ToR: Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Training and Strategy Development – Hibret Alliance

1.     Background & Context

The Hibret Alliance is a strategic partnership of six organizations working across Sidama, Oromia, Central Ethiopia, and South Ethiopia Regions. The Alliance comprises Bushulo Mother, Newborn and Child Health Specialty Center (BMNCHSC), Ethiopian Catholic Church Social and Development Commission Branch Offices of Meki and Hawassa (ECC-SDCOBM and ECC-SDCOHA), HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia, and Spiritan Community Outreach Ethiopia (SCORE). The Alliance was established to promote collaborative action, shared learning, and sustainable development outcomes through coordinated programming and joint initiatives.

Despite the significant experience and technical capacities available within Alliance member organizations, fundraising efforts remain largely project-based and organization-specific. Resource mobilization activities are often driven by individual institutional priorities, resulting in fragmented donor engagement, duplication of effort, and missed opportunities for joint fundraising.

As competition for development funding continues to increase, civil society organizations are expected to demonstrate stronger strategic positioning, donor intelligence, consortium management capacity, evidence-based programming, and diversified financing approaches. To enhance sustainability and strengthen its collective impact, the Hibret Alliance seeks to establish a coordinated resource mobilization system supported by capacity development, a Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy, and an operational Framework.

Accordingly, Hibret Alliance, intends to engage a qualified consultant or consulting firm to facilitate a participatory process that strengthens fundraising capacities and develops the required strategic and operational frameworks for the Alliance.

2.     Rationale for the Training

The donor funding environment is changing rapidly. Traditional funding sources are becoming increasingly competitive, while donors are placing greater emphasis on innovation, institutional capacity, partnerships, systems strengthening, sustainability, and measurable impact. Civil society organizations are therefore required to move beyond reactive fundraising approaches and establish strategic, coordinated, and evidence-driven resource mobilization systems.

Although Alliance member organizations possess valuable fundraising experience, there is currently no common framework that guides donor engagement, opportunity identification, consortium development, fundraising prioritization, proposal development, and donor relationship management across the Alliance. A structured Alliance-wide approach is therefore required to maximize collective strengths, attract larger funding opportunities, and promote long-term sustainability.

The assignment will enable Alliance members to strengthen fundraising competencies, institutionalize donor engagement systems, diversify funding sources, and establish a practical roadmap for coordinated fundraising over the coming years.

Accordingly, the Alliance seeks to engage an experienced consultant or consulting firm to facilitate a participatory process that will:

• Build the fundraising competencies of member organizations through practical training and coaching.
• Develop a Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework.

3. Objectives of the Task

3.1. General Objective

The General Objective of this consultancy is to strengthen the fundraising and resource mobilization capacity of Hibret Alliance member organizations and establish a coordinated Alliance-wide system through practical training, develop a 36 month- a Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework.

3,2. Specific Objectives

1. Deliver practical fundraising training and strengthen participants’ practical skills in donor mapping, opportunity identification, proposal development, donor engagement, consortium fundraising, and diversified financing approaches.
2. Develop a 36-Month Joint Resource Mobilization Strategy and operational Framework: Facilitate the development of an integrated Alliance-wide Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework that establishes funding priorities, donor engagement approaches, fundraising targets, roles and responsibilities, implementation arrangements, governance mechanisms, and procedures for coordinated, ethical, transparent, and accountable resource mobilization across Alliance member organizations.

4. Scope of Work

Component 1: Advanced Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Training

The consultant shall design and deliver a three-day in-person training on fundraising and resource mobilization for approximately 20 participants from Hibret Alliance member organizations. The training shall be practical, participatory, and directly linked to the development of a Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework.

Day 1: Foundations, Donor Landscape, and Strategic Positioning

The first day shall focus on key fundraising concepts, current donor and funding trends, organizational readiness, and the strategic positioning of the Hibret Alliance for joint resource mobilization.

Day 2: Donor Intelligence, Engagement, and Diversified Financing

The second day shall focus on donor mapping and prioritization, donor engagement, opportunity tracking, corporate and foundation partnerships, digital fundraising, and other relevant financing options for the Alliance.

Day 3: Proposal Development, Consortium Building, and Action Planning

The third day shall focus on concept note and proposal development, consortium fundraising, basic budgeting, quality review, and preparation of initial inputs for the Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework.

Component 2: Develop a 36-Month Joint Resource Mobilization Strategy and operational Framework: (2027-2029). The consultant shall facilitate the preparation of a draft 36-month Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework. The strategy shall be based on the Alliance context, member organization priorities, donor opportunities, and practical fundraising options.

