Clara is an anthropologist and public health professional with fifteen years of work experience in the non-profit sector including five years in Africa. After many years of working with direct project implementation, quality assurance and monitoring & evaluation, she started working as the institutional fundraiser for a Dutch non-profit based in Amsterdam called Health Works. As a member of the fundraising team, she helped to identify and plan all tender submissions. Clara coordinated the process from identification, through actual proposal development, to submission. In 2016, Clara coordinated the winning proposals for a 3M EUR World Bank project and a 1.2M EUR UNFPA project, both for Afghanistan. Parallel to fundraising she held the role of the portfolio manager, where she focused on Afghanistan, the largest portfolio of the organization with 14 projects funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Global Fund, European Commission, UNFPA, and World Bank among others. Clara established close coordination with the country team and technical advisors to execute donor contracts. She monitored the project’s budgets and gave advice on optimal spending as well as on the quality of implementation. Clara also coordinated the registration of the organisation in Pakistan and networked to re-start the portfolio.
Currently, in addition to being an Associate consultant at IFC, Clara is also involved as a volunteer institutional fundraiser for a start-up organization called She Matters, which is empowering refugee and immigrant women by connecting them with jobs.
In Clara’s own words “Supporting non-profit organizations in the international development sector is more than just a job for me, it’s a passion and something I thoroughly enjoy and take pride in”.
