Associate / Sr. Associate - Donor Relations (Pune)

Overview of the Team  

The Development & Donor Relations team is responsible for raising funds for the operations of the  

Akanksha Foundation. Development is one of the critical backbones of the organizations as the  

organization is completely dependent on donations in its current form. The development team needs to  

be abreast with everything happening in the organization and the education sector as a lot of time is  

spent in creating and maintaining relationships with external stakeholders.  

The team is divided into various work streams by different sources of funding that Akanksha receives.  

Some of these include Corporates, Foundations, Individual Giving, Retail Giving, Online, Events, among  

others. 

Position Summary 

The role will be responsible for supporting the Central Development and Donor Relations team to build 

the donor relationship and support operations and stewardship activities for the donors. However, the 

role can go much beyond that including looking for creative and new avenues for engaging with donors 

and employee engagement. The role will be given some ownership of projects and work allowing for a 

lot of personal growth and satisfaction. This role is pivotal in strengthening our relationships with donors 

& maintaining timeliness and accuracy in the management of paperwork and operations pertaining to 

donors. The ideal candidate will combine excellent communication skills written and verbal with strong 

relationship management and attention to detail. 

Location: Pune 

Reports to: Assistant Manager/ Manager or Director - Donor Relations

Roles and Responsibilities: 

1. Operations & donor stewardship

● Coordinating the employees volunteering / engagement events with the school teams and 

corporates & ideating on unique ways to build engagements. 

● Managing donor operations for donors in each work stream by processing donation documents 

and ensuring due diligence support  

● By filing documentation for virtual records, updating donor systems for their reports as well as 

the internal Akanksha system for all the data management. 

● Supporting the operations for any in kind donations received and the paperwork required along 

with coordination with the school/ program and the internal finance teams. 

● Ideating & drafting proposals , one pagers and the reports for the donors.  

● Working with different functions internally and liasoning for smooth interactions  

● Independently managing donor relationships as a point person and managing the entire 

stewardship including relationship management, documentation and operational management 

activities. Understanding and working on Impact & financial requirements of the donor. 

2. Reporting

● Using netsuite/ other donor management software to run reports, creating development 

organization metrics dashboard, analyzing trends in donations, identifying gaps, etc.  

● Liaising with Finance team to create donor reports in the formats suggested by the donors  

● Liaison with the program teams to take relevant information from them and update internal 

trackers for reporting purposes. 

● Working on partnership portals and tracking the donations and the operations pertaining to 

them  

3. Research

● Prospect Research to gauge the strength of the prospects being considered  

● Support the manager/ director with additional research as and when required  

● Closely tracking the donors mapped for updates on the work they support and how the 

engagement can be enriched further  

Requirements:

Knowledge and Technical Skills  

● Strong Excel, Word and PowerPoint skills , Understanding of using tools like Canva etc. 

● Communication skills for both written and verbal  

● Interpersonal skills and Attention to detail  

Key Competencies  

● Excellent time management and organizational skills  

● Relationship building  

● Commitment to excellence and accuracy  

● Ability to problem solve and express the work verbally and through writing  

Values & Mindsets  

● Belief that every single child deserves an excellent education and that every single child has the 

ability to be successful academically, despite their background  

● Excellent critical thinking skills and high sense of possibility  

● Willingness to learn  

● Adaptability (ability to work in unstructured environments with minimal supervision)  

● Perseverance  

● Ability to work in a high paced and challenging environment balancing multiple stakeholders. 

Education & Experience:

● 1-3 years of work experience desired but not required  

● Bachelor's degree in any discipline  

● Prior social work experience or studies preferred  

Why Join Akanksha  

At Akanksha, you will be part of a passionate team working to reimagine public education in India. You 

will have the opportunity to contribute to a reputed organization committed to transformative impact on 

children and helping them overcome poverty. The role offers a challenging and autonomous work 

environment that prioritizes holistic well-being, empowering you to be the best version of yourself. You 

will also gain access to learning and career growth opportunities within a steadily growing organization, 

along with competitive remuneration that is competitive in top one-third of Indian NGO scales and 

benefits that include medical insurance (covering spouse + 2 children), provident fund benefit, paid 

leaves.