Overview
Reporting to: CEO
Location: Remote working
Salary: Around $150’000 per annum
The Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) was established with the backing of the leadership of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and we are growing. We aim to publish a Request for Proposals for our first Outcomes Fund by the end of this year (which is also in support of global initiatives such as UNESCO’s Fit for Life sports flagship). We will be delivering our first technical assistance on the contracting and performance management of services targeting homelessness and mental health to a regional government this summer. We already support a refugee Social Impact Bond in the UK, and youth employment Impact Bonds in South Africa and Palestine (with funding for the latter from The World Bank).
In the process, we are disrupting: in order to challenge the way mental health is ignored, and services too often fail to deliver the real outcomes that people want, as well as the way so much public money and philanthropy, including international development aid, is simply wasted. We are doing this at scale.
We do not have specific Director jobs to fill today. But we would like to start the conversation now with the people who will fill these roles as they come up, starting this year and beyond. We think these are unique opportunities to make a difference as part of a unique initiative. If this sounds of interest, we would love to hear from you.
Role requirements and responsibilities
Our Directors will have substantial experience of directly managing/driving the performance of complex frontline services delivered to vulnerable communities, ideally with some of those services subcontracted and possibly using social investment. This experience will be very hands-on and will almost certainly have been gained in multiple countries, though not necessarily in mental health. At HBGI, you will oversee an Outcomes Fund, including helping to raise the money in the first place, then the design of the contracts, the selection of the service providers (through competitive tenders), the mobilization of the programs, and then the continuous drive for outcomes – all in close partnership with important stakeholders such as local governments. The salaries for these Directors will be around $150,000 per annum.
The sort of thing you will be leading will be a multimillion-dollar Outcomes Fund for Sport & Mental Health, pooling the donations of sports club owners. With this Fund, we will contract service providers around the world to deliver programs that use grassroots sport to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of people. These programs will also contribute to improved social cohesion and economic prosperity. Their prime focus will be communities/individuals who are currently not engaged in sport or physical activity and are disadvantaged in some way, as well as low-income countries.
HBGI will pay the service providers on the basis of the outcomes they deliver for the people being targeted. These outcomes will be tangible and evidenced, including increases in wellbeing and functional outcomes such as improved school attendance and performance, a reduction in offending, increased employment, decreased homelessness, and so on. The objective is to deliver a maximum return that makes a real difference to the participants’ lives. In the process, we will be gathering a rich well of new data on wellbeing and on what works.
Our other Outcomes Funds in development include a Fund for the Climate & Mental Health, as well as: New Brains (i.e. new borns and maternal health), Veterans (in the USA and beyond in post-conflict countries), and a regional Fund for Africa.
You may have lived experience of mental health. Many of our current team and Board have direct/close lived experience and our Lived Experience Council is an integral part of the organization.
Terms of employment
We don’t tolerate any form of negative discrimination or office politics or bullying. We pay competitive international salaries, but we are a not-for-profit focused on delivering social impact and we will limit the weight of our overheads.
You could be based anywhere. Our time zones right now (where we have team members already located) are Africa, Europe and America.
Interested in applying?
If you are as excited as we are about what HBGI will deliver for millions of people, then please send us your CV and explain your interest. We will acknowledge all responses but please note that we are looking to start this conversation with just a small group of exceptional, proven change makers who know how to deliver outcomes. Please put ‘Director’ in the subject line of your email and address it to: opportunities@hbgi.org
This revised ad will remain ‘live’ until we remove it from our website (hbgi.org), where you can also find our recent reports and more on our plans.
About Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI)
The Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) aims to transform the way poor mental health is perceived, prevented and treated globally. We use performance-based financing to fund high-impact mental health programs, focusing on the most underserved populations. By contracting service providers on the basis of outcomes, we incentivize innovation and localization rather than funding processes in a top-down manner. We either contract/fund programs directly, or work as a technical partner with governments.
The programs we fund will be diverse and address mental health in different ways, from surf therapy for youth with PTSD, to music-making sessions for individuals in early recovery from substance use disorders, to helping new mothers bond more effectively with their babies.