Role: Manager, Fellowship

Location: South Africa

ABOUT KESEB
Keseb is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building an ecosystem for
cross-country learning, collaboration, and innovation to advance inclusive and
resilient democracies. Keseb is working to build an ecosystem for cross-country
learning, collaboration and innovation through: (1) facilitating a fellowship program
that supports democracy entrepreneurs; (2) convening a global multi-stakeholder
network of democracy champions; and (3) generating actionable insights for the
field.

The small team works remotely and aspires to meet in person annually. Team
members are currently based in the US and UK.

Keseb is a fiscally sponsored project of the Fund for Constitutional Government.

POSITION OVERVIEW
Keseb seeks to hire a Manager based in South Africa for its Fellowship initiative to
join the Keseb team and engage in the critical work of defending, strengthening and
reimagining democracy around the world. The Manager will report to the Partner at
Keseb who leads the Fellowship and is based in the UK. The Manager will work
closely with the Partner to manage and iteratively design Keseb’s Democracy
Fellowship program as well as contribute to Keseb’s Democracy Champions
Network and Insights programs and broader organization building. This individual
should have an interest in democracy, entrepreneurship, learning communities,
organization strengthening, project management, philanthropy, and systems
change.

The Manager role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to a cross-country

Fellowship program for leading democracy entrepreneurs, currently focused on
Brazil, South Africa and the United States. The focus of the role is on the Democracy

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Fellowship program (70%), but the role includes responsibilities across Keseb’s
programming and operations. Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

FELLOWSHIP – 70%
Fellowship selection:
● Support and execute on Keseb’s Fellowship selection process;
● Conduct due diligence on organizations and democracy entrepreneurs;
● Develop content and generate insights throughout the selection process to
facilitate decision making;
● Support the sourcing of pipeline organizations and candidates in target
countries, including networking and meeting with organizations in South
Africa;
● Develop systems and processes for pipeline management and selection, and
to assess and capture learnings for Keseb’s ongoing improvement of its
selection process.

Fellowship programming:
● Support the design of in-person and virtual Fellowship convenings;
● Lead on logistical arrangements for virtual and in-person convenings for
Fellows;
● Project manage the execution of multi-day, in-person retreats for Fellows, for
example the next retreat in January 2025 in South Africa;
● Develop fellowship programming content as well as syntheses for Fellows
and key stakeholders;
● Cultivate strong relationships with democracy entrepreneurs in the
Fellowship program;
● Manage relationships with external vendors and consultants supporting
Fellowship programming;
● Manage the distribution of Keseb’s financial support to the Fellows and their
organizations;
● Manage feedback collection and analysis from Fellows to inform program
design and continually improve offerings;

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 ● Managing communications and reporting needs for the Fellowship, including
social media content and information about Fellows and their organizations.

Fellowship communications:
● Managing communications with the Fellows and regarding Fellowship events;
● Creating content needed for Keseb's external communications about the
Fellowship;
● Producing Fellowship-related summary content for funder updates / annual
reports;
● Collecting and editing newly selected Fellows' bios for the website and other
purposes.

Fellowship learnings and insight generation:

● Collaborate with the Partner to surface, capture and codify insights and
learnings, as well as measure impact from the Fellowship program;
● Support the creation of internal materials as well as external content to
share with key stakeholders and/or the broader field.

Post-Fellowship offering:
● Collaborate with the Partner to design a post-fellowship/alumni offering
informed by Fellows;
● Execute on the delivery of an alumni network and program offerings.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES – 30%

Keseb Global Democracy Champions Network:
● Helping senior leadership as they cultivate relationships in South Africa for
Keseb, including identifying potential partners or funders or being a local
point-person for existing partners or funders;
● Support in the development and execution of activities that strengthen the
Global Democracy Champions Network, including its annual Summit;
● Support the identification of speakers and themes.

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Keseb Insights:
● Support the capturing of insights, especially from, and in cooperation with,
the Fellows, which will contribute to Keseb’s broader insights agenda for the
field.
● Serving as the on-the-ground Keseb liaison for South African academic and
other insights partners.

Operational:
● Support in building and strengthening organizational systems such as
knowledge management that enable operational excellence and efficiency;
● Support Keseb’s leadership to continually seek and identify opportunities to
improve Keseb’s strategy, culture, learning, and programming.

WHO YOU ARE

Essential criteria:
● Demonstrated passion for and commitment to Keseb’s mission;
● At least five years of relevant professional experience (e.g., nonprofits,
campaigning, government/politics/policy, philanthropy, management
consulting, project management);
● Familiarity with South African politics and the democracy field;
● Demonstrated ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment,
manage multiple projects simultaneously, and effectively prioritize time and
tasks;
● Highly organized and detail-oriented;
● Proactive with strong executional skills;
● Ability to communicate effectively in English with a wide range of
stakeholders, both oral and written;
● Creative, learning-oriented problem solver;

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 ● Experience and adeptness with technology platforms and tools for
communication and knowledge management (e.g. G-Suite) and willingness to
learn how to use new ones;
● Enjoys building relationships with internal and external stakeholders;
● Adaptable and able to manage multiple, changing priorities and
stakeholders;
● Collaborative team player, who is willing to go above and beyond their job
description for the success of Keseb's mission.

Desirable criteria:
● Experience of working on democracy or democracy-related issues and/or
delivering fellowship or learning exchange programs, either in South Africa or
internationally;
● Expertise in one or more of Keseb’s focus themes:
○ Promoting free, fair, and trusted elections,
○ Building leadership pipeline for representative government,
○ Combatting mis- and dis-information, and
○ Cultivating informed, empowered, and engaged citizens and voters;
● Experience in project management, budget, and events management;
● Experience with Zoom, Calendly, and Slack;
● Proficiency in other languages, including Portuguese (Note: Brazil is one of
the Fellowship’s core countries).

Note: fulfilling all the “desirable” criteria outlined above is not essential; we are
committed to nurturing and aiding the development of our team.

LOCATION AND HOURS

While the role is virtual, we are seeking candidates based in South Africa. The
Manager will need to travel a few times per year, both within South Africa and
internationally.

This is envisaged as a full-time role (40 hours a week). The Manager will need to
align with US East Coast business hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays,

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where the majority of the team is based. On Thursdays and Fridays, the Manager
can work South African business hours.

COMPENSATION
Starting Salary: R 1,100,000 to R 1,125,000.

TO APPLY
We encourage early application. Formal interviews will be held during the week
beginning 12th February but late applications will be considered.

Please email your resume/CV and a one-page cover letter explaining:

1. your interest in the role;
2. your suitability for the role, in terms of the criteria above;
3. when you would be available to start;
4. how you heard about the role;
5. your location (municipality).

Please send these to [email protected] with the subject line, “Fellowship Manager
role.”

Keseb is a fiscally sponsored project of the Fund for Constitutional Government. The
Fund for Constitutional Government values diversity and is an equal opportunity
/affirmative action employer. People of color, women, LGBTQ persons, and people with
disabilities are encouraged to apply for our positions.