Development Liaison - Africa

Reports to: Director of Strategic Partnerships

Team: Development

About StrongMinds

StrongMinds is a global nonprofit organization working to democratize access to high-quality, evidence-based mental health care for people living with depression across Africa. In close partnership with governments, communities, and donors, we scale practical, sustainable solutions that improve mental health and well-being, strengthen public systems, and support long-term social and economic resilience.

Since 2013, StrongMinds has reached nearly two million people with free, community-based group talk therapy for depression. Over the past decade, we have steadily expanded our reach, reduced costs, and deepened government ownership of mental health services. Building on this progress, StrongMinds is entering a new phase of growth. We expect to reach an additional one million people in 2026 alone, further embedding depression treatment within schools, health systems, and community programs across multiple countries.

About the Role

Following the most successful fundraising year in StrongMinds’ history, and as our impact and partnerships continue to grow across Africa, we are expanding our Global Development team to support this momentum and deepen our engagement with donors.

The Development Liaison is a new, strategically important role designed to strengthen how StrongMinds communicates its work, progress, and learning to supporters around the world. Based in Kampala, this position ensures that the depth and nuance of StrongMinds’ work—across programs, government partnerships, research, finance, and systems-building—is fully reflected in donor engagement and reporting.

This role is central to StrongMinds’ strategy to engage donors authentically and effectively, remove internal barriers to giving, and continue building a high-functioning, globally distributed Development team. The Development Liaison plays a critical role in helping StrongMinds tell a complete and accurate story of its work, ensuring that donors understand not only what we do, but how our strategies are evolving and why our momentum with governments and communities matters.

The Development Liaison will serve as the primary point of connection between Africa-based teams and the Global Development team (based in the US and Europe), strengthening coordination, improving information flow, and supporting high-quality donor stewardship. This role works independently with strong support from the Development team and collaborates closely with colleagues in Kampala at StrongMinds Global and StrongMinds Uganda as well as coordinating with other country offices, including Zambia and Kenya.

Candidates who are currently part of the StrongMinds team, or who have previously worked with StrongMinds, are strongly encouraged to apply.

Key Responsibilities

Internal Coordination and Communication

• Act as the primary internal liaison for Development across Africa-based teams and with the Global Development team (US and Europe).
• Facilitate communication across departments (Programs, Finance, Data/MEL, Research, and country offices) to gather accurate, relevant information for donor requests.
• Maintain regular contact with key stakeholders to understand priorities, progress, emerging work, and contextual challenges.

Contributing to Donor Content and Reporting

• Contribute to donor reports and engagement materials by ensuring all key activities and impact—especially less visible but strategically important progress—are captured.
• Work with internal teams to identify accomplishments that may not be initially recognized as reportable but are relevant to donor interests (e.g., district-level government engagement wins, school-level mental health integration, successful volunteer strategies, the different adaptations made to contextualize therapy groups in each setting.)
• Review draft inputs for completeness, relevance, and alignment with donor expectations.
• Support Development in anticipating information needs and deadlines, and in surfacing additional narrative elements that strengthen donor messaging.

Timeline and Process Management

• Work within timelines set by the Director of Strategic Partnerships, helping coordinate inputs and follow-ups across teams and with Development Writer/Researcher.
• Proactively flag potential delays and recommend timeline adjustments with context and justification.
• Advocate for Africa-based teams by ensuring Development understands operational constraints that may affect delivery timelines.

Systems and Workflow Support

• Utilize and support the Global Development team’s systems for tracking donor inputs, timelines, and deliverables.
• Identify gaps in current workflows and collaborate with Development and internal teams to establish clear norms, cadences, and points of contact to improve coordination and predictability.

Cross-Team Relationship Building

• Build trust and shared understanding across Africa- and US/Europe-based teams.
• Actively engage with country-level leadership and technical staff to understand progress and surface narratives that strengthen donor engagement.

What Success Looks Like

• Donor reports more accurately reflect the full scope and nuance of Africa-based work
• Fewer last-minute data or narrative gaps during reporting cycles
• Improved predictability and clarity for Africa-based teams regarding Development requests
• Strong working relationships across Programs, Finance, MEL, and Development

Qualifications

StrongMinds seeks a highly capable, detail-oriented professional with at least five (5) years of relevant experience in roles that require strong judgment, coordination, synthesis, and cross-functional collaboration in complex, fast-paced environments. This is a mid-level to senior individual contributor role that requires independence, discretion, and the ability to operate effectively without formal authority.

Education

A Bachelor’s degree is preferred, or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

Experience

Relevant experience may include one or more of the following (no single combination is required)

• Experience in cross-functional coordination, project management, operations, or internal communications within a multi-country or matrixed organization
• Experience supporting development or fundraising functions, including donor reporting, stewardship, or proposal development
• Experience working closely with program, finance, data/MEL, research, or operations teams to gather, interpret, and synthesize information
• Experience contributing to structured written materials such as donor reports, briefings, dashboards, or internal summaries that combine qualitative and quantitative information

Core Competencies and Skills

• Strong organizational and project-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple timelines, stakeholders, and competing priorities simultaneously
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to synthesize complex information clearly, accurately, and appropriately for different audiences
• Demonstrated sound judgment and discretion, particularly when working with sensitive information, incomplete inputs, or competing internal priorities
• Ability to work independently and proactively, while collaborating closely with geographically distributed teams across Africa, the US, and Europe
• Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to build trust across teams with different roles, incentives, and operating contexts
• Comfort working with structured systems and workflows (e.g., shared trackers, reporting calendars, CRM-adjacent tools); specific platforms not required—training provided
• Strong understanding of StrongMinds’ mission and operating context, or a demonstrated ability to learn quickly and engage deeply with programmatic and organizational detail

Additional Requirements

• Based in Kampala, Uganda, with the ability to work closely with country-based teams. Potential for annual travel to StrongMinds offices in Lusaka, Zambia and future location in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Flexibility to work across time zones, including some overlap with US- and Europe-based colleagues

Preferred

• Current StrongMinds staff or individuals with prior StrongMinds experience
• Prior exposure to donor reporting processes, fundraising cycles, or institutional philanthropy
• Experience working in or with organizations operating across multiple countries

Internal Applicant Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for consideration, internal applicants must

• Be in good standing at the time of application, including satisfactory job performance and no active disciplinary or corrective action.
• Meet the minimum qualifications and requirements of the position.
• Have successfully completed their introductory/probationary period.
• Have been in their current position for 6 months to 12 months prior to applying, unless an exception is approved by Human Resources or department leadership.

We recognize that no candidate will have experience across every area listed above. If you are drawn to this role and believe you can contribute meaningfully to this work, we encourage you to apply.