Job Opportunity for Deputy Director, Fundraising at Vision Spring in Mumbai

Description

Location: Mumbai (preferred) or Delhi NCR (Noida), India

The pioneering social organisation, VisionSpring, seeks a versatile deputy director of resource mobilisation (fundraising) to accelerate the uptake of eyeglasses in low-income Indian communities as a powerful tool for social and economic development. Why eyeglasses? Eyeglasses are a low-cost, high-impact, scalable intervention that enable people to maintain their livelihoods, achieve in school, stay safe on the roads, and participate fully in society, yet tens of millions of low-income people in India do not have the eyeglasses they need to see well and do well.

The deputy director co-designs and leads the resource mobilisation strategy for VisionSpring India, expanding upon a growing cadre of Indian brands, corporate social responsibility partners, high-net-worth individuals, foundations, and government agencies. The person in this role leads all aspects of pipeline development and production of technically sound proposals, and engaging reporting on outcomes; pitches and closes new opportunities; and stewards existing donor/partner portfolios.

This position reports to the director of Vision Access Programs (based in Noida, India), and leads a team of four regional resource mobilisation professionals. The deputy director must be based in Mumbai (preferred) or Delhi NCR, must be able to travel within India for 40-60% of their time, and must be legally eligible to work in India.

ABOUT YOU

• Mission evangelist: Your unique contribution to an organisation is propelling its social impact by raising growth capital to fuel strategic expansion and achieve mission objectives.
• Goal oriented: Hitting targets fills you with a sense of drive and even inspires you to break out into song and dance. You build the processes that make objectives attainable.
• Relationship builder: You get others excited about what they are going to make possible.  You bring stakeholders together to invest in collective action and build lasting, trust-based relationships. 
• Skilled communicator: You find it easy to get thoughts on paper and persuasively present collaboration opportunities to potential funders. Colleagues consider you their editor-in-chief and turn to you for help in building cases for support. 
• Inclusive player-coach: You mentor and develop people. In a diverse organisation, you create opportunities for participation and increased responsibility. You model vulnerability, accountability, and roll-up your sleeves to deliver when needed.

ABOUT US

• VisionSpring is creating access to quality eyewear, everywhere. Clear vision creates opportunities for increased learning, work, safety, civic participation, and quality of life.
• As a social organisation, social change motivates us first. Our focus on social impact metrics serves and advances our mission objective—to increase functioning, productivity, and income earning potential for our low-income program participants by correcting refractive error and presbyopia with eyeglasses.
• We are working to transform the systemic dysfunction that has failed to deliver eyeglasses—a 700-year-old technology—to 1.1 billion people in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 a day.
• We serve low-income program participants who expect high-quality eye screenings and eyeglasses to deliver the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• We run our organisation on both metrics and social impact measures. We use a range of processes and practices to get the job done.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organisation. We are a lean team of doers.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Resource Mobilisation Strategy 

• Work with managers to develop a resource mobilisation strategy that fuels VisionSpring’s aspiration to serve 2.5M people by 2025, with the 2023 India fundraising goal of $2M increasing to $4M+ by 2025.
• Prepare India resource mobilisation goals and budget; support the development and implementation of India and global business plans aligned to organisational strategy. 
• Maintain VisionSpring India’s high level of grant support and continue to diversify and increase institutional philanthropy, CSR giving and contracts, and bilateral and multilateral agency support. 
• Evaluate resource mobilisation and stewardship activities for effectiveness and incorporate learnings into future initiatives and organisational capacity building.
• Work with the marketing and communications team to shape and elevate VisionSpring’s brand to attract and retain donors.
• Stay abreast of sector developments, demonstrating an in-depth understanding of issues pertaining to vision, livelihoods, education, and road safety, as well as deep knowledge of
• VisionSpring’s business models, evidence, and impact.

Fundraising

• Develop a dynamic portfolio of grants and contracts.
• Nurture a small network of individual and high-net-wealth donors.
• Position VisionSpring for strategic opportunities. Gain early intelligence on donor initiatives.
• Manage India’s resource mobilisation pipeline using a metrics-driven approach. Guide team to maintain and use accurate data and information in our CRM platform to plan and track progress against resource mobilisation goals.
• Facilitate highly collaborative proposal development processes that draw upon the technical and contextual knowledge of VisionSpring team members. 
• Support the India and global senior leadership in developing prospective donors to raise new revenue and participating in industry forums.

Donor Retention and Relationship Growth

• Effectively engage and connect VisionSpring India’s funders with the impact they make possible through succinct reports, use of multi-media, quarterly briefings, site visits, joint participation in conferences, and helping donors share their experiences with internal and external stakeholders.
• Cultivate and sustain strategic partnerships, including through long-term collaborations such as alliances or research consortia. Aid global joint-funding submissions and develop opportunities for co-investment among funders.
• Proactively work with implementation teams to provide donors with timely and accurate information about successes, challenges, and remediation.
• Serve as an ambassador who draws new people to the cause of solving uncorrected refractive error, not as a health intervention, but as a livelihood, education, and road safety intervention. 

Resource Mobilisation Team Management

• Manage the regional India resource mobilisation team and guide the work of program leads for proposal development. 
• Empower team members to contribute to the resource mobilisation strategy and sponsor their professional development.
• Promote a team culture of integrity, meaningful collaboration across cultures, risk-taking, and accountability where we challenge each other and learn from our mistakes.

COMPENSATION

Salary based on breadth and depth of relevant experience and education.
Competitive benefits, including health insurance and generous vacation time.

TO APPLY

We want to know more than just what you have done. We want to know who you are. What are the passions and talents that draw you to this role?

Please update your CV/résumé to include a phrase or sentence describing the business of each organisation where you have worked. Applications without this information are disadvantaged in the process.

Please submit a complete application, including a thoughtful cover letter and CV/résumé.

Please note, only candidates invited to interview will be contacted.

At VisionSpring, diversity, equity, and inclusion are directly aligned with our core value to advance equity. Our mission is predicated on removing a fundamental barrier to full economic and social participation—uncorrected blurry vision. The values that underpin our mission energize our commitment to a diverse and inclusive team. A diverse team also allows VisionSpring to approach problems with nuance and develop unique insights that drive an outsized positive impact in the world.

We actively recruit, develop, and retain talented people from diverse backgrounds and support everyone in being exactly who they are. VisionSpring is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes people from all experiences, abilities, and perspectives to apply.

Requirements

• 10 to 15 years of professional experience fundraising in the social sector and managing donor relations, and/or business development/sales in business-to-business environments selling complex service solutions and managing client relations.
• Demonstrated success in managing a national philanthropic/sales portfolio with revenue performance of $2M+.
• Finely tuned organisational and team/partner management skills. Solution oriented. Experience developing systems and processes to meet deadlines and managing multiple initiatives effectively. 
• Exceptional communication skills in English, including proposal writing, presentation, and negotiation skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, international development, economics, communications, marketing, sales, sociology, or another relevant field.
• Must meet the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity, with demonstrated discretion in handling confidential information.
• Willingness to travel 40-60% of time within India.
• Must be legally authorized to work in India for a minimum of five years.
• Preference will be given to candidates with any of the following areas of experience:Master’s degree/MBA in business, international development, economics, communications, marketing, sales, sociology, or another relevant field;
• Deep knowledge of VisionSpring’s  subject areas—vision, global health, livelihoods, road safety, and/or social entrepreneurship;
• Multi-stakeholder fundraising, i.e., developing a pooled fund, alliance, or other collaboration among philanthropic donors;
• Leadership role in a successful capital campaign; and/or
• Working in a high-growth or start-up environment.