1. Background
Child marriage remains one of the most urgent and persistent violations of girls’ rights globally. It deprives girls of their education, health, safety, and economic potential, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality across entire communities.
Since its founding in 2011, Girls Not Brides has grown to a movement of more than 1,400 civil society organisations from nearly 100 countries committed to ending child marriage and advancing girls’ rights and wellbeing.
Girls Not Brides’ new 2026–2030 strategy sets out a roadmap to mobilise political will, investment, and action toward a clear ambition: to reduce child marriage prevalence globally from 1 in 5 girls to 1 in 7 girls by 2030.
As part of this strategy, Girls Not Brides will help to protect and unlock $1 billion to end child marriage globally by mobilising greater resources, influencing funding flows, and strengthening investment in effective and evidence-based approaches across the entire end child marriage movement. To support this ambition, Girls Not Brides itself has set a target to raise £40 million by 2030, including diversifying its funding base and developing new income streams.
To date, Girls Not Brides has relied predominantly on institutional funding, including from bilateral and multilateral donors, government development agencies, and philanthropic foundations. While these partnerships remain critical to our sustainability, the current context requires a diversification of our funding base. There is a need to expand our strategic engagement with high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs).
Girls Not Brides is seeking a consultancy to develop a clear, actionable and sustainable approach to engaging high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs/UHNWIs). The consultancy will help transform our current ad hoc engagement into a strategic, scalable programme that contributes to our long-term fundraising ambitions while offering HNWIs/UHNWIs meaningful and impactful philanthropic partnerships.
The organisation is particularly interested in approaches that align fundraising with movement-building, gender equality, and systems change, while ensuring a clear and compelling case for supporting the role of the Secretariat in driving impact at scale.
2. Purpose of the Consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy is to support Girls Not Brides to build the foundations for a clear and credible approach to engaging high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) as a strategic and significant funding stream.
The consultancy will:
- Develop a differentiated and compelling approach to HNWI/UHNWI engagement that aligns with Girls Not Brides’ role as a global partnership driving systems change
- Conduct a high-level assessment of the HNWI/UHNWI philanthropic landscape (including intermediary giving mechanisms and influencers of philanthropic capital - DAFs, philanthropy advisors, wealth managers and family office networks) and identify opportunities aligned with Girls Not Brides’ mission and strategic priorities
- Assess organisational readiness, stakeholder dynamics, and reputational considerations
- Develop recommendations for a compelling philanthropic value proposition and case for support
- Test initial engagement approaches to generate practical insights and validate strategic assumptions
- Recommend a sustainable operating model, including the structure and profile of roles required to deliver this strategy
- Develop a phased implementation roadmap, including resource requirements, investment considerations, key milestones, risks, and measures of success for the first 12-36 months
The consultancy is expected to move beyond high-level strategy development to provide practical, evidence-based recommendations that enable Girls Not Brides to make informed decisions about investing in and scaling this funding stream.
3. Scope of Work
The consultancy will proceed in five broad phases.
Inception Phase: following agreement and contracting, the consultant will agree with Girls Not Brides a more detailed approach to the assignment, including critical success factors and opportunities and challenges. This should include agreement on a methodology, timeline, and key deliverables.
Discovery and diagnostic: the consultant will review Girls Not Brides' existing fundraising materials and positioning, assess past and current HNWI engagement, and speak with senior leadership, selected Board members and external stakeholders. They will map existing networks and potential entry points into HNWI/UHNWI ecosystems, while also reviewing the external landscape – peer organisations, philanthropic trends, and where Girls Not Brides has genuine strengths or constraints in this space.
Strategy development: building on this diagnostic, the consultant will define priority donor segments and profiles, articulate a compelling value proposition for Girls Not Brides (including the role of the Secretariat), and identify priority geographies, networks, entry points, and proposed stewardship models. This should include a clear view on direct fundraising versus working through partnerships, collaboratives, or intermediaries to influence philanthropic capital.
