Manager, Acquisitions

Teach For India; Mumbai; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Teach For India is seeking an Acquisitions Manager to lead multi-year fundraising strategies and cross-region initiatives across Corporates, Foundations, and HNIs. You will partner with Development leadership to translate priority actions into scalable roadmaps and outcomes.

In this role you will design and oversee complex donor relationships, guide portfolio strategy, and help build systems and processes that enable the acquisitions function to perform at scale.

Qualifications

• This role requires 4–10+ years of relevant professional experience in fundraising, partnerships, strategy, or client-facing leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder projects end-to-end.
• Proven ability to manage and develop people and high-performing teams.
• Strong strategic thinking paired with operational rigour and execution excellence.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, especially in donor contexts.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and building structure where none exists.
• Proficiency with Salesforce, Google Workspace, and presentation tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and execution of multi-year acquisition strategies across Corporates, Foundations, HNIs, and blended funding sources.
• Translate priorities into fundraising roadmaps with measurable outcomes across regions and teams.
• Identify trends, risks, and opportunities in the funding landscape and guide strategic response.
• Act as a thought partner to senior leadership on acquisition goals, portfolio mix, and reserve-building.
• Oversee end-to-end large-scale donor initiatives spanning multiple teams and regions.
• Build repeatable playbooks and learnings for the wider team.
• Stakeholder management and high-stakes donor conversations and partnerships.

Skills

Stakeholder leadership

Strategic thinking

People management

Written & verbal communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Salesforce

Google Workspace

Presentation tools

Fundraising leadership

Tools

Salesforce

Google Workspace

Job description

The Manager, Acquisitions is a role within the Development team, responsible for driving team-wide fundraising strategy, leading complex cross-team initiatives, and building systems, capabilities, and practices that enable the entire Acquisitions function to perform at scale.

Beyond owning large, high-value donor relationships, this role focuses on designing and leading multi-stakeholder, multi-region projects (e.g., The India Circle, lapsed donor strategy, large portfolio pilots) that cut across Corporates, Foundations, HNIs, and alternative funding sources. The Acquisitions Manager operates as a strategic thought partner to the Development leadership, while also being a strong executor who ensures ideas translate into results.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of strategy, execution, and people leadership and is motivated by building for long-term organisational impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and execution of multi-year acquisition strategies across Corporates, Foundations, HNIs, and blended/alternative funding sources.
• Translate organisational priorities into clear fundraising roadmaps with measurable outcomes across regions and teams.
• Identify emerging trends, risks, and opportunities in the funding landscape and guide the team’s strategic response.
• Act as a thought partner to the Director/Senior Director on acquisition goals, portfolio mix, and reserve-building strategies.

Cross-Team & Cross-Region Projects (30%)

• Lead large, complex fundraising initiatives that span multiple teams and regions (e.g., The India Circle, lapsed donor outreach, large-scale donor pilots).
• Own end-to-end project management: vision setting, stakeholder alignment, timelines, execution, and review.
• Build repeatable playbooks, frameworks, and learnings from these projects for the wider team.
• Personally steward a select portfolio of the organisation’s most strategic donors (large foundations, HNIs, corporate partners).
• Lead high-stakes donor conversations, negotiations, and long-term partnership design.
• Serve as a final reviewer and quality gatekeeper for complex proposals and donor communications.

Systems, Data & Operational Excellence (10%)

• Oversee team-wide use of Salesforce, dashboards, and portfolio tracking systems to ensure real-time visibility on progress to goal.
• Design and strengthen systems that improve efficiency, accountability, and decision-making across Acquisitions.
• Use data to identify bottlenecks, course-correct strategy, and support the team with actionable insights.

People Leadership & Capability Building (10%)

• Manage and mentor the Acquisitions team, supporting their growth as leaders and strategic fundraisers.
• Build clarity on roles, expectations, and decision rights across the team.
• Foster a culture of excellence, learning, sustainability, and collaboration, ensuring the team can deliver ambitious goals without burnout.
• Identify and nurture internal talent and succession pipelines within the Acquisitions function.

As an Acquisitions Manager, You Wil l Also:

• Contribute beyond formal role boundaries to strengthen the Development function and broader organisation.
• Represent the organisation in senior external forums, board-linked conversations, and strategic partnerships.
• Act as a steward of the organisation’s values, mission, and long-term vision.

As a Manager at Teach For India, your responsibilities include:

• Contributing to the team goals and priorities beyond individual goals and priorities.
• Serving as an ambassador of the Teach For India brand and an advocate for our work and for educational equity in our country through both internal and external communication, after committing time in our classrooms to understand our work more deeply.
• Supporting key organisational areas such as Recruitment, Selection, Fundraising, Volunteering, and Movement Building.

Minimum Qualifications, Experiences and Expectations

• 4–10+ years of relevant professional experience, preferably in fundraising, partnerships, strategy, or client-facing leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder projects end-to‑end.
• Proven ability to manage and develop people and high-performing teams.
• Strong strategic thinking paired with operational rigour and execution excellence.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, especially in high-stakes donor contexts.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and building structure where none exists.
• Proficiency with Salesforce, Google Workspace, and presentation tools.

Note:

We want to hear your unique voice and perspectives through the process, hence all applicants are expected to personally author statements of purpose/essays in the application form. Sole use of AI or Chat-GPT based tools may lead to disqualification from the process.