External Affairs and Partnerships Officer in Climate Protection

Future Matters creates more effective policy action on today’s greatest challenges by applying a scientific approach to changemaking. At a decisive moment for EU climate policy, we are seeking someone with excellent relationship building skills to help us share our successes with donors who can scale our impact.

In this role, you'll witness history in the making while building the funding partnerships needed to accelerate climate solutions. First, you'll gain an insider's perspective on our efforts in Brussels to steer the policy ecosystem toward the most effective climate solutions by joining key strategy meetings and select policy discussions. Then, networking outward from our established base of major donors, you'll travel internationally to meet accomplished, dedicated people and invite them to support our efforts to shape a more livable future.

If our mission speaks to you, we welcome your application.

You might be a good fit if:

• You thrive on building relationships and connecting with people. You love meeting new people, understanding what motivates them, and keeping in touch over time.

• You know how to tell stories that inspire action. You can transform complex work into clear, compelling narratives that help people feel part of something bigger.

• You combine strategic thinking with entrepreneurial drive. You are able to think long term about your goals, map paths to get there, and then act on them.

• You care deeply about climate protection and are motivated to rally support for the EU policies that could make the biggest difference on mitigating global emissions.

Overview

• Part or Full-time: Full-time only

• Compensation: €50,000 - €70,000 gross annual salary, depending on skills, experience, and country of residence

• Location: Remote. Anywhere in the EU, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, or United States and close to a major airport

• Vacation days: 27 paid vacation days annually, plus national holidays in your country of residence

• Benefits: A competitive benefits package, tailored to your country of residence. In addition, employees at Future Matters are encouraged to spend 10% of working time on professional development and are provided an annual budget for professional development

• Travel: Approximately 10–14 weeks per year

• Application deadline: March 23rd, however we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis prior to that deadline, and may continue reviewing applications after that date

• Reports to: Vegard Beyer, Co-Founder & Director of Partnerships and Communications

• Contract type: Permanent contract with 6-month probation period

• Start Date: Ideally, May or June 2025. Negotiable for a great fit

Note: Candidates with a proven track record of succeeding at quickly increasing the donor network for a similar-sized organization may be qualified for a more senior title and salary. Please indicate in your application if you would expect to negotiate salary above the stated range.

About Future Matters and this role

Future Matters is a think tank and non-profit consultancy focused on the greatest global challenges of our time, including climate protection, AI governance, and biosecurity. Recently recognized by the charity evaluator Giving Green as one of the most effective climate nonprofits globally, we take a rigorous approach to identifying and pursuing the highest-impact opportunities for change.

Our climate protection work

Our research has identified specific EU policies that could prevent 1000x more emissions compared to baseline proposals. In April 2024, our report "8 EU Policy Priorities for Global Decarbonization" mapped out the most impactful, yet neglected, opportunities for the 2024-2029 EU mandate. These include supporting growing the sector of tasty and affordable alternatives to animal products, increasing climate finance for lower and middle-income countries, and enhancing methane abatement. Any one of these policies would mitigate more than a billion tons of CO2e by 2100, and in some cases more than 20 billion tons, making them some of the biggest levers to keep the temperature below critical thresholds and protect the lives of millions of people.

With a new European Commission and Parliament in place, we have a critical window for action. Our work has gained traction with high-ranking EU decision makers over the last year, and we are increasingly sought-after advisors for some of the biggest decisions in EU climate policy.

About this role

This is a new role at Future Matters at an important moment in our growth. After recent successes, we are ready to scale significantly - from a budget of €1.25M currently to €2.5M in 2026, with plans to at least double again in 2027.

Your work here would have a real impact on climate protection. Currently, our size means that we cannot build support for all the high-impact policies we have identified. If we can grow our staff and organization quickly, we can help the EU act during critical windows of opportunity for policy change, helping to bend the emissions curve globally.

You'll travel to major European cities to connect with foundations, family funds, and individuals who can help us expand our impact. Building on our established donor network, you’ll have significant autonomy in determining which key new audiences we should reach next, and how to reach them.

One week you might be hosting a donor dinner with climate-concerned tech entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, the next you could be joining our policy team in Brussels for a networking event with policymakers. After a break at home, you’ll come to our team retreat in Germany to connect with the rest of your Future Matters colleagues for strategizing and team-building, then travel on to London for a major conference to meet new connections.

We know that frequent travel can be demanding, and we're looking for someone who is energized by visiting new places and a fast-paced job. At the same time, we value work-life balance and will ensure you have adequate recovery time between trips to make this role sustainable long-term.

Your focus will be on our climate protection work, but because we work as a team we expect that you will occasionally also support fundraising efforts on other global challenges such as reducing the risks from increasingly powerful AI models.

Our team culture

Future Matters seeks to create an environment where talented people can do their best work. Employees describe our workplace feel as “warm and sciency.” Here are a few of our practices and values:

• We believe the best argument, evidence, or reasoning should determine our actions, even if it doesn’t come from the highest ranking person in the room. We celebrate changing our minds given new information.

