Senior Manager - Grants & Foundations - NGO

Job Title: Senior Manager [Grants & Foundations]

Location: Remote

Travel: Travel across India and within Mumbai

Compensation: Competitive with peer

About Us:

Avanti Fellows is dedicated to empowering students from low-income and marginalized communities across India in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) by providing them with the competitive exam preparation, and resources to excel in these fields. Part of our mission is to bridge the gender gap in STEM education and careers, ensuring that every girl has the chance to pursue her interests and achieve her potential.

The Role:

This is a high-ownership role covering large donor management, grant execution, and institutional partnerships. You will manage a defined portfolio of donors and grants endto-end from relationship coordination and application tracking through to reporting, compliance, and renewal. You report to the Director, Fundraising (Strategic Partnerships).

What You Will Actually Do:

Large Donor & HNI Management

- Manage the donor engagement calendar - touchpoints, briefing notes, meeting packs, and impact updates.

- Run regular donor calls for reporting updates, relationship deepening, and scoping renewal or expansion opportunities.

- Support tailored donor journeys for HNIs from first engagement through to multiyear

commitments.

- Ensure relationship continuity and smooth handoffs in coordination with the Director, Fundraising (Strategic Partnerships).

Grant Applications & Tracking

- Maintain a live tracker of application windows, eligibility criteria, and submission deadlines across target funders.

- Coordinate concept note and proposal submissions ensuring materials are ready ahead of each window.

- Flag upcoming opportunities early and support prioritisation decisions with the Director, Fundraising (Strategic Partnerships).

Grant Lifecycle & Compliance

- Own end-to-end execution for assigned grants: milestone tracking, conditions precedent, and reporting timelines.

- Coordinate across Programs, Finance, Impact/Data, and Comms to gather, qualitycheck, and submit deliverables on time.

- Package and submit narrative reports, financial utilisation documentation, and compliance materials to funder specifications.

- Maintain clean grant records to support renewal conversations.

Proposals & Donor Deliverables

- Draft concept notes, proposals, and donor updates translating program complexity into clear, credible narratives.

- Prepare decks, one-pagers, and diligence materials for high-stakes partnerships managed by the Director, Fundraising (Strategic Partnerships).

Internal Systems & Knowledge Management

- Build and maintain proposal modules, donor packs, reporting templates, and compliance checklists.

- Maintain version control and documentation standards across all submissions and donor communications.

Who Were Looking For:

Experience:

- 5-7 years in donor management, institutional fundraising, or grants management ideally in education or the social sector.

- Demonstrated experience managing large donors or HNIs including engagement planning and multi-year stewardship.

- Proven ability to manage grant cycles end-to-end including applications, reporting, compliance, and renewal.

- Track record of coordinating across internal teams to produce time-bound, high-quality deliverables.

Capabilities

- Strong relationship management instincts - able to anticipate donor needs and build trust over time.

- Disciplined project manager: holds multiple parallel donor relationships and grant timelines without dropping the ball.

- Comfortable with financial inputs - budgets, utilisation tracking, and narrative budget consistency.

Attributes

- Deep alignment with Avanti's mission and genuine commitment to educational equity.

- Low ego, high ownership takes pride in getting the work done well, even behind the scenes.

- Warm, professional, and relationship-oriented trusted equally by donors and colleagues.

- Comfortable with ambiguity, long diligence cycles, and shifting priorities.

Strongly Preferred

- Experience with international foundations, bilateral donors, or family offices in the philanthropy space.

What's Hard About This Job:

- Multiple donor relationships and grant cycles running simultaneously each at a different stage, with different expectations. No quiet season.

- Getting quality inputs from Programs, Finance, and Impact on time requires persistence and strong internal relationships.

- You will often represent complex, evolving program work to donors without always having full context.

Why This Role Matters:

- Near-term: Every grant you manage well directly funds access to quality education for students from low-income communities.

- Long-term: You are building the funder trust and institutional systems that will sustain Avanti's partnerships for years to come.

- Personal: You sit at the intersection of mission and strategy close enough to the work to feel its impact, central enough to shape its growth.

Compensation & Logistics:

- Package: Competitive with peer organisations in the education and development sector.

- Location: Remote; Mumbai-based candidates strongly preferred.

- Travel: Travel across India and within Mumbai for donor meetings and team meetings.

- Start Date: Within 2-3 months of offer.

We are looking for someone who manages relationships with care, executes with discipline, and builds systems that make a mission-driven team more effective. If that is you - and you care about equity in education - we would love to hear from you.