Funding and PPP Integration Lead

FUNDING & PPP INTEGRATION LEAD INTERN — WORKING LEADERSHIP ROLE

ABOUT MORSBY, GORMAN, MCCARTHY LLC

Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC is developing Project Guardian as a multidisciplinary, project-based initiative focused on infrastructure planning, implementation readiness, policy research, partnership development, risk analysis, data organization, and program management.

Project Guardian’s initial work centers on a proposed Kenya-focused infrastructure pilot. Participants will contribute to research, planning, analysis, and professional-quality project materials intended to help clarify the pilot’s feasibility, funding requirements, implementation conditions, and potential pathways toward responsible replication or expansion.

Participation does not represent employment by, appointment to, or endorsement from any government, university, funder, development institution, community, or prospective partner. Project Guardian is an independent initiative of Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC unless a separate written agreement states otherwise.

PROGRAM TERMS

• Program dates: October 26, 2026–February 5, 2027

• Holiday pause: December 19, 2026–January 3, 2027, during which no routine work is expected
• Fully remote and asynchronous-first
• Normally 5–10 hours per week
• Work exceeding 10 hours in a week requires advance written approval
• Participants should not ordinarily exceed approximately 15 hours in any week
• Unpaid educational internship
• Academic credit may be available only when approved by the participant’s institution
• No promise or expectation of future employment
• Reasonable academic and accessibility accommodations will be considered
• Participation is subject to applicable confidentiality, data-handling, authorship, attribution, and release requirements

EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE

This is a structured, project-based learning experience. Participants receive defined learning objectives, supervised assignments, written or documented feedback, revision opportunities, and exposure to multidisciplinary infrastructure, public policy, research, finance, partnership-development, and program-management work.

Assignments are designed to develop transferable professional competencies through applied work of educational value. Participants may produce portfolio-appropriate materials, excerpts, or descriptions subject to confidentiality, intellectual-property, attribution, data-protection, and release requirements. Inclusion of any project material in a portfolio requires prior written authorization.

Academic credit may be available only when approved by the participant’s institution. Participants are responsible for initiating and satisfying their institution’s credit-approval process. Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC will reasonably cooperate with legitimate institutional documentation, learning-agreement, supervision, evaluation, and verification requirements when provided with sufficient notice.

Academic credit is not guaranteed and is not required for participation. The availability, amount, classification, and conditions of credit are determined solely by the participant’s institution.

The internship is intended to complement academic study and professional development. Participants will not displace regular employees or independently perform functions requiring licensed legal, accounting, investment, engineering, procurement, or other regulated professional judgment.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Funding and Public-Private Partnership Integration Lead supports development of Project Guardian’s pilot-focused funding logic, opportunity pipeline, partnership framework, preliminary resource assumptions, and investment-readiness materials.

The role’s immediate objective is to help establish a credible and appropriately scoped funding case for the proposed Kenya pilot. This includes distinguishing the pilot’s validation-stage needs from longer-term operating, replication, expansion, and capital requirements.

The Lead will examine grants, philanthropy, sponsorships, technical assistance, in-kind support, challenge funds, public programs, development-finance mechanisms, blended-finance concepts, commercial-capital possibilities, procurement pathways, and potential public-private partnership structures. The selected participant will learn to distinguish between opportunities that are actionable, conditional, premature, unsuitable, or dependent upon further professional review.

This is a working leadership internship. The Lead will coordinate assigned contributors while also producing substantive research, analysis, documentation, and written work. The leadership component is educational and project-based; it does not confer authority to employ, discipline, contract with, or make commitments on behalf of other participants, the company, the project, or any prospective stakeholder.

Because the role normally requires 5–10 hours per week, work will be organized through staged priorities, defined deliverables, documented assumptions, and supervised decision points rather than attempting to pursue every possible funding source simultaneously.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the conclusion of the internship, the participant should be able to:

