Afghanistan Social and Legal Organization (ASLO) – Organizational Profile

Registration and Legal Status

Afghanistan Social and Legal Organization (ASLO) is an Afghan non-governmental, non-political, non-profit, and non-partisan organization with full legal entity status in Afghanistan. The organization was informally established in 2012 and officially registered with the Ministry of Economy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2013 under Registration Number (2852) through the NGOs Department of the Ministry of Economy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Since its establishment, ASLO has remained committed to supporting vulnerable and underserved communities across Afghanistan through humanitarian assistance, sustainable development initiatives, education, healthcare, livelihoods support, legal aid, and community empowerment programs.

ASLO Vision

ASLO envisions a peaceful, developed, and prosperous Afghanistan where every individual has access to quality education, healthcare, justice, sustainable livelihoods, and equal opportunities, and where women, children, and vulnerable populations fully enjoy their rights, dignity, protection, and social inclusion.

 ASLO Mission

ASLO works to empower individuals, families, communities, women, youth, and institutions through humanitarian assistance, education, rights advocacy, research, capacity building, access to justice, peacebuilding, livelihood support, and sustainable development interventions aimed at improving resilience and promoting long-term social and economic development.

Core Areas of Intervention

ASLO currently implements humanitarian and development programs across multiple sectors in Afghanistan, including:

• Humanitarian Assistance and Emergency Response
• Education and Education in Emergencies (EiE)
• Health and Nutrition
• Legal Aid and Access to Justice
• Women Empowerment and Gender Equality
• Child Protection and Social Protection
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
• Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
• Food Security and Livelihoods
• Agriculture and Livestock
• Rural Development and Community Resilience
• Refugee, IDP, and Returnee Support
• Research, Assessments, Surveys, Monitoring, and Evaluations
• Community Capacity Building and Peace Promotion
• Construction and Infrastructure Support

In addition, ASLO integrates key cross-cutting priorities throughout all interventions, including gender mainstreaming, protection, child safeguarding, disability inclusion, environmental protection and climate resilience, accountability to affected populations, research and evidence-based programming, and infrastructure development.

Position Purpose

The Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Director provides institution-wide leadership for income growth, donor diversification, strategic partnerships and competitive proposal development. The postholder will translate ASLO’s Strategic Plan 2026–2030 into a practical resource mobilization strategy, build and manage a credible funding pipeline, lead high-value bids and consortium opportunities, and strengthen ASLO’s positioning with institutional donors, UN agencies, international NGOs, foundations and private-sector partners.

The Director is accountable for the quality, timeliness, compliance and strategic coherence of fundraising efforts. The role works closely with the General Director, senior management, sector leads, programme, finance, MEAL, grants, communications, safeguarding, compliance and provincial teams. The Director may represent ASLO externally when formally authorized but may not create a legal, financial or partnership commitment on behalf of ASLO without delegated approval.

Key Responsibilities

Fundraising Strategy and Institutional Growth

·       Develop, maintain and implement a multi-year fundraising and resource mobilization strategy aligned with ASLO’s Strategic Plan 2026–2030, sector priorities and geographic capacity.

·       Translate the strategy into annual income targets, donor-segment plans, engagement priorities, budgets and a costed implementation plan for approval by the General Director and relevant governance bodies.

·       Diversify ASLO’s funding base across institutional grants, UN partnerships, pooled funds, bilateral and multilateral donors, international NGOs, foundations, corporate partners and other appropriate financing mechanisms.

·       Maintain a balanced portfolio that considers strategic fit, delivery capacity, cost recovery, risk exposure, geographic access, safeguarding and long-term sustainability.

·       Provide senior management with periodic analysis of the funding environment, donor trends, localization commitments, humanitarian and development financing, and emerging risks or opportunities.

Donor Intelligence, Opportunity Pipeline and Positioning

·       Establish and manage a complete donor and opportunity mapping system, including donor priorities, eligibility rules, funding cycles, key contacts, past decisions and next actions.

·       Maintain a live, weighted funding pipeline covering at least twelve months and valued at a level sufficient to support the approved annual fundraising target.

·       Lead systematic opportunity screening and present documented go/no-go recommendations based on strategic fit, competitiveness, compliance, operational capacity, risk and return on investment.