• We encourage a culture where we accept, own, and learn from mistakes. We have a Slack channel where everyone, including directors, share their recent mistakes and lessons learned.

• We get things done fast. Instead of aiming for perfection, we ask the question, “Is this safe enough to try?”

• We strive to be a place where we care for and support each other, appreciate everyone’s contributions, and help each other succeed.

• We gather together three times a year for team retreats, where we can work intensively on our most important projects and internal goals and get to know each other.

Responsibilities of the role

1. Donor Engagement: Build and deepen relationships with foundations, family funds, and high-net-worth individuals. You'll identify prospects, craft tailored engagement strategies, and cultivate long-term partnerships that align with our mission.

2. Strategic Outreach: Expand our network through targeted outreach campaigns, event participation, and creative networking approaches. You'll identify and attend key climate and philanthropy conferences, host donor events, and create opportunities to showcase our work to new audiences. You may give presentations or pitches, or set up opportunities for other team members to do so.

3. Policy Team Integration: You will spend 10-15% of your time directly with our climate team, joining key strategy meetings and select policy discussions in Brussels. This firsthand exposure to our work will enable you to tell authentic stories to donors, and you will play the role of an outside sounding board for the team on communications framing of policy briefs and advocacy efforts.

4. Communications: Working closely with the Director of Partnerships and Communications, you'll help craft compelling narratives about our work for proposals, presentations, our website and other outlets.

5. Systems & Process Development: As our first full-time development staff member, you'll help shape how we manage donor relationships, including co-creating protocols for our CRM and establishing effective tracking systems.

6. Professional Development: At Future Matters, we encourage employees to spend 10% of their time to learning and professional development and provide a budget for courses, coaching, training and other opportunities.

What we’re looking for

• Professional Experience: You should have a baseline of professional judgment and confidence, typically gained through 2+ years of work experience. We welcome both ambitious early-career professionals and those with significant work experience.

• Proven skill in cultivating 1:1 relationships toward a goal: You have experience in a role that honed your ability to gain trust and achieve a donation, investment, sale or commitment for action (possibly experience in major gifts, sales, pitching a start-up, or other field).

• Networking savvy: You find joy in making connections between people and bringing diverse people together to connect over shared ideas. You have found ways to use your existing relationships to open doors that were not previously open to you (possibly in journalism, politics, or other people-oriented fields).

• Persuasive storytelling skills: You have a track record of translating complex stories or ideas into narratives that influenced audiences toward action.

• Impact minded / strategic thinking focused on ultimate outcomes: You are able to narrow in on the most important opportunities, even when that means setting aside good ideas to pursue great ideas. You think long-term and use evidence to guide your actions.

• Entrepreneurial: You have a proven ability to iterate in real time and innovate and pivot to find success. You can work independently and set your own goals.

• Conscientious: You have a high degree of personal responsibility for your work.

• Compelling, relationship-oriented writing: Your written communication, especially short-form (emails and short updates) is especially crisp, engaging, clear, confident, and warm.

• Able to travel frequently: You are open to spending up to 14 weeks a year traveling for donor meetings, conferences, team retreats and other events.

• English language skills: You communicate at a high level, both written and spoken.

• Commitment to policy solutions for climate protection: You are motivated by our mission and work.

Bonus Qualities

You do not need these in order to apply, but we are especially interested in hearing from candidates who also demonstrate any of the following qualities.

• Prior professional experience in philanthropy, with a well-established network including high-net-worth individuals and/or foundations.

• Proven ability to secure large-scale funding, including making five-, six- and seven-figure fundraising asks (donations or private investment).

• Experience fundraising for a policy-oriented organization.

• Experience in a high-travel role, such that you know you love the lifestyle.

• Dutch-fluent and based in the Netherlands, where we have a existing relationships and look to expand our donor network.

Application Process

We believe that choosing a new job is a very important decision, and that both candidates and organizations need to take time to consider whether there is a great match. We strive to conduct a fair and welcoming hiring process, and respect candidates' time by communicating as clearly and promptly as we can at each phase.

Our expected process is outlined below. These steps may change depending on the candidate pool and your country of residence:

1. Written application

2. 30-minute interview via video call

3. 90-minute interview via video call

   • Before this call we will send you some material and a prompt to look over to prepare

4. Paid 3-4 hour team-based interview with simulated work tasks

5. Reference calls

6. Employment offer, with an ideal start date of May or June 2025

We are an equal-opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, age, physical attractiveness, marital status, or disability. We are happy to make any reasonable accommodations necessary to welcome all to our workplace.

Please contact us to discuss adjustments to the application process or with any questions: contact@future-matters.org.

As we hire internationally, employment conditions - including, among other things, benefits, job title and scope phrasing, as well as the application process - may vary based on the legal requirements and customary employment practices in the candidate’s country of residence. The specifics will be determined during the hiring process and finalized upon employment.