• Explain the principal differences among grants, sponsorships, donations, technical assistance, in-kind support, concessional finance, blended finance, commercial capital, procurement opportunities, and public-private partnership structures
• Translate a preliminary infrastructure-pilot concept into a structured funding case
• Distinguish pilot validation costs from longer-term operating, scaling, and capital requirements
• Identify intended uses of funds, milestones, outputs, outcomes, dependencies, and decision points
• Research prospective funding and partnership opportunities using reliable primary and secondary sources
• Evaluate opportunities based on eligibility, strategic fit, geography, timing, restrictions, reporting obligations, evidence requirements, likely value, readiness, and execution burden
• Develop and maintain an organized, source-supported funding-opportunity pipeline
• Prepare preliminary budget frameworks, use-of-funds tables, funding scenarios, and funding-gap analyses
• Clearly label estimates, assumptions, contingencies, exclusions, sensitivities, and unresolved questions
• Recognize when specialized legal, accounting, tax, investment, regulatory, procurement, engineering, or financial review is required
• Draft concise, accurate, and audience-appropriate funder and partnership materials
• Apply ethical standards to funder research, partnership analysis, representations, conflicts, confidentiality, and external communications
• Coordinate multidisciplinary contributors through clear assignments, review, feedback, revision, documentation, and handoff practices
• Reflect on how funding strategy must align with implementation capacity, local participation, governance, evidence, risk, and stakeholder authority

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Funding Strategy and Pilot Case Development

• Develop and maintain a pilot-focused funding and partnership strategy under supervision
• Define the proposed pilot’s preliminary funding rationale, intended uses, milestones, outputs, outcomes, dependencies, and decision points
• Separate pilot-stage validation needs from longer-term operating, replication, expansion, and capital requirements
• Help determine which funding mechanisms are potentially appropriate for each stage of the project
• Identify readiness gaps that must be addressed before particular opportunities can be responsibly pursued
• Recommend a realistic sequencing of research, readiness work, authorized outreach, applications, and partnership development

Opportunity Research and Qualification

• Identify and research relevant public, private, philanthropic, academic, corporate, development-finance, and blended-finance opportunities
• Examine grants, sponsorships, technical assistance, in-kind contributions, challenge funds, procurement opportunities, concessional finance, commercial-capital possibilities, and formal PPP pathways
• Use authoritative sources whenever reasonably available and preserve source links, dates, eligibility language, and supporting records
• Categorize opportunities as immediate, near-term, longer-term, conditional, exploratory, unsuitable, or closed
• Evaluate eligibility, strategic fit, geography, funding range, restrictions, deadlines, reporting obligations, evidence requirements, application burden, and implementation implications
• Distinguish confirmed opportunities from preliminary leads, inferred possibilities, assumptions, and speculative pathways
• Record the rationale for inclusion, exclusion, deferral, or escalation of each material opportunity

Pipeline and Readiness Management

• Build and maintain a prioritized funding and prospective-partner pipeline
• Record opportunity status, readiness gaps, dependencies, next actions, ownership, deadlines, and authorized outreach status
• Develop comparison tools that support consistent prioritization across opportunities
• Identify required organizational, technical, financial, legal, governance, safeguarding, monitoring, reporting, and due-diligence materials
• Coordinate with the Knowledge and Data-Room Manager to organize supporting evidence and application-readiness records
• Maintain usable documentation so another team member can understand and continue the work

Budgeting and Funding-Scenario Support

• Support development of preliminary pilot budget frameworks and use-of-funds tables
• Organize cost assumptions by category, stage, timing, dependency, and confidence level
• Develop supervised preliminary funding scenarios and funding-gap analyses
• Identify contingencies, exclusions, unresolved costs, co-funding assumptions, in-kind dependencies, and sensitivity factors
• Reconcile funding narratives with the underlying pilot design, implementation plan, and available evidence
• Ensure that preliminary figures are presented as planning assumptions rather than verified financial statements or professional estimates
• Route accounting, tax, investment, legal, engineering, valuation, or other specialized questions for qualified review

PPP and Partnership Analysis

• Research the basic institutional, governmental, procurement, regulatory, legal, technical, financial, and governance conditions that may affect a potential PPP pathway
• Help distinguish informal collaboration, sponsorship, technical assistance, procurement, grant-funded partnerships, memoranda of understanding, and formal PPP arrangements
• Develop preliminary partner-role, contribution, dependency, decision-rights, and governance frameworks
• Identify where local participation, governmental authority, public procurement, community engagement, land, permitting, technical standards, safeguarding, or other requirements may affect feasibility
• Document unresolved questions and assumptions requiring specialist or local-stakeholder review
• Avoid presenting exploratory concepts as approved, negotiated, endorsed, or legally established partnerships

