Job Description
Job title: Head-Partnerships & Fundraising
Unit: Fundraising Department
Reports to: Executive Director
Location: Bangalore (with national travel)
CTC Per annum: (9 lakh to 12 lakh)
Email CV to -careers@vaani.in
About VAANI DCF
VAANI Deaf Children’s Foundation works to empower children with hearing impairment through a lifecycle approach focused on Health, Education, and Skill Development. The organisation works across multiple states in India to ensure early identification, educational inclusion, and livelihood opportunities for deaf children and youth.
Purpose of role
The Head – Partnerships & Fundraising will lead VAANI’s resource mobilisation strategy, focusing on CSR partnerships, foundations, and High Net-Worth Individual (HNI) donors. The role will be responsible for building a strong funding pipeline, developing strategic partnerships, and strengthening donor stewardship.
This role will play a critical part in helping VAANI scale its impact and achieve its long-term goal of becoming a ?20 crore organisation by 2030
The role will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with corporate partners, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) to support VAANI’s programs. The role involves donor acquisition, relationship management, proposal development, and fundraising strategy execution.
The position will play a critical role in strengthening VAANI’s fundraising efforts and helping the organisation scale its impact nationally.
The role will lead the strategy, cultivation, and stewardship of high-value philanthropic relationships to grow the organisation’s major gifts portfolio. The role is responsible for identifying, engaging, and securing significant contributions from High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs), Ultra-HNWIs, philanthropists, family offices, and private foundations, contributing substantially to the organisation’s annual fundraising goal.
Main duties:
New CSR Partnerships Development:
• Identify and develop partnerships with new corporate CSR teams and corporate foundations.
• Research potential CSR opportunities aligned with VAANI’s program areas.
• Prepare and submit CSR proposals, concept notes, and presentations.
• Build long-term relationships with corporate partners and manage partnerships effectively.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive fundraising strategy aligned with the organisation’s growth plans and annual revenue targets.
• Contribute to the overall fundraising strategy in collaboration with the Head of Fundraising and senior leadership.
• Identify opportunities for large philanthropic gifts, strategic partnerships, and high-value donor engagement.
• Design and implement long-term donor engagement strategies to increase donor commitment, retention, and lifetime value.
• Develop annual fundraising plans with defined income targets, donor acquisition strategies, and engagement plans.
Donor Portfolio Management:
• Build multi-year giving relationships and encourage repeat and upgraded contributions.
• Develop and maintain individual donor engagement plans based on donor interests, giving potential, and philanthropic priorities.
• Conduct regular face-to-face meetings, virtual meetings, and networking engagements with donors and prospects.
• Move potential donors through the donor cycle—from identification and cultivation to solicitation and closure.
Donor Identification and Prospect Research:
• Conduct systematic prospect identification and research to identify individuals with high philanthropic capacity.
• Analyse potential donors based on wealth indicators, philanthropic interests, professional networks, and giving history.
• Build and maintain a strong pipeline of qualified major donor prospects.
• Use networks, referrals, industry events, and professional platforms to expand the donor base.
Identify opportunities for engaging philanthropists, entrepreneurs, family offices, private foundations, and high-net-worth individuals.
Donor Cultivation & Relationship Management:
• Design personalised cultivation and engagement strategies for each major donor.
• Build strong relationships through regular meetings, impact storytelling, programme engagement opportunities, and site visits.
• Maintain excellent donor relations through personal communication, direct outreach, digital platforms, and stewardship activities.
• Ensure long-term donor retention and upgrading of gift levels.
• Adhere to the highest ethical standards while demonstrating professionalism, empathy, and sensitivity to donor interests.
Proposal Development & Strategic Communication:
• Lead the development of high-quality proposals, concept notes, presentations, and funding requests tailored to donor interests.
• Work closely with programme teams to translate organisational priorities into clear and compelling funding opportunities.
• Develop customised donor communication materials, including.
1. Impact reports
2. Donor briefings
3. Project updates
4. Campaign materials
5. Mailers and engagement content
• Ensure donors receive timely updates and impact reports on their contributions.
