Resource Person — Social Startup Programme

Locations - Ayodhya, Rayagada / Keonjhar / Sambalpur, Guwahati, Bangalore

About the programme

The Social Startup Programme supports development professionals — under 40, with 4+ years of field experience — to set up and run their own organizations in geographies the Foundation prioritizes. Selected founders receive an 8-month fellowship (with a monthly stipend), followed by an assessment at the end of the 8 months which decides the 2-year seed grant to build their organization. Phase 1 runs in four geographies — Bangalore Urban, Eastern UP, Odisha and North-East India — with applications opening October 2026 and founders arriving February 2027.

The role in one paragraph

This person will operationalize the programme on the ground. Before the call opens, they bring people to outreach sessions and build the list of interested candidates. During selection, they make sure applications are screened every week, fairly and on time. Through the fellowship, they are the single point of contact (SPOC) for the founders assigned to them by the geography team — their onboarding, reviews, wellbeing, partner introductions and logistics. And as founders register their organizations and start work, they are the main link between the founders, the Foundation's geography team, and the partners around them. It is a field role that needs strong day-to-day organization: most weeks involve travel, trackers to update, and ability to handle difficult conversations.

What you will do

Run outreach in the geography: regular sessions with campuses, community and civil-society organizations (CSOs) and networks; build and maintain the list of interested candidates.
Support the application window: help applicants apply, support the weekly screening in the portal, and coordinate interview logistics and reference checks on the ground.
Keep every applicant informed at each stage — acknowledgements, status, and next steps.
Onboard the founders assigned and be their single point of contact through the programme: weekly touchpoints, monthly in-person reviews, timely escalation of issues.
Run logistics for residential orientations and reviews; record reviews and milestone evidence in the management information system (MIS).
Coordinate with partner organizations for learning visits and postings — introductions, joint meetings and feedback conversations.
Support founders through registration, the end-of-fellowship assessment and the transition to the seed grant.
Keep records complete and current; protect the programme's commitments — support is milestone-based and the seed grant follows the assessment; maintain partner goodwill.

Who we are looking for

Must have

A graduate degree, in any discipline.
4–6 years of field-level programme experience in the development sector, with at least some of it coordinating people, events or partners on the ground.
Fluency in the geography's language(s) and working English; deep comfort travelling and working in the sub-geographies.
Open to extensive travel across the geography and nearby sub-geographies, including occasional travel to residential programs and events
Demonstrated organizing ability: have run events, managed trackers, and kept many threads moving without dropping them.
People judgement and warmth: founders will come to you in difficult moments; partners will judge the Foundation by your follow-through.
Comfort with digital tools — portals, spreadsheets, MIS discipline.

Valuable

Experience in a fellowship or founder-support programme, on either side of it.
Existing networks in the geography — institutions, CSOs, community organizations.
Facilitation and review skills; experience with milestone- or evidence-based programme management.

Resource Person - Social Startup Programme