Due Diligence, Ethics, and Risk

• Conduct preliminary reputational, conflict, restriction, sanctions, eligibility, alignment, and execution-risk screening using appropriate public sources
• Flag restrictive funding conditions, mission misalignment, unrealistic assumptions, conflicts, compliance concerns, reporting burdens, and reputational risks
• Identify dependencies among funding, approvals, procurement, implementation capacity, local participation, evidence, governance, and partner commitments
• Represent Kenya-specific institutions, communities, stakeholders, and prospective partners accurately and respectfully
• Avoid implying consent, endorsement, involvement, or commitment that has not been confirmed and authorized
• Escalate sensitive, ambiguous, regulated, or high-risk matters for supervisory or qualified professional review
• Maintain confidentiality and follow applicable information-handling requirements

Funder-Facing and Internal Communications

• Draft supervised concept-note material, opportunity briefs, funder briefs, partnership briefs, funding narratives, and pitch-deck content
• Translate technical, policy, implementation, and research information into clear audience-appropriate language
• Verify material claims against approved project sources
• Clearly distinguish evidence, estimates, scenarios, assumptions, aspirations, and unresolved questions
• Coordinate with research, editorial, evidence, risk, implementation, communications, and data teams
• Incorporate documented feedback and revise materials through defined review cycles
• Preserve version history, sources, reviewer comments, and approval status

Working Leadership and Team Coordination

• Help translate priorities into appropriately scoped contributor assignments
• Coordinate assigned participants through clear objectives, deadlines, source expectations, and review criteria
• Provide constructive first-level feedback subject to supervisory oversight
• Track dependencies, unresolved questions, and completion status
• Identify workload or continuity risks early
• Encourage accurate sourcing, professional communication, responsible collaboration, and timely escalation
• Cross-train contributors and maintain usable handoff documentation
• Produce substantive individual work in addition to coordinating others
• Refer performance, conduct, accommodation, or participation concerns to the designated supervisor rather than acting independently

SUPERVISION, FEEDBACK, AND REVISION

The Lead will receive direction and supervision from the Program Director, with operational coordination through the Deputy Program and Operations Manager.

The educational workflow is expected to include:

• Initial orientation to Project Guardian’s scope, objectives, standards, and constraints
• Defined assignments connected to the role’s learning objectives
• Access to relevant templates, project records, examples, and source requirements
• Scheduled or milestone-based supervisory review
• Written, annotated, or otherwise documented feedback
• Opportunities to ask questions and clarify expectations
• Reasonable opportunities to revise substantive work
• Periodic reflection on professional development and learning progress
• A final review or evaluation where appropriate

Feedback may address research quality, analytical reasoning, prioritization, source use, clarity, accuracy, documentation, ethical judgment, collaboration, responsiveness, and the participant’s ability to incorporate revisions.

EXPECTED EDUCATIONAL OUTPUTS

Depending on project needs, participant readiness, source availability, and supervisory direction, outputs may include:

• Pilot-focused funding and PPP strategy
• Structured pilot funding case
• Prioritized funder and prospective-partner pipeline
• Opportunity eligibility, fit, timing, burden, risk, and readiness assessments
• Funding-source, deadline, decision, and authorized-outreach tracker
• Preliminary pilot budget framework
• Preliminary use-of-funds table
• Funding scenarios and funding-gap analysis
• Assumptions, exclusions, contingencies, dependencies, and sensitivity log
• Partnership-role, contribution, dependency, governance, and decision-rights framework
• Preliminary PPP pathway and requirements assessment
• Funder, opportunity, and partnership briefs
• Concept-note and pitch-deck content
• Due-diligence and supporting-document requirements list
• Funding and partnership risk entries
• Recommended sequencing for readiness work, authorized outreach, applications, and partnership development
• Source-supported research memoranda
• Review notes, revision records, and final handoff documentation
• Substantive original research, analysis, and writing

Outputs are educational and developmental materials. Their production does not guarantee that they will be externally distributed, adopted, submitted, funded, published, or implemented.