Donor Engagement:
• Develop innovative strategies to engage and cultivate major donors.
• Maintain accurate donor profiles, including areas of interest, expertise, philanthropic priorities, and potential contributions.
• Build and manage internal and external networks to support the identification and cultivation of high-value donors.
• Identify opportunities to engage donors through programme visits, leadership interactions, and strategic discussions.
Organising Fundraising Events:
• Create and maintain a segmented pool of supporters that can serve as a strategic resource for different units within the organisation.
• Ensure donor segmentation allows identification of supporters based on programme relevance, risk considerations, and engagement opportunities.
Identify opportunities where donor expertise, networks, or influence may support other organisational initiatives.
Creating a resource for the organisation:
• Create a segmented pool of supporters that serves as a resource point, which any unit in VAANI DCF can reach out to, to ensure the segmentation is done in a manner that helps identify the supporter to approach based on the nature of the request from different units and the level of risk involved for the organisation.
• Share the information collected with all units of VAANI DCF India
• Discuss the requirements of different units
• Move potential donors in an appropriate and timely fashion toward solicitation and closure.
• Identify opportunities where supporters' resources may be useful for other Units in the organisation
Internal Coordination and Collaboration:
• Coordinate with fundraising units, programme teams, campaigns, and other internal stakeholders to identify high-value fundraising opportunities.
• Facilitate collaboration between donors and relevant organisational teams when appropriate.
• Share relevant donor insights internally to strengthen fundraising and engagement strategies.
Capacity building of other supporting strand members for enriching the major donor pool:
• The MJD fundraiser would be responsible for enlightening other strand members about the supporter features which can enrich this pool.
• Conducting one-to-one discussions with other team members on different aspects of supporter communication
• Organising small team talks with other FR teams across cities
Creating a data pool:
• Creating a data pool of Foundations & Trust, Legacy giving, Memorial giving, and Tribute giving would be an important part of the day-to-day planning process.
Project Participation :
• Being a part of the project core team for a minimum of 2 years, and developing grant proposals for the program
• -Analysing the campaign information like reports, periodicals and developing content for Major donor communication
• Assisting the Major Donor Manager in setting the Key Influencer Program (Celebrity Engagement)
Decisions:
• Identify which campaign information should be shared with the supporters and in what format. For sensitive issues, approval from the line manager is required for sharing information that may not be in the public domain.
• Which supporter to be approached to address the needs/requests of other Units in the organisation?
• The communication channel/process to be followed where Major Donor Supporters are connected with other people in the organisation
• Publications and reports that need to be shared with the supporters
Knowledge and experience:
• Minimum 6–9 years of experience in fundraising, key account management, partnerships, or donor relations and CSR
• A graduate/Postgraduate qualification in management, development studies, the social sciences, or a related field is desirable.
• Strong computer literacy and experience in data management and analysis.
• Experience in team collaboration and stakeholder engagement.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Organisation Skills
Planning and organising:
• Work with the line manager to prepare the unit's income/expense plans
• Breaking down annual targets into monthly and weekly plans
• Record and organise the information provided by Campaigners in a proper format
• Segmenting supporters.Preparing a meeting plan, organising travel plans, and finalising meetings accordingly.
Analysis:
• Analyse data regularly to track conversion percentages, increases in average donation values, contact percentages, etc.
Innovation:
• The role needs to be constantly on the lookout for new fundraising methods.
• Identify new areas of lead generation.
Working with others:
• The role requires dynamism and good communication skills. It would also require considerable tact and diplomacy, as it involves many interpersonal interactions with people of varying personalities.
Environmental demands :
• As the role requires one-to-one meetings with supporters pan-India, meetings should be planned keeping in mind the safety of the staff.
Other essential requirements:
• Willingness to travel more frequently, depending on donor meetings and engagement opportunities.
• Occasional weekend work for donor meetings or fundraising events.
• Experience working with CSR teams, foundations, or philanthropic donors.
• Familiarity with the development sector and disability inclusion will be an advantage.