consultant to carry out a scoping exercise amongst French, Belgian and Luxembourgeoise foundations and other donors interested broadly in human rights

Consultant - Ariadne Francophone

Ariadne

London, United Kingdom

Ariadne seeks a consultant to carry out a scoping exercise amongst French, Belgian and Luxembourgeoise foundations and other donors interested broadly in human rights and related fields.

Ariadne, the European Human Rights Funders Network, is an affinity group for foundation staff, family and private donors. It was launched over two years ago and now has more than 180 members across 15 different countries, including a number of individual donors.

Ariadne has two aims: (1) to help ensure that every Euro given to support human rights and social justice is as intelligently applied as possible; (2) to increase the number of donors prepared to invest in this field. To bring this about it seeks to increase the impact of donors in Europe by deepening knowledge and understanding of human rights issues, to grow the number of European donors prepared to invest in this field by encouraging them to join an effective and supportive network (free from grant-seekers), by supporting better practices and processes in a European context and by facilitating co-operation and collaboration amongst foundations and donors.

Its members support a broad field of activity including migration and integration, the rights of women and girls, anti- human trafficking, conflict resolution, minority rights including Roma rights, work with lesbian and gay organisations, international civil and political rights, anti-torture and anti-slavery work, technology and human rights and the protection of human rights defenders.

It is now looking to expand and deepen its membership amongst donors, grant-makers and philanthropists in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. It is looking for a consultant to carry out a scoping exercise to assess the interest in Ariadne from operational and grant-making foundations, corporate foundations and individual donors in France, Luxembourg, and Belgium, and to set out the most appropriate direction for Ariadne Francophone to take.

The report will be not more than 20 pages in length and fall into two sections, one looking at France, and another at Luxembourg and Belgium. We are looking for:

• A contextual description of the legislative and administrative environment in which human right and social justice philanthropy operates in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
• A section on the size and nature of foundations with some idea of the history and current trends, and an overview of the climate for private and family donors.
• A summary of what if any collaboration has existed or exists now among funders from separate foundations or families/individuals. Do they communicate, do they collaborate, and if so how and to what extent?
• A discussion of the linguistic difficulties, or otherwise, of using human rights and social justice definitions, with an understanding of how Ariadne can best approach this in each context.
• A target list of philanthropic entities or individuals who might be interested in becoming involved with Ariadne
• A discussion of how local donors could be supported in developing their philanthropy and how they would like to see this organised within the existing structure of Ariadne.
• The report should also specify an appropriate event or meeting amongst French, Belgian and Luxembourgeoise entities to present the findings and seek feed-back. The consultant will be asked to organise this event in collaboration with the Ariadne Director and Coordinator.

The aim of the scoping exercise in the long run is to build on the existing francophone membership and specialist Ariadne communities, and lay the foundations for the next stage of Ariadne’s growth: creating new Ariadne satellite groups to complement Ariadne UK and Ariadne Netherlands, with their own meetings and activities, calibrated to suit their needs.

The methodology of this scoping study will consist of interviews and research, leading to a report suggesting a way forward. The study should be carried out before the end of the year with a possible meeting of donors in January or February 2012.

Essential:

• A fluent or native French speaker and writer
• Good spoken and written English
• An understanding of social justice and human rights philanthropy in Europe
• An understanding of the regulatory background for foundations and private giving in these countries
• Excellent contacts within the philanthropic sectors in these countries
• An approachable and confident manner

Necessary:

• A demonstrable history of successful report writing
• A record of working independently and to deadline
• Excellent organisational skills
• Confident IT skills, including office and web-based systems
• Initiative and motivation to develop this project

Candidates will be at an advantage if they have experience in event management.

The total budget for this exercise, including organising the meeting, is up to €10,000. The report can be written in French or English, although English is preferred. The consultant selected will have a contract with Ariadne’s fiscal host, Global Dialogue, which is a registered English charity, but will report to the Ariadne Director, Jo Andrews.

If you would like to apply for this, please send in:

• A short covering letter explaining why you would do this well.
• A CV, with the names of two referees who may be contacted.
• 1-2 page outline of how you would carry out this exercise
• A one page budget showing how the costs would break down.

Please e-mail all materials to lisa.hashemi@ariadne-network.eu with the words French scoping in the subject line of the e-mail. The closing date for this is close of business on Tuesday October 11th 2011. Applications may be in French or English. Interviews will take place by telephone, in English, in the following week.