PERFORMANCE AND LEARNING ASSESSMENT

Progress may be assessed according to:

• Accuracy and completeness of research
• Quality and reliability of sources
• Ability to distinguish confirmed facts from estimates, assumptions, and hypotheses
• Soundness and transparency of analytical reasoning
• Quality of opportunity prioritization
• Clarity and usability of written materials, tables, and trackers
• Appropriate identification of dependencies, restrictions, risks, and readiness gaps
• Compliance with confidentiality, attribution, documentation, and approval requirements
• Respectful treatment of local institutions, stakeholders, knowledge, and authority
• Ability to receive, evaluate, and incorporate feedback
• Reliability in meeting agreed milestones or communicating constraints early
• Effectiveness in coordinating contributors without exceeding the role’s authority
• Growth against the stated learning objectives

Assessment is intended to support learning and program administration. It is not a licensed professional examination or a representation that the participant has earned a professional credential.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Strong candidates may be advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, recent graduates, alumni, or early-career professionals. Exceptional earlier-stage students who can demonstrate substantial readiness may also be considered.

Relevant academic areas may include finance, economics, public policy, public administration, international development, business, accounting, nonprofit management, infrastructure planning, project management, political science, international relations, law, engineering management, or related interdisciplinary fields.

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Strong research, analytical, organizational, and written-communication skills
• Interest or experience in infrastructure funding, public-private partnerships, development finance, grants, fundraising, philanthropy, economic development, capital planning, or related work
• Ability to interpret eligibility rules, deadlines, restrictions, reporting obligations, and evidence requirements carefully
• Ability to prioritize opportunities by readiness, probability, strategic value, burden, timing, and risk
• Ability to translate technical, financial, policy, or implementation concepts into clear funder-facing language
• Comfort working with preliminary budgets, assumptions, tables, trackers, and scenarios
• Ability to distinguish verified information from estimates, scenarios, and hypotheses
• Strong judgment concerning confidentiality, conflicts, due diligence, representation, attribution, and external communications
• Respect for local institutions, stakeholders, knowledge, and decision-making authority
• Reliability when coordinating contributors across disciplines and time zones
• Willingness to document work, receive feedback, and revise substantive assignments
• Familiarity with shared documents, spreadsheets, research databases, presentation materials, and collaborative tools

Experience relating to Kenya, Africa, international development, infrastructure, philanthropy, government programs, economics, finance, public policy, business, or nonprofit management may be helpful but is not required.

Applicants are not expected to possess professional legal, accounting, investment, procurement, or engineering credentials.

APPLICATION MATERIALS

Applicants should submit through Handshake:

• A current résumé
• A cover letter explaining their interest in Project Guardian and describing relevant experience, coursework, research, or transferable skills
• One relevant work sample, such as a funding memo, opportunity analysis, financial or policy brief, research paper, budget exercise, partnership analysis, grant-related document, presentation, or comparable analytical work

Applicants should remove or redact confidential, proprietary, personally identifiable, restricted, or third-party information from submitted samples.

If the applicant’s strongest work was completed collaboratively, the applicant should briefly identify their individual contribution.

A prior professional work sample is not required when an applicant can submit a suitable academic, volunteer, independent, or appropriately redacted project example.

SELECTION PROCESS

Initial screening will be asynchronous. Applications will be assessed based on demonstrated alignment, analytical readiness, communication quality, judgment, transferable skills, and the relevance of submitted materials.

Finalists may be invited to complete a brief, time-limited educational evaluation exercise involving a hypothetical or publicly available funding opportunity, preliminary use-of-funds scenario, partnership question, or source-assessment task.

Any selection exercise will be designed solely to evaluate the applicant’s reasoning and communication. It will not be used as uncompensated production work, submitted externally, or incorporated into Project Guardian deliverables without separate written permission and appropriate arrangements.

Live conversations will be limited to finalists or circumstances requiring clarification. References may be requested selectively. Reasonable accommodations are available during the selection process.

Priority application deadline: October 2, 2026. The posting may close earlier or later based on application volume, institutional review timing, or program needs.

ELIGIBILITY AND INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS

Applicants must be able to participate remotely during the stated program period and communicate reliably in an asynchronous-first environment.

Students seeking academic credit must contact their institution and initiate any required approval, registration, learning-agreement, or internship-verification process. Institutional approval and academic credit are not guaranteed.