The 36-Month Hibret Alliance Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework shall include clear priorities, fundraising objectives, donor engagement approaches, target funding areas, roles and responsibilities, timelines, risk considerations, and a simple monitoring and review mechanism.

The Hibret Alliance Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework also shall define governance arrangements, member roles, donor due diligence, conflict-of-interest management, proposal approval processes, information sharing, partnership protocols, risk management, and periodic review procedures.  Following the online validation workshop, the consultant shall finalize the 36-month strategy by incorporating agreed feedback.

5. Methodology

The assignment shall use a participatory and output-oriented methodology that combines desk review, practical training, facilitated discussions, group work, drafting, validation, and finalization of the required deliverables.

• Desk review of relevant Alliance documents, donor information, member organization inputs, and existing fundraising materials.
• Participatory training using short presentations, group exercises, practical tools, and Alliance-specific examples.
• Facilitated consultations and group work to generate input for the draft resource mobilization operational framework and 36-month joint strategy.
• Online validation workshop to review the draft documents and collect consolidated feedback from Alliance members.
• Finalization of the training report, standardized training manual, and 36-month joint resource mobilization strategy and operation Framework based on agreed feedback.

6. Work Plan and Deliverables

6.1. Work Plan

The total level of effort for this assignment is 30 days, including pre-training activities (preparation of standardized training manual and power point presentation(10), training delivery (3 days in-person), and post-training activities (17 days) training report and 36-month joint resource mobilization strategy and operation framework. The consultant is expected to submit a clear timetable for this task. The consultant is expected to submit a clear timetable for this task.

 6.2. Expected Deliverables/expected Outputs

1. Training manual on fund raising and resource mobilization
2. Delivery of Advanced Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Training
3. Draft 36-Month Joint Resource Mobilization Strategy and operational farmwork
4.  Online validation workshop for the draft Operational Framework and draft 36-Month Joint Resource Mobilization Strategy
5. Final 36-Month Joint Resource Mobilization Strategy and operational farmwork

6.3. Roles and Responsibilities

 6.3.1 Role of Hibret Alliance / SOS-CVE

Hibret Alliance/ SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia, shall:

1. Facilitate timely access to relevant Alliance documents, existing strategies, proposals, donor information, organizational profiles, and other materials required for the assignment.
2. Coordinate participation of all Alliance member organizations in the Training Needs Assessment, training, consultations, strategy-development process, and validation workshop.
3. Review submitted deliverables and provided consolidated feedback to the consultant within an agreed timeframe.
4. Facilitate internal agreement on strategic priorities, governance arrangements, roles and responsibilities, and proposed resource mobilization mechanisms.
5. Organize the required logistical arrangements for the three-day face-to-face training and online validation workshop.
6. Review and approve deliverables based on the requirements and quality standards stipulated in this ToR.
7. Process payments upon satisfactory completion and formal acceptance of the corresponding contractual deliverables.

6.3.2. Role of Training Participant

Participants nominated by Hibret Alliance member organizations shall:

1. Participate actively and consistently throughout the full three-day training.
2. Complete any pre-training assessment, questionnaire, or preparatory assignment requested by the consultant.
3. Provide relevant information about their organizations’ existing fundraising practices, donor relationships, funding priorities, strengths, gaps, and resource mobilization challenges.
4. Participate actively in practical exercises, case analysis, donor mapping, proposal-development exercises, group assignments, and action-planning sessions.
5. Contribute institutional and technical inputs to the development of the 36-month Joint Resource Mobilization Strategy and Resource Mobilization Operational Framework.

6.3.3. Role of the Consultant

The consultant/consulting firm shall:

1. Submit an inception note containing the consultant’s understanding of the assignment, methodology, detailed work plan, training approach, consultation plan, and proposed structure of key deliverables.
2. Develop and customize a practical three-day fundraising and resource mobilization training package based on identified capacity needs.
3. Deliver the three-day face-to-face training using adult-learning, participatory, practical, and results-oriented facilitation approaches.
4. Prepare the Hibret Alliance Resource Mobilization Strategy (2027–2029) and Operational Framework, including governance, decision-making, accountability, donor due diligence, conflict-of-interest management, information sharing, proposal approval, partnership protocols, and risk-management arrangements.
5. Ensure clear alignment between the Strategy and the Operational Framework so that the Strategy establishes what the Alliance intends to achieve, while the operational framework defines how joint resource mobilization will be governed and implemented.
6. Facilitate an online validation workshop and systematically document comments and agreed revisions.

