Job Opportunity for Associate Director, Partnerships & Project Finance at Madhi Foundation in Chennai

About the role

The Associate Director, Partnerships & Project Finance will be expected to lead the Fundraising, Donor relations and External partnerships sub-verticals and co-manage a team of Associates and Managers. You will also partner closely with the Projects Vertical Heads to streamline the fund utilisation process pertaining to all the projects that Madhi undertakes.

The challenges you will help solve in this role:

• Over the past 5 years, we have grown from a team of 5 to a team of 25 currently and are likely to grow exponentially, expanding our work with the State’s initiatives and grow to a team of 150 soon. This will require us to build a robust pipeline of donors for raising funds for enabling this growth. As the Associate Director, you will need to lead from the front to identify new donor bases and create innovative and exciting communication and proposals, and help Madhi fundraise.
• You will be expected to help balance the requirements of donors, internal requirements and steering Project Finance to walk the tightrope.
• We are an outcome-driven organisation and we do not obsess over clocking in and clocking out. As the Associate Director, you will be responsible to identify ways in which we can hold your team accountable to a high bar of excellence with a singular focus on outcomes by setting up systems that let us keep our eye on the ball at all times.
• Fundraising, as anyone who has raised funds would have you know, is about leveraging close and extended networks. While Madhi has built a strong network of supporters over the years, you will also be expected to draw from your own network and help direct support towards Madhi.

The job description:

Below is an indicative set of responsibilities you will be required to lead as part of your role. We believe that a job description is best created collaboratively where the individual joining the team and the senior leadership team together define the role in greater detail so it reflects your aspirations and ambitions as much as it does the organisation’s needs. A detailed description will be jointly created once the selection process has been completed and you have accepted our offer of employment.

In this role some of your responsibilities will include:

• Creating a fundraising strategy for Madhi for the next few years
• Working actively with the CEO at meeting Madhi’s fundraising target for FY ‘22-23 and building a strong base for raising funds for the years ahead
• Creating a robust pipeline of potential donors for Madhi and evolving a communication strategy for them
• Supporting the creation of presentations and periodic reports to present to existing and potential donor groups
• Supporting the creation of compelling grant applications to secure institutional grants
• Building a base for foreign funding subject to receipt of FCRA certification and understanding the regulations and its compliances
• Overseeing the relationship management for each donor with periodic interactions, complying with statutory and financial reporting and requirements and ensuring accuracy and compliance
• Setting up a donor management operating policy and approach
• Building and maintaining a strong network of donors & partners (funding, other organizations with whom synergies may exist) and strategically managing each relationship
• Leading the external relations subvertical and setting meaningful goals to sustain and leverage Madhi’s existing relationship(s) with partners to achieve Madhi’s vision
• Connecting with organisations that believe in the power of collective action to transform educational outcomes for our children and steer the collective action towards change
• Representing Madhi and its core values in all interactions with stakeholders and partners
• Ensuring adherence to budgets allocated for Projects, and partnering with Associate Director, Projects to drive compliance

You will thrive in this role if you:

• Have raised funds or held leadership roles in sales and marketing
• Have worked in the development sector and understand what it takes for nonprofits to collaborate purposefully
• Have demonstrated the ability to build and maintain relationships with a wide array of people from diverse backgrounds (junior/senior, for-profit/non-profit etc.)
• Have a keen eye for detail and can produce or verify technical proposals and official documents (like MoUs) of exceptional quality even with a short turnaround time
• Possess strong and proven influencing and negotiating skills targeted at a diverse range of audience
• Have outstanding relationship management, communication and interpersonal skills
• Have an understanding of FCRA and international donor management
• Have proven planning skills and take pride in seeing projects through to completion

Prerequisites include:

• At least 10-15 years of relevant work experience in leadership roles with a minimum of 6 years in a managerial position
• Experience of having directly managed a team of at least 3-5 mid-level managers
• Experience of having worked with any grant making institutions or CSRs before (or) raised funds for a non profit (or) have experience in corporate / consulting in areas such as strategy, marketing, fundraising etc.
• Experience of having worked with any grant making institutions or CSRs before (or) raised funds for a non profit (or) have experience in corporate / consulting in areas such as strategy, marketing, fundraising etc.
• Experience in the education/development sector would be an added advantage
• A postgraduate degree in a relevant field of study from a reputed institution
• Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint and all Google Suite applications
• At least spoken knowledge of Tamil language

This role will report to: CEO
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Remuneration: Based on the top 20% social sector organisation standards
Please note: You will be expected to bring your own laptop, with updated software (MS Office 2016)
For more information, please write to: apply@madhifoundation.org