ALEX MWANGI

Project co-lead on the development and rollout of the global finance dashboard, cost analysis tool and funding gap tool with a view to standardize how financial performance is measured globally.

Head of Financial Planning & Analysis

Served as a key business partner to the Finance Director and program teams, supporting the expansion of emergency response through budgeting, reporting, and strengthening financial operations. Developed and implemented best practices in emergency financial and grants management while building the capacity of the finance team to ensure compliance and efficiency.

• Co-led the master budget process with a combined portfolio of $100M ensuring proactive decision making and efficient allocation of resources.
• Finance lead on the preparation and revision of grant proposal budgets of up to $36M under various donors ensuring correct pricing in coordination with programme teams and partners.

Responsible for the overall financial management of the country office $17M portfolio overseeing day-to-day accounting, banking, proposal budgeting, financial planning, grant financial management, partner monitoring and donor reporting.

• Developed a dynamic master budget that identified accurate funding gap amounts and provided 12 months visibility on available funding.

Collaborated with cross-functional teams to successfully deliver comprehensive solutions for the clients manufacturing subsidiary.

• Deployed an integrated business management software (Odoo) effectively migrating the company from a paper-based accounting system.
• Revised the management structure to ensure proper oversight on operations, established fleet management protocols and reinforced a cashless payment modality to reduce risk over revenue loss.

Responsible for the overall financial management of the country office $27M portfolio business partnering with the program implementation teams, support functions, senior management, Save the Children member offices and donors.

• Prepared and maintained the country program’s annual operating budget ensuring coverage for in-country operating costs, staffing, in new proposals while identifying opportunities for rationalization. The overall non-thematic cost rate reduced from 30% in 2019 to 22% in 2020.

Emergency deployed to address an immediate funding gap & unsustainable operating structure.

• Developed financial analysis that identified avenues of reducing the funding gap in the short term and overall risk in the medium and long term.This enabled the country senior management team to make informed strategic decisions that resulted in a reduction of the overall projected funding gap from $1.1M in Sep 2019 to $550K in Dec 2019 and full financial sustainability in 2020 & 2021.

Supported the embedding and integration of new finance business processes; cost allocation methodology, effort reporting into business as Usual across Save the Children International that involved up-skilling of finance staff in respect to the new initiatives, designing and testing of system improvements and development of financial analysis to monitor the business impact of new processes.

Responsible for budgeting and reporting activities throughout the life cycle of grants / projects. This included providing business partnering services to the program implementation team and other key departments when developing budget proposals, producing, and analyzing monthly financial reports and completing award close out activities.

• Co-led the country office quarterly forecasting and annual planning process. Between 2017 & 2018, the country office consecutively achieved 15 months of green rating on budget versus forecast key performance indicator (KPI) which was unparalleled globally in Save the Children International.
• Contributed to the development of first drafts of new business proposals to various donors ensuring resources are allocated to priority areas. The high proposal success rate led to an increase in the portfolio size from $23M in 2016 to $35M in 2017.