Drive Private Sector Fundraising & Strategic Partnerships for UNICEF Costa Rica. We are seeking a Fundraising & Partnerships Specialist to lead private sector engagement and drive revenue growth. This senior role combines country-level leadership with regional collaboration, ensuring alignment with our Latin-American and the Caribbean Cluster strategies and contributing to broader fundraising objectives across the region.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, an advocate 

Job organizational context and purpose for the job:

UNICEF works to uphold the rights of every child, everywhere, with a strong equity focus on the most disadvantaged and excluded children. In middle- and high-income country contexts, including Costa Rica, achieving sustainable impact increasingly depends on strategic private sector fundraising, innovative financing mechanisms, and catalytic partnerships that mobilize flexible and diversified resources.

Within this context, the Fundraising & Partnerships Specialist plays a lead role in driving private sector fundraising growth, while also strategically advancing selected partnerships to enhance resource mobilization, visibility, innovation, and influence.

The Fundraising & Partnerships Specialist is a senior private sector fundraising role embedded within the Latin-American and the Caribbean Cluster, with primary accountability for delivering Cluster private sector fundraising results in Costa Rica, while contributing to the achievement of broader Cluster-wide fundraising objectives across the region.

The position combines leadership for Cluster results at country level with an active regional support and coordination function, ensuring strong alignment with LAC PSFR Cluster strategies, priorities, and income targets. Costa Rica’s market maturity enables the role to contribute to the testing, refinement, and sharing of fundraising and partnership approaches that can be adapted or scaled across other Cluster countries.

Main tasks and responsibilities:

A. Private Sector Fundraising Leadership

1. Strategic Planning & Revenue Growth

• Lead the coordination, implementation, and performance monitoring of private sector fundraising activities to ensure the delivery of LAC PSFR Cluster fundraising results in Costa Rica, in alignment with global UNICEF strategies and LAC Cluster priorities.
• Drive income growth across key fundraising channels, with a strong focus on flexible and unrestricted resources, including individual giving, digital fundraising, emergency appeals, contributing to Cluster income targets.
• Analyze market trends, donor behaviour and performance data to identify growth opportunities, translating insights into scalable fundraising strategies and approaches that can inform Cluster-wide decision-making.

1. Team Leadership & Management

• Provide leadership and supervision to the Private Sector Fundraising team in Costa Rica, fostering a high-performance, results-oriented and innovative culture aligned with LAC PSFR Cluster objectives and standards.
• Set clear performance objectives, monitor results and support staff development, ensuring accountability for the delivery of Cluster fundraising results at country level.
• Represent Private Sector Fundraising in internal strategic fora, including the Country Management Team, while ensuring effective coordination and alignment with the LAC PSFR Cluster governance and decision-making processes.

1. Donor Acquisition, Retention & Stewardship (Cluster-led Model)

• Provide strategic oversight and direct country-level accountability for high-quality donor acquisition, as well as for retention, loyalty, and value maximisation outcomes, ensuring effective implementation through LAC PSFR Cluster-led systems and processes and a diversified fundraising portfolio across channels (digital, face-to-face, telemarketing and others).
• Ensure the strategic definition, quality and relevance of campaign content and messaging for both acquisition and retention initiatives, safeguarding a consistent, compelling supporter experience at country level and contributing to Cluster-wide data-driven segmentation, CRM utilization and performance analysis to optimize donor lifetime value in line with Cluster benchmarks.
• Manage and coordinate relationships with external fundraising suppliers operating in Costa Rica, in close alignment with Cluster-level governance, contractual frameworks and performance management standards, ensuring strong performance, compliance, quality assurance and value for money.

B. Strategic Partnerships & External Engagement

1. Selective Partnership Development

• Identify, develop and manage high-value strategic partnerships with private sector actors and key influencers at country level that directly support fundraising objectives and programmatic impact.
• Act as a focal point for partnership opportunities, including the screening and follow-up of expressions of interest, ensuring timely engagement, effective internal coordination and alignment with UNICEF priorities.
• Support the design of partnership concepts that integrate financial and non-financial value, in close collaboration with Programme and Communications teams.
• Share relevant partnership insights, lessons learned and good practices with regional counterparts, contributing to knowledge exchange, learning and coherence within the LAC PSFR Cluster.

2. Resource Mobilization & Influence

• Contribute to the in-country resource mobilization approaches related to the public sector, MDBs, IFIs and innovative financing opportunities, through the monitoring of partner performance, analysis of trends and formulation of evidence-based recommendations for strategy, engagement and messaging.
• Expand and maintain UNICEF’s network of key interlocutors at country level, strengthening relationships with decision-makers, development institutions, foundations, civil society organizations, international financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders, in line with country priorities.
• Act as a focal point at country level for the identification and pursuit of opportunities for outreach, engagement, policy influence and collaboration, ensuring partners are well informed of UNICEF’s mandate, policies, priorities and capabilities.
• Support engagement and communications strategies to enhance UNICEF’s visibility and influence with existing and prospective partners, in close coordination with Communications and Programme teams.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Terms of Reference

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Fundraising, International Development, International Relations, or a related field.
• Work Experience: Minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in private sector fundraising, including income target setting and delivery. Demonstrated experience in strategic partnerships and resource mobilization with both private and public sector partners and resource mobilization. Previous people management experience is required.  
• Language Requirements: Fluency in Spanish and English required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, or Russian) is an asset.

Desirables

• Experience in innovative financing and MDBs and IFIs is an asset.
• Experience contributing to regional or multi-country initiatives is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people. 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.