Testing and learning: the consultant will support light-touch testing of engagement approaches with a small number of prospects, capturing insights on messaging, positioning, and donor interest to refine the strategy.
Throughout, the consultant will provide practical recommendations on stakeholder engagement and internal readiness – how to align senior leadership and Board members, what roles and processes are needed, and how to strengthen Girls Not Brides' positioning and reputation in the philanthropic landscape. The consultancy should conclude with a recommended delivery model, right-sized to Girls Not Brides, and a phased implementation roadmap, including input into a draft role specification for any new hire.
4. Deliverables
The consultant will deliver:
- Inception report within 5 days of signing the contract.
- An HNWI/UHNWI engagement strategy, covering priority segments, a compelling value proposition (including positioning of the Secretariat), compelling cases for support, recommended messaging and engagement approaches, priority geographies and entry points, practical routes to engagement (e.g. networks, events, forums, intermediaries and visibility opportunities), and options for direct versus influenced fundraising.
- A prioritised initial pipeline of prospects, segmented by priority (high/medium/longer-term), with concrete recommendations for activation
- Insights from initial engagement testing, summarising feedback on messaging and positioning, donor receptivity, and implications for refining the strategy.
- Stakeholder engagement recommendations, covering how to engage leadership and the Board, roles and responsibilities across teams, key risks and mitigations, and ways to sharpen Girls Not Brides' positioning.
- Internal readiness recommendations including systems and processes, due diligence, gift acceptance and management, CRM and data readiness, governance and decision-making and internal capabilities
- A delivery model, including the recommended structure (in-house, consultant, agency, hybrid) and role profile
- An implementation roadmap covering the next 12–36 months, with key milestones, sequencing, and indicative resourcing. This should include a high-level investment case, outlining indicative costs, expected organisational capacity requirements and anticipated return on investment.
5. Duration and Timeline
The consultancy is expected to run over approximately 10–14 weeks, with all deliverables completed by mid-Q4 2026. It will proceed in phases: inception and planning, discovery and diagnostic, strategy development, and validation and finalisation.
6. Budget
The total budget available is up to £20,000, inclusive of all fees and expenses.
7. Consultant Profile
We are looking for a senior consultant/consultancy with a strong track record in HNWI/UHNWI fundraising within international development, philanthropy, or social impact – ideally with experience designing sustainable engagement strategies for organisations working on gender equality, children's rights, or global development. Demonstrated success in the development and implementation of HNWI/UHNWI fundraising strategies that have resulted in significant philanthropic income, strategic partnerships and/or access to new donor networks is essential. Previous experience may have included working as a senior fundraising lead, philanthropy advisor, within an advisory agency, with Donor-Advised Funds, or leading HNWI/UHNWI fundraising strategies.
The consultant should understand the philanthropic landscape for international social impact giving, including differentiated approaches required for systems-change and movement actors (rather than service delivery). The consultant should have exceptional insight into the diplomacy and best practice of leveraging leadership, Board and champion networks for fundraising and the political judgement to navigate sensitive organisational and reputational dynamics. Strong strategic thinking paired with a focus on practical, implementable outputs is essential, as are excellent interpersonal skills and the confidence to engage credibly with high-profile stakeholders. Familiarity with philanthropic networks in global health, gender equality, and girls’ rights would be an advantage.
8. Reporting and Management
The consultant will report to the Head of Development, working closely with the Development Team. They will present their report and deliverables to the Interim Co-CEO and selected Board representatives and senior leadership.
9. Proposal Requirements
Interested consultants should submit a brief proposal setting out their approach and methodology, CV demonstrating relevant experience, a proposed timeline and level of effort (in days), and a fee proposal within the available budget and aligned to the above. Proof of insurance will be required upon contract signing.
To Apply
Please submit applications through the Girls Not Brides online hiring portal, Hireful, by Friday, 4 September 2026. Girls Not Brides is committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults; applicants may be subject to due diligence checks. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.
