Are you a recent graduate looking to kick-start your career in partnerships, fundraising, and business development?
Fresh Life are looking for a Partnerships & Business Development Graduate Trainee to support their Fundraising team in Nairobi and gain hands-on experience in identifying funding opportunities, building strategic partnerships, and supporting resource mobilization that expands access to safe sanitation.
Fresh Life is founding partner of The Sanergy Collaborative and an award-winning social enterprise dedicated to transforming urban sanitation in fast growing cities in Africa. Operating in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Eldoret, and Lusaka, Zambia, we provide non-sewered, end-to-end sanitation solutions that ensure urban residents living in informal settlements can access dignified sanitation services.
Our work is aligned to SDG 6 and we partner with the government to develop and deliver safe sanitation and waste management for urban residents. Fresh Life has been operational since 2011, and currently serves 300,000 urban residents daily across 4 cities. We safely remove approx. 20,000T of sanitation waste per year, and mitigate 30,000 tons of CO2 equivalent from being released into the atmosphere.
We have built a diverse team of 400+ professionals committed to making sanitation accessible for all. Our work has been recognized globally by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative organizations doing social good.
About the Role
The Graduate Trainee will support the Fundraising team in identifying funding opportunities, developing proposals, coordinating donor engagement activities, and maintaining grant and donor information. The role is designed to provide practical experience in fundraising, grant management, and resource mobilization while contributing to the organization's sustainability and growth.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Remain abreast of funders’ trends, build organizational understanding of new funders and contribute information for prioritization of funding opportunities.
- Generate leads, identify co-funding partners, analyze opportunities, pitch ideas and develop internal stakeholder buy-in to go after opportunities.
- Craft strong business rationale and a tailored message to partners and funders.
- Support the entire proposal development process for identified funding opportunities, working closely with the fundraising, Operational and Finance teams to develop high quality funding applications. This includes developing narrative, budgets, log frames and theory of change in accordance with funder guidelines.
- Gather information from Operational teams, prepare narrative reporting and liaise with partners with regular high quality updates. Ensure reporting requirements for all funders are met and reports are completed to deadlines.
- Organize and lead site visits with funders.
- Expertly speak on behalf of the organization to funders and visitors.
- Support other areas of business development as required in the organizational strategy, especially to improve business development tools and impact reporting.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in project management, community development, sanitation, social sciences or any related field.
- Graduated within the last two years
- Previous internship or volunteer experience in fundraising, business development, proposal writing, or nonprofit work is an added advantage.
- Excellent external communication and writing skills.
- Highly organized team player, with pro-active and flexible work style.
- Demonstrated understanding of and experience in international development or the social sector more broadly. Knowledge of the sanitation sector is a plus.
Deadline: Wednesday, July 22, 2026
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