundraising, crowdfunding, or direct appeals.

Required qualifications and experience: passion for wildlife conservation and dedication to the mission and goals of African Parks; bachelor’s degree required, advanced academic degree preferred; minimum of 10 years of senior-level experience in fundraising, including three to five years of management experience over staff and operations; experience working in all functional areas of development (institutional giving, individual giving, planned giving, stewardship, board relations); demonstrated track record of successful frontline fundraising for a complex nonprofit organization with multiple stakeholders; prior experience working in a bilateral or multilateral nonprofit or nongovernmental organization, foundation environment, in the field of conservation or other scientific endeavor, and/or in a hybrid centralized-decentralized fundraising model involving distinct units is preferred; strengths in developing and articulating strategic, comprehensive fundraising plans, as well as target-specific fundraising plans, executing against those plans to achieve goals and objectives, and creating and managing a budget are critical; experience working with institutional and individual donors on a global scale, including success specifically in cultivating and managing complex bilateral or multilateral institutional funding relationships; hands-on experience with six and seven-figure gifts, including cultivation through solicitation and stewardship, as well as experience working with lower-level gift and annual fund strategies for grooming the next generation of major gift donors; skill in nurturing and developing partnerships and collaborations across organizational and departmental lines; excellent written and verbal communications skills; outstanding organizational skills, with exceptional attention to the details and presentation of work products or proposals, the ability to complete projects on a timely basis, and to manage multiple priorities; experience managing and mining large databases of potential donors and using social networking and Internet-driven strategies to grow lists of contacts and donors; willingness to travel to capital cities throughout Africa, to African Park projects sites, and to Europe, the United States, and other locations globally.

African Parks has retained Diversified Search to assist in this confidential search process. Inquiries, nominations and applications (current resumes and cover letters) should be directed electronically to:

Gerard F. Cattie, Jr.

Managing Director

Practice Leader – Development & Philanthropy

Diversified Search

The Chrysler Building, 405 Lexington Avenue, 49th Floor, New York, NY 10174

gerard.cattie@divsearch.com

212.542.2587