Director, Development

Working at Teach For India

Teach For India is on a journey to reach an India free of poverty and filled with love by ending educational inequity in our country. Fifteen years into our journey we are a movement of ~5000+ Alumni working at all levels of the education system, who are reaching 1 in 10 children across the country. These Alumni have graduated from our two-year Fellowship Program where they taught in under-resourced classrooms to put ~33,500 low-income children on a different life path. Today, we have ~1000 Fellows and are the largest pipeline of driven, skilled talent into the educational ecosystem in India. Over 16,000 Teach For India students have appeared for the 10th grade board examinations till date, with an impressive 95% pass rate across cities as of November 2024.

Phase 4

We pride ourselves as being a passionate, idealistic, mission-driven team of individuals. We’re committed to learning and excellence in our roles, and to being deeply rooted in our core values.

What Teach For India Can Offer You:

• The opportunity to be part of one of the most established and visionary movements in the education sector in India which is at a pivotal point in terms of expanding its scale and outreach across the nation and working with changemakers across the country.
• A challenging yet flexible workplace in which every individual employee’s Staff journey is tracked for excellence and leadership development.
• A work environment in which employees’ holistic well-being is a core priority, enabling people to be their best selves.
• Access to connections and resources from the global Teach For All network that includes partner organizations spanning 50+ countries across 6 continents.
• Remuneration that is competitive within the top quartile of the Indian NGO pay scales, and a benefits package that includes extensive medical insurance and maternity coverage for both parents.

Position Summary

Reporting to:

Directly Managing:

• Regional Development Leads for South, West, and North - The Regional Leads raise funds by building new champions and deeply engaging the current pool of donors. The Regional Leads work closely with the city teams and hold the fundraising goal for their regions - Soth (Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad), West (Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad) and North ( Delhi and Kolkata).
• Development Operations team -This team is responsible for the overall operations of the Development team to ensure the team is efficiently delivering its internal and external deliverables.

The Director, Development is responsible for ensuring that Teach For India will have the financial and non-financial resources needed to achieve our Phase 4 goals and accelerate progress towards our North Star.

The individual will do this through a fourfold charge:

1. Developing and executing a strong fundraising strategy

2. Building and sustaining deep relationships with high-potential donors and prospects (CSR, Foundations, and Individuals)

3. Managing a 15-member team, and leveraging TFI staff and stakeholders towards fundraising goals

4. Ensuring strong governance towards compliance & smooth operations

To do this, the Director will need to work with a broad spectrum of internal and external stakeholders. The Director will work closely with the CEO’s office, the fundraising board subcommittee, national board, City Directors, and other Vertical Heads to build engagement, urgency, and momentum over the fundraising progress. The Director will build partnerships with a range of key stakeholders across CSR teams, family foundations, ecosystem partners, High Net worth Individuals. The Director will represent Teach For India at external events to communicate our impact, enhance our brand, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our fundraising efforts. The Development team has a great culture of openness and collaboration. The Director will be responsible for building a world-class fundraising team and shaping the team culture to support this closely connected community of high performers. They will be responsible for building the capability and commitment of members of the Development team to contribute to our mission in the long term.

Responsibilities:

The Director, Development will:

1. Develop and execute a strong fundraising strategy

Create and execute the vision, annual strategic and operating plans to ensure the team meets their goals, and significantly grows funding while building long-term sustainability. Specifically:

• Build and execute a strategy that is suited to Teach For India’s funder base and its model, enabling it to significantly scale up its funding. The goal for fiscal year 2024-25 is to raise INR 103 crores. Our budget will grow at ~ 10% year on year. As we step into the third year of our phase of growth, our funding needs to multiply to support the expanding programs.
• Develop and implement strategies and tactical plans to achieve goals for different donor segments. Teach For India has built long-term corporate partnerships and is engaging with key funders across other workstreams such as HNIs and Foundations. The plan should leverage these existing opportunities while being nimble to explore the newer opportunities presented through retail fundraising, Social Stock Exchange and so on.
• Regularly assess team-wide progress to goals. Teach For India relies on Salesforce as its donor reporting tool. Use the reports to identify what is driving and impeding progress, develop solutions to address gaps, and adjust course as necessary.
• Engage the fundraising subcommittee by sharing strategic updates on fundraising, progress to goal and plan to bridge the gap. Work with the Senior Director to build individual relationships with the board and support fundraising goal achievement.

2. Build and sustain deep donor relationships

• Cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of donors through engaging in meetings, discussions, and correspondence to acquire, immerse, and retain donors. Funding sources include corporate CSR (majority by value), foundations, High-Net-Worth Individuals, retail donations, etc.
• Liaise with internal & external partners towards fundraising by building and managing strategic partnerships with the Board, local and international development sector partners, Teach For All global teams.
• Develop value propositions, build compelling narratives, contextualize our M&E framework for projects, and engage in strategic impact communication for senior stakeholders.
• Curate fundraising events and leverage existing Teach For India spaces to engage with donors; enhance Teach For India’s brand in fundraisers and conferences.

3. Lead and coach the Development Team to

• Effectively manage their donor portfolio, building strong relationships, increasing renewal and upgrade rates, and expanding the donor base.
• Support the leadership team (including CEO, Senior Directors and City Directors) to cultivate, solicit, and steward donors and prospects through preparatory research and support in meetings.
• Conduct excellent donor interactions and communications (i.e., events, meetings, newsletters, grant applications).
• Develop and maintain strong operations (i.e.donor tracking systems, data management, meeting prep and download systems, gift processing).
• Collaborate with Teach For India Staff and key stakeholders to strategically align efforts and resources in support of achieving fundraising objectives.

4. Ensure strong governance towards compliance & smooth operations

Act both as an advisor and an auditor to ensure quality control and push the bar of excellence in all development-related systems and processes.

• Establish and maintain effective internal controls to ensure adherence to regulatory and organizational policies.
• Regularly review and update policies and procedures to comply with legal, financial, and ethical standards.
• Coordinate with legal, finance, technology, recruitment, Strategy and Impact and operations teams to address compliance issues proactively.
• Oversee audits and ensure timely submission of required reports to regulatory bodies.
• Foster a culture of transparency and accountability within the organization to support smooth and compliant operations.
• Implement risk management strategies to identify and mitigate potential compliance and operational risks.
• Be updated and bring in perspectives/best practices from external agencies and organisations for the Development team’s ways of working.

As a People Manager:

• Build a robust

  pipeline of talent

  to lead the organization.

• Manage and coach

  the team to ambitious outcomes.
• Drive

  engagement, growth, and retention

  of team members.
• Engineer and oversee a

  monitoring and evaluation system

  , coupled with strategic direction, to guide our abilities to continuously improve.

As a member of the Leadership team:

• Provide feedback on and play a part in

  organizational decision-making

  and long-term strategy

  .
• Drive internal

  alignment and support

  for Teach For India’s core Programs.
• Serve as an

  ambassador of the Teach For India brand

  and an advocate for our work and for educational equity in our country through both internal and external communication.
• Support with key organizational areas such as

  Fundraising

  ,

  Movement Building

  ,

  Alumni Engagement.

Minimum Qualifications, Experiences and Expectations: Please refer the JD on the careers page linked here.