Where required, participation may be conditioned on completion of appropriate institutional documentation, confidentiality agreements, data-handling acknowledgments, intellectual-property terms, conflict disclosures, or other reasonable program requirements.

International students and other applicants are responsible for confirming with their institution or qualified adviser whether participation is consistent with applicable academic, immigration, authorization, funding, or institutional requirements. Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC does not provide immigration, visa, tax, legal, or employment-authorization advice.

CONFIDENTIALITY, ATTRIBUTION, AND RESPONSIBLE TOOL USE

Participants may encounter confidential, preliminary, proprietary, sensitive, or access-controlled information. Such information may be used only for authorized program purposes and handled according to applicable instructions.

Participants must:

• Protect confidential and restricted information
• Use only authorized systems and storage locations
• Avoid uploading confidential, personal, proprietary, or restricted materials to unapproved third-party platforms
• Preserve citations, source records, calculation notes, and version history
• Distinguish original work from quoted, adapted, collaborative, or tool-assisted material
• Disclose material use of generative artificial intelligence or other automated tools when requested
• Independently verify factual claims, quotations, calculations, eligibility conditions, and source interpretations
• Avoid fabricating sources, contacts, endorsements, commitments, opportunities, figures, or findings
• Obtain approval before externally sharing project materials or including them in a portfolio

Automated tools may support learning, brainstorming, organization, or drafting only when permitted. They may not replace the participant’s judgment, source verification, confidentiality obligations, or responsibility for submitted work.

PROFESSIONAL, ETHICAL, AND REGULATORY LIMITATIONS

This internship does not authorize the participant to provide or represent that they are providing legal, accounting, tax, investment, procurement, engineering, regulatory, or other licensed professional advice.

Preliminary budgets, use-of-funds tables, funding scenarios, opportunity assessments, partner analyses, and PPP research are educational planning materials. They are not audited financial statements, investment recommendations, legal opinions, procurement determinations, engineering certifications, or guarantees of eligibility, feasibility, funding, or performance.

Questions requiring specialized professional judgment must be identified and routed for qualified review.

The participant must not:

• Guarantee funding, approval, eligibility, returns, implementation, or partnership outcomes
• Misrepresent the project’s stage, resources, authority, evidence, affiliations, or commitments
• Imply governmental, institutional, community, university, funder, or partner endorsement without written confirmation
• Use confidential or restricted information for personal advantage
• Present exploratory discussions as agreements
• Contact or represent prospective funders, partners, officials, or stakeholders without authorization
• Make commitments on behalf of Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC or Project Guardian

REPORTING, COLLABORATION, AND AUTHORITY

The Funding and PPP Integration Lead reports primarily to the Program Director and coordinates operational matters through the Deputy Program and Operations Manager.

The Lead collaborates closely with the Chief Research and Editorial Director, Evidence and Quality Assurance Lead, Knowledge and Data-Room Manager, Monitoring, Risk and Continuity Lead, Communications and Design Integration Lead, and relevant analyst and specialty teams.

The Lead may:

• Conduct authorized internal research and analysis
• Coordinate approved internal assignments
• Develop preliminary planning materials
• Recommend opportunities, priorities, and next steps
• Provide supervised feedback to assigned contributors
• Escalate unresolved questions, risks, and professional-review needs

The Lead may not independently:

• Solicit, receive, accept, transfer, or manage funds
• Submit grant, investment, procurement, or partnership applications
• Contact prospective funders, partners, government officials, institutions, or community representatives
• Negotiate funding, partnership, procurement, or contractual terms
• Make legal, financial, employment, procurement, technical, or contractual commitments
• Represent the company or project externally
• Issue public statements
• Release project materials
• Sign documents or authorize other participants to do so
• Promise recognition, compensation, academic credit, employment, funding, partnership, or implementation

All external outreach, submissions, negotiations, representations, commitments, and releases require prior authorization from an authorized representative of Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC.

EQUAL CONSIDERATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS

Morsby, Gorman, McCarthy LLC intends to consider applicants based on role-related qualifications, demonstrated readiness, learning potential, and program needs. Reasonable accommodations may be requested for the application process or internship experience.

Applicants are encouraged to describe relevant academic, professional, volunteer, military, community, entrepreneurial, caregiving, independent, or lived experience when it demonstrates transferable skills applicable to the role.