Job Opportunity for Project Associate (Partnerships and New Initiatives) at Central Square Foundation in New Delhi

About CSF

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working with the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. CSF has a mission focused on ensuring high-quality foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) for all children in India. To achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring innovative solutions in education and build the capacity of the government to drive systemic impact. To know more about us and our work, visit www.centralsquarefoundation.org.

About the PNI team

To drive FLN outcomes across the country, CSF establishes strong partnerships with key players within the development sector. These include non-profits, social enterprises, donors, consultants, other enablers etc. The Partnerships & New Initiatives team envisions, designs, builds and nurtures a variety of projects in collaboration with a host of different stakeholders. The team also acts as an in-house incubator for new initiatives and issue areas, and also works closely with the Managing Directors on projects of key strategic significance at an organizational level (including fundraising and donor relationships).

Position Summary

The Project Associate (PNI) will work closely with the Project Lead (PNI) to function as the MDs’ office to ensure that CSF works towards its mission in the most effective way possible, and has the right capabilities, resources and networks to achieve it. Major work-streams include establishing and cultivating deep strategic relationships for CSF, working on CSF’s strategy, performance and effectiveness and taking on special projects as they arise from time to time. This role provides an excellent orientation of how strategic foundations operate to solve complex issues.

Key responsibilities

Strategy and learning

• Supporting the MDs with developing the strategic plan/framework for the organization, and the associated operating plan. This includes refining the organization’s targets, teams resourcing and budget on a continuous basis
• Managing key organizational processes for executing CSF’s strategy (this includes strategic reviews on a monthly and quarterly basis, board meetings, Investment committees, etc.)

Fundraising and donor management

• Support with fundraising for CSF across projects; landscaping of potential funders, lead customized collateral creation and facilitate follow-ups as needed
• Work closely with all relevant teams to ensure consistent engagement and high-quality reporting with current and potential donors

Special projects

• Supporting cross-collaborative projects and integration between horizontals (such as Finance, HR) and verticals (project-specific teams) to enable team success
• Assisting the leadership team with building and deepening strategic partnerships with other foundations/ partners, supporters and friends of CSF

What would make you a good fit for the role:

• Bachelor’s or equivalent degree from a top-tier institution. While there is no preference for a particular major, we expect to see a high degree of intellectual curiosity and sophistication
• Extremely high analytical, synthesis and problem-solving abilities. The role requires synthesizing complex information from multiple sources and developing an informed perspective
• Good research, writing skills and communication skills. Ability to create high quality outputs in a short period of time
• High level of flexibility and responsiveness with the ability to shift priorities quickly and as organizational demands require
• Entrepreneurial, results oriented leadership with mission alignment- high intrinsic motivation to contribute to solving India’s learning crisis

Compensation

• Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate’s experience levels.