1. Consultant Qualifications

Minimum of a master’s degree in development studies, business administration, project management, finance, economics, social sciences, or a related field.

• Minimum of 7 years of demonstrated experience in fundraising, resource mobilization, donor engagement, proposal development, or institutional partnership development.
• Proven experience in developing resource mobilization strategies, fundraising procedures, operational frameworks, training manuals, or similar institutional documents.
• Demonstrated experience working with civil society organizations, NGO networks, alliances, consortia, or multi-stakeholder platforms.
• Strong knowledge of donor trends, funding opportunities, and grant-making processes relevant to Ethiopia and the development sector.
• Excellent facilitation, training, analytical, and professional writing skills in English.
• Ability to produce practical, clear, and high-quality documents within agreed timelines.

2. Safeguarding, Ethics, and Confidentiality

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to safeguarding children, young people, partners, staff, and communities. The consultant shall comply with SOS Children’s Villages safeguarding policies, code of conduct, and ethical standards throughout the assignment.

The consultant shall ensure respectful engagement with participants, maintain confidentiality of Alliance information and documents, avoid any misuse of organizational data, and immediately report any safeguarding concern through the appropriate SOS-CVE reporting channels.

3. Logistical Arrangements

The Hibret Alliance/SoS-CVE is responsible for providing:

• Providing technical comments and feedback on the outputs/deliverables of the assignment in a timely manner.
• Providing logistical support for convening the training, including securing a venue, inviting participants, and arranging for necessary equipment.
• Providing general oversight and a single point of contact to facilitate the smooth roll-out of the consultancy.
• Handling all logistical requirements for the consultant(s) if applicable, such as transportation and accommodation arrangements, as agreed upon in the contract.
• Making payment in installments as agreed upon in the contract, based on successful completion and acceptance of deliverables.

4. Duration of the contract and terms of payment

Payment will be made only upon SOS Children’s Villages’/Hibret Alliance’ acceptance of the work performed in accordance with the above-described deliverables. Payment will be affected by bank transfer in the currency of birr.

Payment: The consultant will be paid by SOS Children’s Villages as follows:

• 40% upon approval of the training materials and successful delivery of the three-day training.
• 30% upon submission and acceptance of the draft 36 month Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework.
• 30% upon completion of the online validation workshop and submission and approval of the final 36-Month Joint Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Strategy and Operational Framework, training report, and standardized training manual.

Duration of contract: the contract is effective from the moment it was signed until the acceptance of work by the SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia management team.

10.1.  Notice of Delay

Shall the successful bidder encounter a delay in the performance of the contract which may be excusable under unavoidable circumstances; the contractor shall notify SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia in writing about the causes of any such delays within one (1) week from the beginning of the delay.

After receipt of the Contractor’s notice of delay, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia/Hibret Alliance shall analyze the facts and extent of the delay and extend the time for performance when in its judgment the facts justify such an extension.

10.2. Copyright and other proprietary rights

Hibret Alliance / SOS Children’s Villages shall be entitled to all intellectual property and other proprietary rights including, but not limited to, copyrights, and trademarks, with regard to products, processes, inventions, ideas, know-how, or documents and other materials which the Contractor has developed for SOS Children’s Villages/Hibret Alliance under the Contract and which bear a direct relation to or are produced or prepared or collected in consequence of or during the course of, the performance of the Contract. The Contractor acknowledges and agrees that such products, documents, and other materials constitute works made for hire for SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia, Hawassa Programme/Hibret Alliance.

All reports, strategies, operational frameworks, training materials, manuals, tools, and documents produced under this assignment shall remain the property of SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia/Hibret Alliance. The consultant shall treat all information received during the assignment as confidential and shall not share or use it without prior written permission.

10.3.  Termination

The termination of the service agreement for the assignment will be in accordance with the contractual agreement to be included at the formal agreement’s actual signing.

10.4. Signing of the contract

The signing of the contract will follow the awarding of the assignment. It is tentatively scheduled for end of September ,2026.

10.5. Rights of S Hibret Alliance /SOS Children’s Villages

Hibret Alliance/SOS-CVE reserves the right to cancel the service contract if the consultant fails to comply with the agreed terms, quality standards, safeguarding requirements, confidentiality obligations, or delivery timelines stated in the contract.