Director, Development

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.

In 2022, we embarked on Phase 4, our fourth strategic phase. We have a bold and ambitious ten-year journey ahead of us that aims to grow 50,000 leaders, who will work collectively, and with love, to transform the lives of 1 in 10 low-income children in our regions, through an education that unleashes the potential of self, others and India. In this decade, five key priorities will lead us to this vision.

Our work will only be completed when we have built a movement of leaders that is large enough to ensure that every child in India attains an excellent education.

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.

Reporting to: Senior Director, Impact and Operations

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.

Development is one of the critical backbones of Teach For India as the organisation is completely dependent on donations in its current form. Phase 4 is a critical inflection point as the organisation is now raising 100+ Cr budget, annually. The development team’s vision is to build sustainable funding by building a world-class fundraising team, communicating for impact, cultivating long-term, deep relationships (that have the potential to also raise non-financial resources over time), strengthening the systems and processes and enhancing our brand for larger impact.

The team raises funds from various sources. Our largest funding comes from Corporate CSR and it will continue to be our mainstay for the immediate and medium-term. We have begun to cultivate high-networth individuals and engage with Foundations as our medium-term priority. We seek to build more sustainability by diversifying our funding. The team has more than 20 members based across the cities which Teach For India operates in. Most of the team members come in from a corporate or a social sector background - a few have done the Teach For India Fellowship. The team engages with a diverse set of stakeholders, both internal (the national verticals, Fellows and other program staff) and external (our funders, regional and national boards, Teach For All, other ecosystem partners).

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.

• 6-10 years of professional experience. Prior experience in having led a fundraising function, for a large not for profit, will be valuable.
• Experience of having built and managed high functioning team(s) to outcomes through multiple layers.
• Experience in driving operations in high pressure, goal driven environments.
• Strategic and critical thinking skills so as to conceptualise multiple approaches to solving a problem and draw out a clear roadmap with roles and responsibilities.
• Relationship-building and networking skills so as to connect individuals, groups, and partners with shared goals.

Note: We want to hear your unique voice and perspectives through the process, hence all applicants are expected to personally author statements of purpose/essays in the application form. Sole use of AI or Chat-GPT based tools may lead to disqualification from the process.