Deputy Director, Fundraising

JOB DESCRIPTION

ABOUT YOU

• Mission evangelist: Your unique contribution to an organisation is propelling its social impact by raising growth capital to fuel strategic expansion and achieve mission objectives.
• Goal oriented: Hitting targets fills you with a sense of drive and even inspires you to break out into song and dance. You build the processes that make objectives attainable.
• Inclusive player-coach: You mentor and develop people to build high-performing teams. In a diverse organisation, you create opportunities for participation and increased responsibility. You model vulnerability, accountability, and roll-up your sleeves to deliver when needed.
• Skilled writer and communicator: You find it easy to get thoughts on paper, and persuasively present collaboration opportunities to potential funders in person too. Colleagues consider you their editor-in-chief and turn to you for help in building cases for support. 
• Relationship builder: You get others excited about what they are going to make possible.  You bring stakeholders together to invest in collective action and build lasting, trust-based relationships. 

ABOUT US

• VisionSpring increases lifelong earning, learning, safety, and well-being through eyeglasses for people vulnerable to poverty. We believe in the wonder of clear vision for everybody. 
• We provide radically affordable optical products and services, working to transform the systemic dysfunction that has failed to deliver eyeglasses—a 700-year-old technology—to 1 billion people in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 a day.
• We serve low-income program participants who expect high-quality eyeglasses and eyecare services for the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• We catalyze collaborative action in an expansive, multisector partner network and use our evidence and experience to influence systems change and close the global clear vision gap.
• As a social organisation, we are purpose first. We run our organisation on both metrics and social impact measures, and use a range of processes and practices to bring vision correction to ever more people.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organisation. We are a lean team of doers.
• Our big goal: Everyone who needs eyeglasses will have them by 2050.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Resource Mobilisation Strategy 

• Work with regional managers to develop a resource mobilisation strategy that fuels VisionSpring’s aspiration to serve 2.2M people by 2025, with a 2025 India fundraising goal of $2.5M.
• Prepare India resource mobilisation goals and budget; support the development and implementation of India business plan aligned to organisational strategy. 
• Maintain VisionSpring India’s high level of grant support and continue to diversify and increase institutional philanthropy, CSR giving and contracts, bilateral and multilateral agency support, and contributions by high-net-wealth individuals. 
• Evaluate resource mobilisation and stewardship activities for effectiveness and incorporate learnings into future initiatives and organisational capacity building.
• Work with the marketing and communications team to shape and elevate VisionSpring’s brand and digital assets to attract and retain donors.
• Stay abreast of sector developments, demonstrating an in-depth understanding of issues pertaining to vision, livelihoods, education, and road safety, as well as deep knowledge of VisionSpring’s business models, evidence, and impact.

Resource Mobilisation Team Management

• Manage the six-person regional India resource mobilisation team, coaching team members to develop and cultivate new donor leads.
• Review donor proposals, provide clear feedback to improve proposals, and actively track team members’ progress on leads and prospects.
• Facilitate talent development by identifying and supporting growth opportunities and championing professional development for team members.
• Promote a team culture that embodies VisionSpring’s core values: help others to do well; advance equity; constantly adapt, relentlessly improve; default to transparency, reveal hard truths; learn together.

Fundraising

• Develop and manage a small, targeted portfolio of key accounts, including grants/contracts and high-net-wealth donors.
• Represent VisionSpring and build partnerships in industry forums and at CSR events.
• Position VisionSpring for strategic opportunities. Gain early intelligence on donor initiatives.
• Manage India’s resource mobilisation pipeline using a metrics-driven approach. Guide team to maintain and use accurate data and information in our CRM platform to plan and track progress against resource mobilisation goals.
• Liaise with resource mobilisation leadership to communicate fundraising progress and priorities.
• Facilitate highly collaborative proposal development processes that draw upon the technical and contextual knowledge of VisionSpring team members. 
• Support the India and global senior leadership in developing prospective donors to raise new revenue.

Donor Retention and Relationship Growth

• Develop effective communications plan to engage and connect VisionSpring India’s funders with the impact they make possible in partnership with the resource mobilisation and marketing and communications teams.
• Collaborate closely with the programs team to produce high-quality donor reports, multi-media presentations, quarterly briefings, site visits, and collateral to help donors share their experiences with internal and external stakeholders.
• Review and approve memorandums of understanding.
• Cultivate and sustain strategic partnerships with global funders that support VisionSpring India. Aid global team members in submitting international joint-funding proposals and developing opportunities for co-investment among funders.
• Proactively work with implementation teams to provide donors with timely and accurate information about successes, challenges, and remediation.
• Serve as an ambassador who draws new people to the cause of solving uncorrected refractive error, not as a health intervention, but as a livelihood, education, and road safety intervention. 

COMPENSATION

• Salary based on breadth and depth of relevant experience and education.
• Competitive benefits, including health insurance and generous vacation time.

TO APPLY

• We want to know more than just what you have done. We want to know who you are. What are the passions and talents that draw you to this role?
• Please update your CV/résumé to include a phrase or sentence describing the business of each organisation where you have worked. Applications without this information are disadvantaged in the process.
• Please submit a complete application, including a thoughtful cover letter and CV/résumé.
• Please note, only candidates invited to interview will be contacted.
• At VisionSpring, diversity, equity, and inclusion are directly aligned with our core value to advance equity. Our mission is predicated on removing a fundamental barrier to full economic and social participation—uncorrected blurry vision. The values that underpin our mission energize our commitment to a diverse and inclusive team. A diverse team also allows VisionSpring to approach problems with nuance and develop unique insights that drive an outsized positive impact in the world. We actively recruit, develop, and retain talented people from diverse backgrounds and support everyone in being exactly who they are. VisionSpring is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes people from all experiences, abilities, and perspectives to apply.

Requirements

• At least 12 years of professional experience fundraising in the social sector and managing donor relations.
• Demonstrated success in managing a national philanthropic portfolio with revenue performance of $2M+.
• Leadership experience managing and coaching a resource mobilisation team of four or more people.
• Finely tuned organisational and team/partner management skills. Solution oriented. Experience developing systems and processes to meet deadlines and managing multiple initiatives effectively. 
• Exceptional communication skills in English, including proposal writing, presentation, and negotiation skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, international development, economics, communications, marketing, sales, sociology, or another relevant field.
• Must meet the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity, with demonstrated discretion in handling confidential information.
• Willingness to travel 40-60% of time within India.
• Must be legally authorized to work in India for a minimum of five years.
• Preference will be given to candidates with any of the following areas of experience:
  • Master’s degree/MBA in business, international development, economics, communications, marketing, sales, sociology, or another relevant field;
  • Deep knowledge of VisionSpring’s subject areas—vision, global health, livelihoods, road safety, and/or social entrepreneurship;
  • Success securing funds from high-net-wealth individual donors; 
  • Leadership role in a successful capital campaign; and/or
  • Working in a high-growth or start-up environment.