Manager/Senior Manage–Strategic Partnerships (Institutional Fundraising))

Muskaan Dreams; Dadri; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Muskaan Dreams in India is seeking a Manager – Strategic Partnerships to cultivate relationships with foundations, philanthropies, family offices, and institutional donors. You will identify opportunities, open conversations, develop compelling proposals, and move partnerships through lifecycle stages from research to renewal.

Working with cross‑functional teams, you will translate evidence and stories into funding opportunities, helping scale our AI‑enabled education initiatives for government

Qualifications

• 4–6 years in institutional fundraising or partnerships.
• Experience securing grants from foundations and donors.
• Strong proposal writing and donor reporting skills.
• Comfort engaging senior stakeholders and managing multiple proposals.

Responsibilities

• Build and grow partnerships with foundations, philanthropies, and family offices.
• Lead concept notes, proposals, budgets, and donor reports.
• Manage a portfolio from research to renewal and growth.
• Collaborate with program, MEL, and finance teams to align evidence and budgets.

Skills

Fundraising

Donor Relations

Grant Writing

Partnership Development

Stakeholder Management

Proposal Development

Tools

CRM

Budgeting

Job description

Manager – Strategic Partnerships (Institutional Grants & HNIs)

Reports to: Director – Strategic Partnerships

We believe where a child is born should never determine how prepared they are for the future. Every day, millions of children enter government school classrooms with the same curiosity and potential as children anywhere. But as technology and AI reshape how we learn and work, access to the skills needed to thrive remains deeply unequal. We exist to change that.

Our work begins with children and teachers. We spend time in classrooms, listen to teachers, understand the realities of government schools, and design solutions that work in the real world — not just in pilots. We don't build parallel systems; we strengthen the public education system itself, working alongside teachers, school leaders, district administrations, and state governments so solutions can be adopted, sustained, and scaled.

Over the last decade, this belief has taken us from a handful of schools to nearly 1 million children, 5,000+ government schools, and 15,000+ teachers across six states. But scale, for us, is not just a number. It means a teacher who feels more confident, a child who sees herself as a problem‑solver, and an education system capable of sustaining change long after a funder exits.

Our Flagship Initiatives

Digital Shaala transforms government classrooms into engaging, technology‑enabled learning environments through digital devices, curriculum‑aligned content, teacher capacity building, and academic mentoring — strengthening Science and Maths learning and nurturing curiosity and interest in STEM.

AI-Saksham prepares students and teachers for an AI‑enabled world through experiential, classroom‑integrated learning that builds AI literacy, computational and critical thinking, creativity, problem‑solving, and responsible AI practice.

Our Next Chapter

Muskaan Dreams is entering a defining phase of growth. Today we manage an annual budget of ~₹20 crore, supported by leading corporations, foundations, and philanthropies. Over the next 2–3 years we aim to grow this into a ₹50 crore annual portfolio built on long‑term institutional partnerships rather than transactional grants. Our ambition is to reach 10 million children over five years while building one of India's leading organisations at the intersection of AI, education, and government system transformation.

About the Role

We are looking for a Manager – Strategic Partnerships to build and grow meaningful partnerships with foundations, philanthropies, family offices, institutional donors, and grant‑making organisations in India and globally. This is not simply a proposal‑writing or grant‑management role. You will identify opportunities, open conversations, build relationships, develop compelling proposals, convert opportunities into partnerships, and steward them over time.

You will own a portfolio of prospective and existing partners, accountable for moving relationships from Research → Relationship → Opportunity → Proposal → Partnership → Stewardship → Renewal & Growth. Working closely with the Director, CEO, Program, MEL, Finance, Government Partnerships, and Communications teams, you will translate our ambitions, evidence, and stories into partnerships that enable impact at scale.

What You Will Own

1. Build New Institutional Partnerships (50%)

Proactively identify and cultivate relationships with local and international foundations, philanthropic institutions, family offices, donor collaboratives, bilateral/multilateral agencies, and other mission‑aligned funders. You will research and qualify high‑potential opportunities, build a healthy pipeline, initiate conversations rather than wait for them, understand funder priorities and grant cycles, build relationships with decision‑makers, identify alignment with our programmes, and move opportunities systematically toward partnership. You will not only manage opportunities — you will help create them.

Convert our work into propositions partners can understand, believe in, and support. You will lead concept notes, grant proposals, partner presentations, budgets, logical frameworks, theories of change, implementation plans, and due‑diligence documentation — working with Program, MEL, Finance, Government Partnerships, and Communications to bring together design, evidence, budgets, and field stories.

3. Own Partner Relationships & Success (15%)

Fundraising doesn't end when the grant is signed. You will build trusted relationships, ensure timely and high‑quality communication, coordinate reporting and impact updates, organise reviews and field visits, track commitments internally, surface challenges transparently, and identify renewals and expansion. Our ambition: partners don't simply fund us — they become champions of the impact we create together.

Maintain an accurate pipeline and CRM; track opportunities, conversations, and next actions; maintain grant calendars and deadlines; build institutional knowledge about funders; track philanthropic trends and emerging opportunities; and keep documentation organised and accessible to support planning and decisions.

What Success Looks Like

• A healthy pipeline of qualified india funder and global opportunities aligned with our priorities.
• Qualified opportunities moved from research through proposals and due diligence to closure.
• Compelling, evidence‑backed proposals that clearly communicate problem, approach, impact, and case for partnership.
• Trusted relationships driving strong satisfaction, timely renewals, multi‑year partnerships, and expansion.
• Partners who experience us as responsive, transparent, credible, and committed to impact.
• Disciplined pipelines, CRM, calendars, and follow‑up so opportunities don't get lost.

Who We're Looking For

Experience

• 4–6 years in institutional fundraising, philanthropy, partnerships, international development, grant management, or programme development.
• Demonstrated experience securing and/or managing institutional grants.
• Experience with foundations, philanthropies, family offices, bilateral/multilateral agencies, or institutional donors.
• Strong experience developing concept notes, proposals, presentations, budgets, and donor reports.
• Experience engaging external partners and senior stakeholders.
• Experience in education, technology, public systems, or social impact is valuable.

Capabilities

Excellent written and verbal communication; strong storytelling and proposal‑writing; excellent relationship‑building; strong research and opportunity identification; confidence initiating conversations; ability to understand funder priorities and strategic alignment; strong stakeholder and project management; ability to manage multiple proposals and relationships at once; cross‑functional collaboration; high attention to detail and follow‑through; comfort with targets, pipelines, and accountability; willingness to travel across India and internationally.

Who You Are

Experience matters — but so does how you approach the work. We're looking for someone who deeply cares about children, education, and equitable opportunity; is curious about people and enjoys building relationships; believes partnerships are built on trust, not transactions; is comfortable opening doors and creating opportunities; listens before proposing; communicates complex ideas simply; takes ownership; is responsive and dependable; is resilient; shares credit; and demonstrates integrity, humility, and professionalism.

This role may not be right for you if you see fundraising primarily as writing proposals, prefer waiting for RFPs, enjoy closing grants but not maintaining relationships, prefer transactional over long‑term fundraising, are uncomfortable engaging senior stakeholders, find follow‑ups uncomfortable, or struggle with deadlines, details, and cross‑team coordination.

Because this is an opportunity to do more than raise funds. You will help build a coalition of institutions and people who can influence what the future looks like for millions of children — working at the intersection of AI, education, government systems, philanthropy, and social impact. You'll spend time with funders and leaders, but also with teachers, children, and programme teams whose realities shape every partnership we build.

If you believe where a child is born should never determine how prepared they are for the future, we'd love to hear from you.