Head of Fundraising and Partnerships (Founding Team)

Position: Head of Fundraising and Partnerships (Founding Team)

Location: Gurgaon

Change Engine:

India has 100+ startup unicorns. Can it have 100+ non-profit unicorns - organizations that impact 1 million+ people meaningfully This is our MISSION.

We believe we are at a disruptive moment in the history of India, where non-profits will bring about population-size social change in the country. We want to make this happen by:

- Running India's leading accelerator for high-potential non-profit founders

- Publishing public goods like The Playbook for Non-Profit Unicorns and driving conversations to unlock the ecosystem for non-profits through the Ease of Doing Good report series

- Convening founders, funders and policymakers at the Mission Billion Summit

In a short while, Change Engine has emerged as a thought leader in the sector introducing the term non-profit unicorns and building a narrative on Ease of doing good. Our direct work has impacted 10+ organisations who have made strategic shifts toward scale and raised $2M+ in follow-on capital beyond our catalytic funding. Our work has been featured in The Economic Times, Mint, IDR, Print and others.

We seek to grow a portfolio of 20 high-impact organizations for which we become long term partners, making a direct difference to the lives of citizens of India. In parallel, we plan to create ecosystem unlocks by influencing government, funders, corporates to create an enabling ecosystem.

Founding Team

We are a team of founders & builders with extensive experience scaling organisations.

Varun Aggarwal is an entrepreneur (Aspiring Minds, $100M+ exit), AI researcher (1500+ citations) and author (science, deeptech and children books). At Aspiring Minds, Varun built AI-led programming and speech assessments which were sold globally to Fortune 500 companies. Since exiting from Aspiring Minds, he has been engaged in mission-driven work for seeing India's socio-economic progress and Change Engine is central to his thesis of change.

Shubham is an IIT Delhi alum & previously co-founded a social impact startup backed by Y-Combinator. Prior to this, he has worked with clean-tech startups across India and Europe in product and management roles. Shailendra, an ISB alum, is a senior product leader with experience building products at MakeMyTrip & Spinny.

Our advisors and cohort mentors include Luis Miranda, Tanvi Bikhchandani, Geeta Goel (ex- Country Director, MSDF), Raman Oberoi (ex-COO, CRISIL), Gaurav Goel (Samagra Governance), Mukul Singhal (Partner, Pravega Ventures) and others.

Why this role

Change Engine is at an inflection point. We have proven the model works - our cohort organizations are raising capital, building needle-moving interventions, and getting ecosystem validation. We have laid a foundation, are getting a buy-in for our approach and we see slow, but steady adoption of a new vocabulary and way of work by the ecosystem.

We can make our impact 100x by being resourceful - have strong partnerships with like-minded ecosystem builders, engaging with the government for unlocks and creating a strong pipeline of downstream funding. We need a strong leader, an intrapreneur to join the founding team, who is aligned to our mission and will take ownership to scale our entire partnership and fundraising engine.

What you'll own

- Ecosystem Strategy & Partnerships

Design and execute a clear strategy to engage funders, government, and ecosystem partners aligned with Change Engine's mission. This includes structuring innovative partnership models (co-investing, corporate partnerships,etc)

- Fundraising & Resource Mobilization

Cultivate and manage relationships with UHNIs, foundations, and CSRs. You'll develop a tiered fundraising strategy targeting different investor segments and lead end-to-end fundraising cycles.

- Cohort Support & Enablement

Work with cohort organizations to strengthen their partnership and fundraising strategies. You'll build playbooks and resources that help our portfolio companies succeed in raising capital and building strategic partnerships.

- Government Partnerships

Help build government practice at Change Engine. We want to drive policy reforms for Ease of doing good and unlock capital and support from government for non-profits.

Ideal Profile

We are looking for former or current founders (or CXOs who have operated like founders). You should have:

- 10+ years in a founder or CXO role where you personally led fundraising, partnerships, or business development

- A track record of building something from scratch not just managing an existing system

- Experience raising capital, closing partnerships, or driving revenue

- Comfort selling a bold vision to senior stakeholders (HNIs, foundations, CSR heads, policymakers)

You might also be a strong operator from consulting or VC who now wants real ownership and create meaningful impact at scale.

Most importantly:

- Love to be out than being on the office deck

- Ability to lead, work in an unstructured environment and have big ambitions.

- You operate with hunger, speed, and ownership

Why Join us:

- Be on the ground floor of building India's next wave of nonprofit unicorns.

- Work in the development sector but with the speed, energy and ambition of a startup.

- Competitive fixed compensation + performance-linked upside aligned with capital raised and partnerships built.

- Collaborate closely with entrepreneurs and product leaders who've scaled companies and nonprofits.

- Pathway to becoming a long-term partner / co-founder for the right person.

If this sounds interesting, please apple here: https://forms.gle/nGR1P8wat3mKeKSJ6

If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line on [Confidential Information].