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: 34 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 Foundations 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 Indias 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 1520 CSR leads (30L1Cr 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 34 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 Foundations 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 Foundations 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 Foundations visibility
• Represent Ketto Foundation with corporates, foundations, NGOs, and ecosystem partners

Experience & Skills

Must Have

• 34 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
• Bachelors 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
• Masters degree in Sales, MBA, Development Studies, or related fields

What Youll 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 23 years
• A mission-driven, fast-growing environment investing in your long-term growth
• Opportunity to help scale programmes reaching 1 million families by 2035