Senior Associate - Fundraising, Donor Acquisition & Partnerships

Role: Lead – Fundraising, Donor Acquisition & Partnerships

(Founding Role | High Ownership | Growth Track to Manager)

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra (Hybrid / Remote with travel as required)

Experience: 3–4 years

Reporting to: Executive Director

Role Overview

Ketto Foundation is building a new generation of tech-enabled philanthropy — and we are looking for a founding fundraising leader to build our partnerships engine from the ground up.

This is not a maintenance role. This is a builder role .

As Lead – Fundraising, Donor Acquisition & Partnerships, you will work directly with senior leadership to design, launch, and scale Ketto Foundation’s fundraising and donor ecosystem. You will operate in startup mode — combining strategy with deep execution — while laying the foundation for a high-performing fundraising function.

You will play a central role in positioning Ketto Foundation as the collective voice of credible NGOs , translating grassroots impact into structured, fundable solutions for CSR partners, family foundations, and institutional donors.

Who You Are

You love communicating, connecting, and converting real-world problems into funding opportunities.

You thrive in ambiguity. In fact, you enjoy building fundraising programmes from scratch — creating systems where none exist and shaping structure in unorganised environments.

You believe platforms like Ketto Foundation can bring credibility, scale, and impact-led storytelling to India’s CSR ecosystem. You are excited to work in a fragmented fundraising landscape and help professionalise it — while remaining deeply hands-on.

You operate comfortably in startup mode :

• Proactively pitching and networking with corporates
• Cold outreach and relationship building
• Negotiating with vendors, NGOs, and CSR partners
• Balancing impact goals with cost realities
• Making things move even when the playbook is still being written

You already bring a working network of 15–20 CSR leads (₹30L–₹1Cr segment), including managers and decision-makers in small to mid-sized CSR portfolios — enabling faster market entry and early wins. Most importantly, you are here to build and stay — growing over the next 3–4 years as a founding fundraising lead and scaling into Assistant Manager and Managerial roles.

Key Responsibilities

1. Fundraising Strategy & Pipeline Planning

• Co-create annual fundraising strategies aligned with Ketto Foundation’s growth plans
• Build time-bound fundraising roadmaps with targets, pipelines, and milestones
• Forecast funding needs and proactively identify gap-bridging strategies
• Develop grant estimates and align funding opportunities with programme priorities

2. Donor Acquisition & Partner Engagement

• Identify, source, and convert high-value CSR, foundation, and institutional partners
• Build and manage a robust outbound and inbound fundraising pipeline
• Research potential partners and align their priorities with Ketto Foundation’s programmes
• Nurture long-term donor relationships rooted in transparency, trust, and impact
• Lead donor meetings, site visits, partner check-ins, and annual reviews

3. Grant Writing & Proposal Development

• Produce 10+ high-quality proposals, concept notes, decks, and pitches per quarter
• Co-create grant applications and budgets with programme and finance teams
• Translate programme data into compelling funding narratives
• Support renewals and scale-up of existing donor partnerships

4. Donor Stewardship, Reporting & Compliance

• Ensure timely, accurate donor reporting and utilisation documentation
• Coordinate with programme teams to track deliverables and milestones
• Proactively communicate progress, risks, and course corrections to donors
• Support audits, utilisation certificates, and statutory compliance

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with communications, programmes, finance, and quality teams
• Ensure seamless coordination for donor visits, reviews, and events
• Leverage impact data to strengthen donor storytelling and engagement

6. Team Leadership & System Building

• Mentor junior team members as the function scales
• Build fundraising systems, trackers, templates, and SOPs
• Help professionalise fundraising in an otherwise unstructured NGO ecosystem

7. Market Intelligence & External Representation

• Track CSR trends, compliance changes, and donor priorities
• Leverage networks to expand Ketto Foundation’s visibility
• Represent Ketto Foundation with corporates, foundations, NGOs, and ecosystem partners

Experience & Skills

Must Have

• 3–4 years of experience in fundraising, partnerships, donor engagement, or grant management
• Strong grant writing and proposal development skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Working knowledge of budgets, cash flows, and financial reporting
• Strong stakeholder management and negotiation skills
• Bachelor’s degree in any discipline

Good to Have

• Experience in healthcare, education, or multi-sector CSR programmes
• Exposure to vendor and NGO management
• Familiarity with CSR compliance and NGO operations
• Master’s degree in Sales, MBA, Development Studies, or related fields

What You’ll Gain

• Opportunity to build a fundraising function from the ground up
• Exposure to large-scale CSR programmes across healthcare, education, environment, and relief
• Hands-on leadership experience in donor strategy and partnerships
• Clear growth path to Assistant Manager and Manager – Partnerships within 2–3 years
• A mission-driven, fast-growing environment investing in your long-term growth
• Opportunity to help scale programmes reaching 1 million families by 2035