Ashoka Arab World

Terms of Reference

Venture and Fellowship Officer

Background:

Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system

changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Social entrepreneurs are individuals with

innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. From its Regional Office in Cairo Ashoka

Arab World creates a competitive, entrepreneurial, and globally integrated citizen sector and develops the

profession of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka currently works with over 55 Ashoka Fellows located in

Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Position Title: Venture-Fellowship Officer

Reports To: Ashoka Egypt Country Representative

Employment: Full-time

Office hours: 9 am to 5 pm, unless assigned to stay later to fulfill work requirements

Working days: Sunday through Thursday, with Friday and Saturday off, unless assigned to attend on

weekends to fulfill work requirements

Venture and Fellowship

Venture: is the mechanism through which Ashoka finds and supports the world’s leading social

entrepreneurs. Ashoka was founded on the Venture model 30 years ago, and Venture remains the heart

of Ashoka—the work upon which all of our efforts depend. We believe that the growth of a global citizen

sector begins with the work of individual social entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs drive the sector

forward, responding to new challenges and changing needs. They are rooted in local communities but

think and act globally. They are the ultimate role models and the pillars of Ashoka’s vision of Everyone a

Changemaker™.

Fellowship: once elected as part of the Ashoka Fellowship, Fellows enter a borderless community of

creativity and collective action. Connected through Ashoka’s Fellowship work and by shared identity,

values, goals, and approaches to social change, Ashoka Fellows seek support, ideas, inspiration, and

motivation from their peers locally and globally. Ashoka supports its Fellows collaborative work so

Ashoka Fellows can achieve results more powerful than what they could accomplish on their own,

including new initiatives, publicity, or theoretical concepts that will guide their respective fields and

advance the citizen sector.

The Venture and Fellowship Officer reports to the Regional Director and Country Director. The tasks for include but are not limited to:

I. Assist Regional Director and Country Director in the search and selection of Arab Ashoka Fellows.

This entails:

1. Engaging our network of Nominators to submit their recommendations of exceptional social

entrepreneurs to join the Ashoka Fellowship

2. Collecting and reviewing Fellowship applications

3. Interviewing candidates to the Fellowship, visiting their initiatives, and developing a

comprehensive understanding of their work within the context of Ashoka's selection criteria

4. Writing and revising Fellow profiles that detail candidates' ideas for social change, the

problems they address, the strategies they follow, and their personal history

5. Collecting necessary documentation from all candidates, including Fellowship application, CV,

letters of recommendation, and media articles about the candidate and/or their work

6. Conducting background research on candidates' work and similar initiatives

7. Organizing and implementing Candidate Retreats, where candidates meet with Ashoka Arab

World staff to hone their presentation skills prior to regional Selection Panels. This requires:

a. Coordinating with Ashoka staff in Washington, DC and Cairo to make arrangements

for retreat venue, travel, and other accommodations

b. Developing retreat schedule

c. Attending and reporting on retreat

8. Organizing regional Selection Panels, where candidates are interviewed by international

Ashoka senior staff and local experts in social entrepreneurs. Organizing selection Panels

requires:

a. Coordinating with Ashoka staff in Washington, DC and Cairo to make arrangements

for retreat venue, travel, and other accommodations.

b. Securing the participation of Panelists and briefing them on their duties and Panel

procedures

c. Preparing Panel file that includes all candidate documentation, as well as the Panel

schedule and newsletter, for Panelists and Ashoka senior staff

d. Attending Panel and documenting discussions

e. Preparing Panel Considerations, the document that is sent to Ashoka Headquarters in

order for Ashoka's International Board to approve candidates as Ashoka Fellows

9. Completing final documentation required once Fellows are elected

10. Regularly submit progress reports on the search and selection process to Regional Director

11. Performance management

a. Together with her/his supervisor, the staff member will develop a performance

agreement at the beginning of her/his term. This agreement will include goals,

measures and expected results and will be the baseline for the performance review to

take place after the first six months and the end of the year.

b. Together with her/his supervisor, the staff member will develop an annual plan of

action. This plan will be created at the beginning of the year and updated on a monthly

basis.

c. Based on annual action plan, a monthly workplan with all activities to be executed

during the month will be sent to Regional Director and supervisor.

d. Staff member will send a weekly time-sheet to be sent at the end of Thursdays to the

Operations Manager.

e. Staff member will send a monthly report with all activities executed during the month;

to be sent to Operations Manager, Financial Manager and Regional Director on the

25th of each month.

II. Assist Regional Director and Country Director in growing and stewarding the Ashoka Fellowship.

This means that the role of the Venture-Fellowship Officer is to support Ashoka Fellows and to ensure

that they are ambassadors of Ashoka and Social Entrepreneurship. This task entails:

1. Introducing new fellows to Ashoka

2. Designing and monitoring collaboration among Ashoka Fellows

3. Monitoring Ashoka Fellows’ initiatives and progress

4. Assessing Ashoka Fellows’ needs and wants

5. Extending technical assistance to Ashoka Fellows, directly or through partner institutions

6. Facilitating training and capacity building activities for Ashoka Fellows, and coordinating with

training providers

7. Identifying funding, visibility, awards and networking opportunities for Ashoka Fellows and linking

them to relevant parties (including other Ashoka Offices)

8. Collaborating with the Development Officer to identify and pursue funding opportunities to

Ashoka Fellows working on a specific sector

9. Working closely with the Marketing Officer to ensure coverage and visibility for Ashoka Fellows’

initiatives and events, and to spread the culture of Social Entrepreneurship through the media

Qualifications:

Education:

B.A. in a relevant field, preferably in Social Sciences, Business, Economics, or Political Science.

Experience:

10 years of relevant experience is required, preferably in capacity building and/or monitoring &

evaluation

Language requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic

The Person:

Must be creative within her/his scope of work and very resourceful in problem solving

Must understand Ashoka’s vision and work.

Must demonstrate her/his commitment with social change.

Must be a deeply trustworthy person.

Must be service-oriented and flexible.

Must be detail-oriented and able to manage multiple high-priority tasks at once.

Must be a team player with a high level of commitment.

Must maintain cooperative working relationships and interact with others in a helpful, courteous and

friendly manner.

Must demonstrate sensitivity to, and respect for, a diverse population and be able to work with

persons of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds across all areas of the world.

Work Conditions:

Official working hours are from 9-5, five days a week

On average we work until 6 or 7 p.m. at least 20 % of the time.

During major events we work until 8 or 9 (25 % of the time)

Sometimes we work during holidays if needed (10% of the time)

How to Apply:

Interested candidates should please send a CV to recruiting@ashoka-arab.org with subject line: Venture-

Fellowship Officer, together with the answers the following questions:

1. Please provide an example of an idea of yours that has been implemented in your current organization

or workplace. What has been the result or impact?

2. What was the most difficult challenge you have faced in the workplace, and how did you address this

challenge?

3. What qualities do you possess that will help you uniquely contribute to Ashoka?

4. Are you able to multi task? Please provide specific examples.

5. Please provide more examples of your fundraising experience. How/when did you reach out to new

donors, and what was the result?