About Central Square Foundation

About the job Senior Project Manager/Project Lead - Fundraising

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is an education-focused nonprofit working to ensure quality education for every child in India through system-led reform. CSF partners with the government to design, implement and scale evidence-based initiatives across its five priorities: Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, ensuring every child attains foundational literacy and numeracy skills; Early Childhood Education, building strong early learning foundations that prepare every child to succeed from their very first day of school; School Governance, strengthening school accountability and parent engagement for improving school quality; EdTech & AI, leveraging technology to improve teaching and learning at scale; and High Potential Students, creating pathways for high potential students from underserved backgrounds to realize their potential and become leaders of tomorrow. CSF works across 13 states and one Union Territory.

About Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives

The Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives (PSI) team works across CSF to build and nurture strategic partnerships and initiatives that advance the organisation's mission. The Fundraising team, a core part of PSI, is responsible for mobilising the resources and building the partnerships that enable CSF to pursue its priorities. This includes developing a strong and diversified fundraising pipeline, building and deepening donor relationships, translating CSF's work into compelling funding propositions, supporting effective donor stewardship, and strengthening the systems and processes that enable high-quality and agile resource mobilisation. The team works closely with colleagues across CSF, including programme teams, leadership, Finance, Communications and RMEAL, as well as a wide range of donors, government stakeholders, philanthropic organisations and partners across the education and impact ecosystem.

Position Overview

We are looking for someone who is excited by the opportunity to help build and grow CSF's fundraising efforts, bringing strong relationship-building, strategic thinking and execution capabilities to the Fundraising team within PSI across both donor cultivation and relationship management.

The Project Lead, Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives (Fundraising) will play a key role in advancing CSF's fundraising efforts and building the institutional resources needed to support its mission.

This is a broad, hands-on role spanning the full fundraising lifecycle, from prospect research and pipeline development through outreach, donor cultivation, proposal development, engagement, stewardship and renewals, across CSR, domestic and global philanthropic foundations and HNIs/UHNIs.

Reporting to the Senior Project Lead, PSI, the role combines independent ownership with close collaboration, working closely with the Senior Project Lead and relevant colleagues across the fundraising function.

