Programme Lead – Impact Finance & Partnerships

Role Overview

We are looking for a highly driven, hands-on professional to build and lead an Impact Finance & Partnerships function.

This is an execution-focused role for someone who can take an opportunity from concept to closure — identifying suitable organisations and projects, assessing readiness, coordinating documentation and compliance, structuring financing opportunities, developing partnerships and actively pursuing funding opportunities.

The person should be comfortable working across finance, compliance, CSR, foundations, financial institutions, development organisations and other ecosystem partners.

The role requires someone who can start from scratch, build the required processes, create a strong pipeline, follow up persistently and take ownership of outcomes rather than only coordinate activities.

Key Responsibilities1. Build the Impact Finance Programme

• Build the impact finance and fundraising practice from the ground up.
• Develop a structured process for identifying, assessing and onboarding suitable organisations and projects.
• Create readiness assessment frameworks, checklists, SOPs, trackers and standard documentation.
• Develop a pipeline of projects that can be prepared for structured fundraising and impact-finance opportunities.
• Work closely with internal and external experts to continuously strengthen the programme.

2. Readiness, Documentation & Compliance

• Conduct initial assessments and identify documentation, governance, financial and compliance gaps.
• Coordinate collection and review of relevant organisational, statutory and financial documents.
• Have a good working understanding of areas such as:
• 12A / 12AB
• 80G
• CSR-1
• audited financial statements
• annual reports
• utilisation certificates
• governance and board documentation
• project budgets and financial information
• CSR and donor compliance requirements
• Coordinate with CAs, CSs, legal advisors and other specialists wherever expert certification or regulatory guidance is required.
• Maintain clear trackers and ensure pending documentation and actions are followed through to closure.

3. Project Structuring & Fundraising Readiness

• Work with internal and external stakeholders to convert programmes and initiatives into clearly structured, fundable projects.
• Develop project objectives, budgets, milestones, beneficiary targets, expected outcomes and impact indicators.
• Coordinate preparation of project notes, fundraising documents, presentations and supporting information.
• Ensure projects are presented in a credible and commercially relevant manner to potential funding partners.
• Support projects through appropriate impact-finance and social-financing platforms wherever applicable.

4. Business Development & Capital Partnerships

• Build relationships with:
• corporate CSR teams
• foundations and philanthropic organisations
• family offices and HNIs
• financial institutions
• impact investors
• development finance organisations
• intermediaries and ecosystem partners
• Identify appropriate funding and financing opportunities for projects within the portfolio.
• Build and maintain an active capital and partnership pipeline.
• Arrange meetings, presentations and introductions with potential partners and funders.
• Follow up proactively until opportunities are either closed or a clear decision is reached.
• Identify new business opportunities around impact finance, project structuring, fundraising and strategic partnerships.

5. Programme & Stakeholder Management

• Act as the single point of ownership for assigned projects and opportunities.
• Coordinate between internal teams, trainers, advisors, finance professionals, external partners and funders.
• Maintain weekly progress tracking for every active project and opportunity.
• Identify bottlenecks early and drive their resolution.
• Ensure timelines, documentation and agreed actions are followed through.
• Provide regular management updates covering pipeline, progress, issues and expected closures.

What We Are Looking For

• Approximately 5–8 years of relevant experience in CSR, development sector, fundraising, impact investing, social finance, consulting, financial services or related areas.
• Strong understanding of the impact, CSR and development-finance ecosystem in India.
• Working knowledge of statutory, financial and compliance documentation relevant to social-sector financing.
• Exposure to fundraising, CSR partnerships, grant management, financial markets or impact investing will be strongly preferred.
• Ability to understand financial statements, project budgets and organisational documentation.
• Strong business development and relationship-building capability.
• Excellent follow-up and project-management skills.
• Ability to work with senior stakeholders as well as operational teams.
• Comfortable working independently in an entrepreneurial and fast-moving environment.

The Person We Need

This role will suit someone who is:

• highly proactive and execution oriented;
• comfortable meeting people, opening doors and following up persistently;
• commercially minded while understanding the impact and development ecosystem;
• organised enough to manage significant documentation and multiple opportunities simultaneously;
• willing to learn regulatory and financial processes in depth;
• able to convert relationships into tangible partnerships and funding opportunities; and
• willing to take complete ownership rather than wait for instructions.

This is not a desk-based coordination role. The person should be comfortable travelling, meeting partners, solving problems on the ground and driving opportunities to closure.

Initial Priorities

During the first 90 days, the Programme Lead will be expected to:

1. Complete training with relevant experts and understand the full operating process.
2. Develop the operating model, SOPs, readiness checklist and master tracker.
3. Build an initial pipeline of suitable organisations, projects and financing opportunities.
4. Complete readiness assessments for shortlisted opportunities.
5. Identify documentation and compliance gaps and develop closure plans.
6. Build a portfolio of fundable projects.
7. Map potential CSR, philanthropic, institutional and financial partners against these projects.
8. Begin active outreach and business development.
9. Develop a measurable pipeline for project readiness, partnerships and capital mobilisation.
10. Present a scale-up plan for building Impact Finance & Partnerships into a sustainable business vertical.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by:

• number and quality of projects/opportunities developed;
• percentage of opportunities becoming documentation and compliance ready;
• number of fundable projects structured;
• number and value of funding opportunities generated;
• corporate, institutional and philanthropic partnerships developed;
• conversion of opportunities into actual capital mobilised;
• speed of moving opportunities from identification to closure; and
• development of a scalable and commercially sustainable Impact Finance & Partnerships practice.