About Bright Future
Bright Future is a nonprofit organisation that empowers adolescents and young people from underserved communities and schools to become changemakers by developing the future skills they need to thrive. For over 15 years, we have been building employability and entrepreneurial pathways across multiple states, enabling young people to make informed career decisions and transform their aspirations into sustainable livelihoods. Through career guidance, life skills development, future-ready skills training, mentoring, internships, and placement opportunities, we equip youth with the confidence, capabilities, and opportunities to access meaningful employment and create lasting
social and economic mobility.
Overview
We are looking for a Senior Manager – Partnerships & Fundraising to play a critical leadership role in scaling Bright Future's Sustainability function. Reporting to the Head – Sustainability, this is a high-ownership role responsible for driving donor acquisition, growing strategic partnerships, and managing a defined portfolio of CSR partners, foundations, HNIs, and institutional donors. The Senior Manager will lead pitches and negotiations with senior corporate and philanthropic stakeholders, drive annual fundraising and retention targets, and take ownership of key fundraising systems and processes. As the function grows, the role will also strengthen team capability, improve fundraising operations, and serve as a trusted leadership partner in building a high-performing sustainability function.
Key Deliverables
1. Manage and Grow Donor Relationships
- Own and strengthen relationships with a portfolio of existing CSR partners, foundations, HNIs,and institutional donors through regular engagement, reporting, and centre and field visits.
- Drive year-on-year renewal of donor commitments while developing a clear strategy to increase funding levels and secure long-term, multi-year partnerships.
- Convert single-project supporters into long-term, multi-centre or multi-year partners.
2. Build and Manage a Donor Pipeline for New Partnerships
- Develop and manage a strategic donor pipeline by identifying and engaging CSR partners aligned with youth employability, skilling, education-to-employment, women’s empowerment,and economic & social mobility.
- Build and cultivate relationships with family foundations, philanthropists, and High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNIs) to expand long-term funding opportunities for youth livelihoods and education to livelihoods initiatives.
- Build and maintain a live, qualified pipeline with clear stages, owners and probability-weighted values.
3. Lead Fundraising Pitches and Closures
- Develop compelling funding proposals that position life skills development, career guidance, mentoring, internships and placement within corporate priorities such as skilling, education,employability and diversity.
- Lead donor meetings, presentations and negotiations with CSR heads, foundation trustees and philanthropists, often in collaboration with the CEO or Department Head.
- Structure partnerships that go beyond grants – employee engagement, mentoring, internships and hiring pipelines from our youth pool.
4. Deliver Against Fundraising and Retention Targets
- Achieve annual targets that combine donor retention and new partnerships, to be finalised based on the size of the existing donor portfolio and prior-year benchmarks.
- Acquire new CSR / family foundation / HNI partnerships as well as institutional or international grants, alongside renewal of existing commitments.
- Track, forecast and report performance against targets, and course-correct through the year.
5. Strengthen the Sustainability Function
- Serve as the second-in-command to the Head – Sustainability, driving execution across fundraising priorities and supporting the growth of the function.
- Lead and mentor executives and managers within the Sustainability team by establishing clear performance rhythms, proposal quality standards, and CRM discipline.
- Translate the annual fundraising strategy into actionable plans, ensuring strong pipeline management, cross-functional coordination, and delivery against priorities.
- Build scalable fundraising systems, dashboards, and operating processes that improve visibility, accountability, and decision-making across the function.
- Represent Bright Future at CSR forums, donor convenings, industry platforms, and networking events to strengthen the organisation's visibility and partnerships.
6. Execute with Operational Excellence
- Collaborate closely with programme, monitoring and evaluation, and finance teams to co-create proposals and reports that demonstrate impact and align with donor priorities.
- Manage proposal timelines, documentation, due diligence and compliance requirements,including CSR-1, FCRA, 12A/80G and utilisation certificates.
- Maintain accurate donor records, dashboards and stewardship calendars.
Desired Experience
- 10 to 12 years’ experience in fundraising or corporate partnerships, with a significant part of it in the development sector.
- Strong experience managing and growing donor relationships across CSR, foundations, HNIs or institutional donors, with clear ownership of reporting, renewals and retention.
- A demonstrated record of closing partnerships independently and meeting or exceeding revenue targets.
- Donor acquisition or new business development experience in the development sector, consulting, or corporate environments will have added value.
- Experience leading or mentoring a small team, or a clear readiness to step into it.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to craft persuasive proposals and present confidently to senior corporate and philanthropic audiences.
- Comfort with donor CRM systems, dashboards and the Microsoft Office Suite.
- Willingness to travel to programme centres, donor offices and field locations.
- A Master’s degree in non-profit management, business administration, marketing or related fields.
Salary, Location & Reporting
Salary: Commensurate to experience
Location: Mumbai
Reports to: Head, Sustainability
Interested candidates can apply through the link below:
Bright Future is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.
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