·       Track donor forecasts, calls for proposals, expressions of interest, prequalification processes, partnership invitations and consortium formation opportunities.

·       Develop donor-specific positioning briefs and engagement plans supported by credible evidence of ASLO’s results, technical strengths, operational presence and comparative advantage.

Proposal, Concept Note and Bid Leadership

·       Lead the end-to-end development of high-quality concept notes, expressions of interest, technical and financial proposals, prequalification submissions and partnership packages.

·       Establish bid plans with clear timelines, responsibilities, review gates, decision authority and document-control arrangements.

·       Coordinate technical design with programme and sector teams and ensure that proposals are evidence-based, conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, climate-aware and accountable to affected populations.

·       Work closely with finance and operations teams to ensure realistic, competitive and compliant budgets, appropriate cost recovery, adequate support costs and alignment between narrative, logframe, workplan and budget.

·       Ensure that all submissions comply with donor instructions, page and word limits, eligibility rules, safeguarding requirements, procurement conditions, sanctions controls, data protection and ASLO policies.

·       Conduct or arrange structured quality reviews, red-team reviews and final compliance checks before submission.

·       Maintain a complete archive of submitted bids, donor feedback, success rates, lessons learned, approved versions and supporting institutional documents.

Partnerships, Consortia and External Representation

·       Build and maintain professional relationships with donors, UN agencies, international and national NGOs, networks, foundations, private-sector actors and other strategic partners.

·       Identify and negotiate consortium, co-lead, co-applicant, sub-grantee and implementing-partner opportunities that strengthen ASLO’s influence, localization role and access to funding.

·       Lead organizational inputs to teaming agreements, memoranda of understanding, pre-bid arrangements, scopes of work and responsibility matrices in coordination with authorized management and legal/compliance functions.

·       Represent ASLO in donor consultations, partnership meetings, briefings, networking events and sector forums when authorized by the General Director.

·       Prepare concise donor briefs, capability statements, presentations, meeting records and follow-up plans and ensure that commitments made in meetings are tracked to closure.

·       Promote equitable partnerships, transparent allocation of roles and budgets, responsible risk-sharing and compliance with donor localization commitments.

Proposal Readiness and Organizational Capacity

·       Maintain an up-to-date institutional due-diligence package, including registrations, policies, audits, organograms, governance documents, sector profiles, geographic coverage, project references, financial data and compliance evidence.

·       Coordinate with programme, MEAL and communications teams to develop a verified evidence bank containing results, beneficiary data, case studies, lessons learned, evaluations, photographs and approved success stories.

·       Strengthen standardized proposal templates, capability statements, past-performance records, donor contact records and internal approval tools.

·       Identify institutional capacity gaps that affect eligibility or competitiveness and recommend practical improvement plans to senior management.

·       Ensure that claims about ASLO’s experience, coverage, staffing, results and partnerships are accurate, documented and approved for external use.

Team Leadership and Cross-Departmental Coordination

·       Lead, supervise, coach and performance-manage fundraising, partnerships and proposal staff and coordinate consultants when engaged.

·       Clarify roles, workloads, deadlines and quality expectations; provide timely feedback and address performance concerns in line with HR policy.

·       Establish a cross-functional proposal taskforce model involving programme, finance, MEAL, operations, compliance, safeguarding, communications and field teams.

·       Build proposal-development and donor-engagement capacity through coaching, practical workshops, templates, after-action reviews and individualized support.

·       Promote a respectful, inclusive, accountable and results-oriented team culture.

Systems, Reporting and Accountability

·       Implement a secure and accurate fundraising tracker or customer relationship management system covering opportunities, contacts, actions, submissions, decisions, awards and lessons learned.

·       Submit concise monthly pipeline reports and quarterly resource mobilization performance reports to the General Director and senior management.

·       Report against approved targets, including pipeline value, proposal volume, submission timeliness, success rate, donor diversification, unrestricted or flexible income where applicable, and cost of fundraising.

·       Maintain strong information security, confidentiality, version control, access permissions and data protection for donor and proposal records.

·       Ensure that unsuccessful bids receive documented learning reviews and that donor feedback is incorporated into future submissions.

Risk, Ethics and Compliance

·       Conduct fundraising and partnership activities in accordance with ASLO policies, donor rules, Afghan law, humanitarian principles and recognized ethical fundraising standards.

