Grants Manager

Grants Manager
Location: United Kingdom - Hybrid / Remote, with occasional travel to the office
Contract: 12 month fixed term (with possible extension, subject to funding and performance)
Salary: UK £54,000 to £64,000 (depending on experience)
Working pattern: Full-Time or Part-Time Pro Rata (4 or 5 days per week)

About FILE

The Foundation for International Law for the Environment (FILE) is a not-for-profit philanthropic organisation working to accelerate legal action on climate change.

Through grant-making and in-house legal expertise, we empower our partners to deliver strategic, innovative legal interventions and we support lawyers in their own countries to bring their own cases.

Legal action can unlock the systemic changes in finance, policy and social systems needed to protect all of us from climate change. The power of the law is both direct (changing policy and practice) and indirect (signalling the wider shifts taking place across these systems).

FILE is a ‘regrantor’ - this means we do not bring legal action in our own name. We receive grants from our philanthropic donors and make onwards grants to partners who align with FILE’s charitable aims and purposes. We do not seek to make any profit from our activities either in a relevant financial year or in the longer term.

The Role

The Grants Manager will lead all aspects of the grant management lifecycle across selected portfolios, working closely with the relevant Strategy Leads. The role will serve as the key point of contact for all grants related matters for its portfolio(s), both internally and externally.

Working alongside other members of the Grants Team, the Grant Manager will help safeguard funds, manage risk, monitor progress, ensure compliance, strengthen partners’ organisational effectiveness, support partnerships, and enable impact for both FILE and grantees.

In addition to collaborating with Strategy Leads and the wider Grants Team, the role will coordinate closely with colleagues across FILE’s Finance, Research, Impact and Learning, and Philanthropic Partnerships teams, as well as with grantee partners.

Key Responsibilities

The role will be split between leading grants management for the Pacific and International Portfolio (50%) and providing flexible surge capacity across other portfolios as needed (50%). The Pacific and International Portfolio is a new portfolio, building on existing work, and will support grant making focused on capacity building and legal innovation, particularly in the Pacific region driven by small island developing countries.

Management of grants through the full life cycle (30%)

• Jointly with Strategy Team, lead and steward a dedicated portfolio of grants as well as provide flexible surge capacity across other portfolios as needed.

• Manage grantmaking processes across the full grant lifecycle: due diligence, proposal, approval, contracting, monitoring, evaluation and closure.

• Lead contracting processes, payment approvals and financial disbursement tracking, ensuring robust governance.

• Advise the Strategy team, and wider organisation on best practice approaches in grantmaking. Collaborate closely with the Strategy team to deliver a good grantmaking experience to partners.

• Ensure compliance with internal policies, procedures, and financial/grant management requirements, including conducting risk assessments (jointly with Strategy team) and proposing risk management approaches.

• Orchestrate internal approval processes, project managing timelines and input from multiple stakeholders.

• Drive innovation in grantmaking approaches, including to non-traditional recipients.

Partnership Building and Strategic Partner Support (30%)

• Build and nurture strong, trusting and equitable relationships with partner organisations, through regular communication and support.

• Assess the sustainability profile and financial resilience of partner organisations.

• Strengthen partner organisational effectiveness - make recommendations on tailored support that build partner organisational development, resilience and impact, in turn contributing to strengthening the wider ecosystem.

Grant Monitoring and Learning (20%)

• Monitor grant progress, learning indicators, organisational risk and impact (together with Legal and Impact and Learning teams), encouraging continuous learning.

• Manage reporting requirements and support evaluation, learning and impact-review processes.

• Contribute to organisation-wide impact reviews and strategic reflection.

• Support donor reporting with accurate, synthesised project and financial information.

Portfolio Support & Knowledge Management (20%)

• Lead portfolio budgeting, financial forecasting and pipeline management with the Finance team.

• Contribute to the development and adoption of Grants Management policies, procedures and systems.

• Facilitate cross-team learning and knowledge sharing across portfolios, and among partners.

Key Outcomes

• Ensure FILE’s partners have a good experience of FILE’s grant making, supporting their impact and effectiveness.

• High-quality management of grants from inception to closure, ensuring efficient and effective management and cross team collaboration.

• Accurate, timely grant data and insights enabling effective decision-making, organisational learning and donor reporting.

• Consistent application of FILE’s grantmaking policies and processes across portfolios, providing grant assurance on compliance and risk management.

• Effective cross portfolio collaboration.

About you

We know that long lists of criteria can be discouraging and that some candidates will not apply for a role unless they feel they are 100% qualified. If you feel you meet at least some of the essential criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

We also recognise that skills and experience can be gained in unexpected places, so we welcome applications from candidates who feel they have relevant skills for the role, gained from a wide range of professional, lived and learned experiences.

Essential criteria

• Experience in grant management, impact evaluation, financial reporting, compliance and risk management required.

• Experience in legal strategy, advocacy, climate-related programmes or global land use/energy sectors desirable.

• Experience developing or strengthening grant management policies and practices desirable.

• Communicates clearly and confidently, both in writing and verbally, with partners and internal teams across different cultures.
• Builds trusted, equitable relationships and aligns diverse stakeholders to deliver a strong partner experience while maintaining governance, compliance, and risk standards.
• Manages multiple grants and deadlines end to end, prioritising effectively and keeping processes on track through clear planning, tracking, and follow through.
• Works proactively with minimal supervision, identifies risks and opportunities early, and takes ownership to drive solutions and continuous improvement.
• Adapts easily across portfolios, shifting between portfolio leadership and surge support and adjusting priorities to meet changing needs across teams and portfolios.
  

Location

We are advertising this role for candidates based (and with the right to work) in the UK and in the Netherlands. Please note that you will see this role advertised in multiple locations but that we are only hiring for one position based in either location, and that we are able to offer collaborative working spaces only in the Netherlands and the UK.

Please apply to the job post for your preferred location.

Working for FILE

FILE is a collaborative community of individuals who share a passion for climate, nature, and justice. We bring together knowledge and experience to support our mission.

Our people are empowered to lead their work both individually and as part of a wider team in order to make impactful change. As a relatively young organisation with the ambitious mission to change global systems, our roles are ideally suited to those who are strategic, innovative and collaborative, and open to growing in line with the Foundation.

FILE is committed to challenging systemic injustice. Our ability to do so is strengthened by the diversity of our partners and staff. Our mission, work and impact is global, with staff and partners from across the world and a range of lived experiences. We are actively working to create a culture where colleagues feel welcomed, heard and supported to succeed and thrive.

How FILE supports its staff

FILE is committed to creating a workplace that supports our staff to do their best work and develop professionally. FILE offers a generous annual leave policy and additional time-off work to support wellbeing. Amongst other benefits, FILE offers private healthcare, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave, enhanced sick leave, flexibility working remotely and also abroad and a matching contribution to a pension scheme.

Applications

Please apply on our website and upload your CV and Cover Letter. This role is open for applications immediately and we accept applications on a rolling basis but we will not accept any applications after 18 March 2026. If you are interested, we encourage you to submit your application as early as possible. Should you have any questions, please email [email protected].

Representation and Culture

FILE recognises the under-representation of historically marginalized communities and individuals in climate, nature and philanthropy spaces. We are committed to developing an organization that represents the world we are looking to protect and building a culture that supports such.

In doing so, FILE is committed to building policies and practices that ensure no current or prospective employee is discriminated based on disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.