Sara AbuGhazaleh

Experienced Project Associate with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry in both Jordan and the United States-California. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Analytical Skills, Translation, Communication, and Administration. Strong community and social services professional with a Certificate of Specialization focused in Project Management from College of San Mateo and Masters degree in Human Rights from the University of Jordan 

REBUILDING ALLIANCE    - California                                                                                         

May 2020 – May 2021 / Volunteer as an adviser 

May 2021 - April 2021 / Grants Manager                                

• Tracking funded projects' performance and evaluate their outcome and prepare for next phase of grant
• Managing constant communication with nonprofits' leaders and field coordinator and engineer to monitor projects' track and make sure to correspond in a timely manner 
• Establishing a reporting process for Nonprofits to use when reporting to Rebuilding Alliance
• Planning the restructuring of employees' positions to obtain more efficient performance 
• Working with the Director on allocating grants
• Introducing new communication techniques to be used internally and externally

THRIVE ALLIANCE (The Alliance of nonprofits in San Mate County)            November 2019 – June 2021

Policy & Advocacy Program Associate                                          California

Worked closely with the organization Education and Advocacy Director on connecting the Nonprofits that serves different communities across San Mateo County. I also coordinated the work between the County Office and the Nonprofits community. I worked on several projects including: Election, Census and COVID awareness. Below, I'm highlighting my main tasks:

• Planning, implementing and sometimes moderating online and in-person meetings and events 
• Working on the organization back-end process i.e, website, Customer Relations Management (CRM) and other needed software tools like Zoom
• Coordinating the donor- funded relation between the County office and the nonprofits community
• Constantly communicating with the County Office and Nonprofits' representatives to learn more about their updates and challenges and help in addressing their needs accordingly. Additionally, announcing any grant or loans opportunity available to nonprofits community
• Assisting in the organization’s strategic planning to better engage other Nonprofits community and reaching to wider scope of vulnerable communities
• Improving the programs and projects' structure to ease its management and to clearly introduce them to the community and team
• Draft, review and send out monthly Policy & Advocacy newsletter, Census 2020 weekly newsletter and help reviewing other newsletters the Organization publicizes
• Set up team's internal communication tools to ease the remote work
• Set up reporting and communication system using Cureo platform to maintain communication and coordination with other nonprofits
• Preparing along with the Advocacy Director new topics that need to be addressed in the community and plan for gathering nonprofits on regular basis
• Draft and review project proposals and establish projects timeline and set milestones and objectives
• Finalize and Submit project reports to donors
• Track and examine the funded nonprofits’ monthly reports and deliver them to County office

Reasons behind leaving the job: Moving back to Jordan. 

UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY (UNRWA)                             Feb 2016 – Aug 2016

Human Resources Assistant                                                                                                                    Jordan       

• Wrote, edited and presented submissions and letters regarding employee entitlements, using excellent problem-solving skills and knowledge of UNRWA works laws and policies to connect them with solutions
• Executed the end to end recruitment process for the organization, sourcing and screening candidates before conducting phone and in-person interviews and finally onboarding
• Took accountability of all financial matters with regards to employees, facilitating monthly payroll to ensure zero missed/late payments, as well as the employee statement letters for banks and other parties

Reasons behind leaving the job: contract expiration. 

ARDD - LEGAL AID ORGANIZATION                                           Nov 2013 – Aug 2014

Project Assistant and Monitoring and Evaluation assistant 

                                                                                                                                                                    Jordan      

• Collaborated with Project Manager and Director to set up and run project events from start to finish, following up on project progress by ensuring that key milestones and timelines were monitored regularly
• In joined projects with the UN I led focus group discussions with beneficiaries (Syrian refugees), compiling their feedback through tailored pre- and post-evaluation forms, as well as evaluating their performance and benchmarking it to expected project progress
• Conceptualized and executed projects undertaken by the organization and funding organizations, setting initial indicators for project proposals, mapping out a comprehensive action plan and monitoring timesheets to track employee KPIs
• Coalesced feedback from past programs and innovated new ideas to aid in the planning and design of events, as well as project-launching workshops aimed at servicing diverse groups of stakeholders 
• Entrusted with key operational responsibilities within 1 month of joining, designing all SOPs for events, creating weekly and monthly project plans, training colleagues and driving progress to project completion
• Secured buy-ins from various internal and external stakeholders, communicating an overarching vision to ensure that new project members were aligned with project objectives and implementation strategies 

Reason I left the job: prepared for MA thesis and moved to the U.S.

Project Management Certificate of specialization/ San Mateo College                           2019 

Master’s Degree / The University of Jordan – International Studies department                                              2015

Human Rights and Human Development

Thesis title " the role of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in corresponding to humanitarian crisis in Jordan"