Key Responsibilities

Fundraising Pipeline Building
Build and maintain a strong pipeline of prospective donors across CSR, domestic and global philanthropic foundations, HNIs/UHNIs and other funding sources.
Conduct prospect research and landscape analysis to identify and qualify prospective funders, assessing their priorities, interests, funding potential, decision-making processes and potential areas of alignment with CSF.
Identify relevant entry points for qualified prospects and develop tailored approaches for initiating and deepening conversations.
Manage assigned opportunities through the fundraising funnel, from prospect identification and qualification through outreach, cultivation, proposal development and closure.
Identify opportunities to leverage CSF's existing relationships and networks to strengthen connections with prospective funders and broaden the fundraising pipeline.
Stay abreast of developments across philanthropy, CSR and the wider social-impact ecosystem to identify emerging funding opportunities.
Donor Cultivation
Develop and advance relationships with prospective funders, identifying relevant opportunities and approaches to build interest in CSF and progress potential funding relationships.
Develop and execute thoughtful cultivation plans for priority prospects, identifying relevant opportunities and touchpoints to build familiarity, trust and interest in CSF's work.
Contribute to converting prospective donors into long-term CSF partners, including by identifying opportunities for multi-year, expanded or repeat engagement.
Donor Engagement, Management & Stewardship
Build and maintain strong relationships with existing donors, serving as a responsive, reliable and trusted point of contact and ensuring a consistently high standard of donor servicing.
Develop a strong understanding of each donor's priorities, interests, partnership history, key stakeholders, decision-making processes, hot buttons and opportunities for deeper engagement.
Develop and implement thoughtful engagement plans for existing donors, tailored to the relationship, donor interests and stage of engagement, with a focus on deepening relationships, strengthening retention and creating opportunities for continued or expanded support.
Ensure timely, high-quality and tailored donor communication, including updates, reports, follow-ups and other relevant touchpoints, while anticipating donor needs and proactively addressing requests or concerns.
Explore creative and differentiated ways to deepen donor relationships beyond formal reporting requirements and routine cadences, including through tailored impact updates, curated content, immersion experiences and other relevant touchpoints.
Support and as required, manage donor meetings and engagements, ensuring strong preparation, follow-through and clear internal ownership of commitments.
Support efforts to develop existing donors into long-term advocates, champions and connectors for CSF, creating opportunities for them to deepen their association with CSF's mission.
Maintain strong donor relationship intelligence, ensuring that key interactions, insights, decisions and next steps are systematically captured and appropriately shared internally to enable a common and up-to-date understanding of donor relationships.
Fundraising narratives and collateral
Develop high-quality, tailored concept notes, proposals, and other funding applications, translating CSF's priorities, evidence and systems-change approach into compelling propositions.
Work closely with programme, RMEAL, Communications and other relevant teams to understand and distil CSF's work, evidence, outcomes and insights into clear, persuasive and fundable narrative.Contribute to the development of broader fundraising collateral, including investment cases, one-pagers, primers, prospect briefs, presentations, leveraging existing evidence and organisational knowledge and tailoring them to different donor archetypes.
Build and contribute to reusable fundraising resources, including evidence banks, messaging, case studies, narrative frameworks, proposal assets and other knowledge resources that strengthen the team's effectiveness, consistency and ability to respond quickly to opportunities.
Fundraising Process & Systems
Contribute to strengthening discipline across key fundraising processes and systems, ensuring that opportunities, actions, follow-ups, deadlines and next steps are consistently tracked and progressed.
Maintain and continuously strengthen the Donor Management Dashboard as a central source of information on existing donor relationships, capturing key details including donor commitments, reporting timelines, engagement plans, actions and next steps.
Maintain the fundraising CRM and pipeline trackers, ensuring prospect and opportunity information is accurate and up to date, with clear visibility on movement through the fundraising funnel, ownership and next steps.
Identify and implement improvements to fundraising processes, including templates, trackers, and knowledge resources, to improve efficiency, consistency, coordination and institutional memory across the fundraising function.
Fundraising Governance & Leadership Support
Support development of fundraising dashboards, pipeline snapshots, funding gap analyses and other leadership-ready views for internal reviews and discussions, translating fundraising information into clear insights for decision-making.
Support Board and senior leadership engagement on fundraising, including preparing data-driven presentations, fundraising updates and briefing materials, and ensuring that agreed actions and follow-ups are tracked through to completion.
Internal Stakeholder Management & Cross-functional Collaboration
Build strong working relationships across CSF and work effectively with colleagues across functions to align on fundraising priorities, secure timely inputs, resolve bottlenecks and keep fundraising opportunities and donor commitments moving forward.
Proactively coordinate across programme, RMEAL, Finance, Communications, leadership and other relevant teams, bringing together the right inputs and stakeholders to deliver high-quality fundraising and donor engagement requirements.
External Representation & Ecosystem Engagement
Represent CSF at relevant donor forums, conferences, sector convenings and meetings, as appropriate, helping strengthen CSF's visibility and positioning within the philanthropic and CSR ecosystem.
Build and nurture relationships with relevant players across the philanthropic and social-impact ecosystem, including peer organisations, intermediary platforms, consultants, government stakeholders and other ecosystem partners.
Identify relevant platforms, networks, events and convenings that can create opportunities for learning and partnerships.

Experience & Qualifications Required

5-9 years of relevant professional experience in fundraising and donor management within the development sector, with experience working with CSR, foundations, HNIs/UHNIs or other philanthropic/institutional funders.
Demonstrated experience across multiple aspects of the fundraising lifecycle, including prospect research, donor cultivation, proposal development, partnership management, stewardship and renewals.
Master's degree in business, public policy, economics, development studies, or a related field.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop sharp compelling proposals, presentations, briefs and donor communications.
Strong research and analytical skills, with the ability to synthesise information and translate it into actionable fundraising insights.
Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, with the ability to work confidently with fundraising data, pipeline trackers and dashboard
Demonstrated experience working with senior leadership of fundraising priorities and engagements.
Experience with CRM and donor management systems is preferred.

Desired Qualities

High ownership: You take responsibility for moving work forward, anticipate what is needed and close loops without needing constant direction.
Strong relationship builder: You build trust with donors and colleagues, listen well and invest in relationships over time.
Collaborative and persistent: You work effectively across a large organisation, build productive working relationships and are comfortable following through with multiple stakeholders to get things done.
Proactive and resourceful: You spot opportunities, find solutions and bring structure and momentum to complex or evolving pieces of work.
Clear thinker and communicator: You move comfortably between research and analysis, writing and storytelling, presentations and external conversations, adapting your approach to different audiences.
Curious and creative: You are keen to understand CSF's work and the evolving philanthropic landscape, and think creatively about how to position our work and engage donors in relevant and distinctive ways.
Adaptable and comfortable with ambiguity: You thrive in a fast-paced, evolving environment, respond well to changing priorities and are able to navigate ambiguity while maintaining focus and momentum.

SPM/Project Lead Fundraising