·       Identify and escalate reputational, financial, programmatic, safeguarding, sanctions, conflict-of-interest, fraud, corruption and partnership risks before commitments are made.

·       Never misrepresent organizational capacity, past performance, staff availability, geographic access, beneficiary figures, budgets or donor relationships.

·       Protect confidential information and ensure that donor and partner data are collected, stored, used and shared only for authorized purposes.

·       Immediately report suspected misconduct, exploitation, abuse, harassment, fraud, corruption, retaliation or other policy violations through approved reporting channels.

Key Deliverables and Performance Indicators

Final annual targets and weightings will be agreed through the performance-management process. Awards will be assessed not only by value but also by strategic fit, cost recovery, risk, implementation feasibility, partnership quality and contribution to ASLO’s long-term sustainability.

Required Qualifications and Experience

·       Master’s degree in development studies, international relations, business administration, economics, public administration, social sciences or a related discipline is preferred; a relevant bachelor’s degree is required.

·       At least eight years of progressively responsible experience in fundraising, resource mobilization, business development, grants acquisition, partnerships or programme development, including at least four years in a senior leadership or management role.

·       Demonstrated success in leading and securing significant institutional grants or partnership awards for humanitarian or development programmes; claims must be verifiable.

·       Strong experience with proposal processes involving UN agencies, pooled funds, bilateral or multilateral donors, international NGOs, foundations, the European Union/ECHO, World Bank mechanisms, ECW/GPE or comparable institutional funders.

·       Proven ability to lead complex, multi-sector and consortium proposals involving technical design, results frameworks, budgets, compliance reviews and partner coordination.

·       Sound understanding of Afghanistan’s humanitarian and development context, donor architecture, localization agenda, access constraints and operating risks.

·       Experience supervising teams, managing competing deadlines and coordinating senior technical, finance, operations, MEAL and field personnel.

·       Excellent written and spoken English, including advanced proposal writing and editing skills; proficiency in Dari and/or Pashto is required.

·       High computer literacy, including Microsoft Office and digital systems used for opportunity tracking, collaboration, document management and donor research.

·       Willingness and ability to travel to ASLO programme locations subject to security and operational requirements.

Core Competencies

·       Strategic leadership and sound judgement

·       Donor intelligence and opportunity analysis

·       Persuasive, evidence-based writing and editing

·       Financial and commercial awareness

·       Negotiation, influencing and relationship management

·       Planning, prioritization and delivery under pressure

·       Quality assurance and attention to detail

·       Risk identification and ethical decision-making

·       Team leadership, coaching and collaboration

·       Cultural sensitivity, diplomacy and respect for diversity

·       Accountability for results and continuous learning

Authority and Decision-Making

·       May recommend opportunity pursuit, non-pursuit, partnership structures, donor engagement priorities and allocation of proposal-development resources.

·       May coordinate institutional inputs and set internal proposal deadlines within approved plans.

·       May represent ASLO externally only within the authority delegated by the General Director.

·       May not sign agreements, commit funds, approve budgets, promise implementation coverage or create legal obligations for ASLO unless formally authorized in writing.

·       Must escalate high-risk opportunities, conflicts of interest, material compliance concerns and proposed deviations from ASLO policy.

Application and Selection Process

Qualified candidates should submit the following:

1.       An updated curriculum vitae, preferably no longer than four pages.

2.       A tailored cover letter explaining suitability for the role and summarizing verifiable fundraising achievements.

3.       Contact details for three professional referees, including at least one recent supervisor; referees will be contacted only at the appropriate stage.

4.       A non-confidential writing sample or brief description of major proposals/awards personally led, clearly stating the candidate’s role.

The selection process may include application screening, a written technical assessment, a proposal or strategy presentation, competency-based interviews, reference checks and verification of qualifications and employment history. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Incomplete, misleading or late applications may not be considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement

ASLO is committed to a fair, transparent and merit-based recruitment process. Qualified women, persons with disabilities and candidates from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. Recruitment decisions are based on the requirements of the role, demonstrated competence, integrity and organizational fit, subject to applicable law and operational requirements.

ASLO reserves the right to amend the recruitment timetable, conduct interviews on a rolling basis, or cancel the vacancy when required by organizational circumstances. Any material change will be communicated through appropriate channels.