About Billion Readers (BIRD)

BIRD is an initiative of nonprofit PlanetRead and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), working to increase reading literacy in India at population scale, especially among girls and women.  India has an estimated 400 million fluent literates, but also 275 million illiterates and 600 million “literates” who cannot read simple texts. BIRD’s vision is for every Indian to be a fluent reader. This vision is built around a core innovation - Same Language Subtitling (SLS).  Our mission over the next five years is to implement SLS on entertainment television and streaming content already watched by a billion viewers in India.  This makes SLS arguably one of the world’s largest, simplest, and most cost-effective literacy solutions.  

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Consultant will drive fundraising to enable large-scale reading proficiency in one of the largest countries in the world – India.  The Consultant will be tasked with raising $6-7M over the next 5 years in the US to support the scale up of BIRD, thereby introducing SLS across a variety of languages in different states in India. 

What You Will Be Doing

- Work with, build, and sustain relationships with existing and potential donors, under the direction and guidance of the US board, to drive development goals

- Coordinate with the Executive Director, the US Director, as well as the Fundraising Consultant in India to write grant proposals 

- Develop and manage a work plan and active pipeline for soliciting grants from public and private funders

- Identify grant opportunities and conduct research to develop relationships with potential funders

- Synthesize information about potential funders to create compelling letters of intent and proposal narratives for submission to funding organizations

- Write grant proposals and ensure the completion of all required documentation for submission to funding organizations

- Work with the implementing team in India to track outcomes, successes, and challenges of grants to prepare interim and final funding reports

- Ensure grant compliance of BIRD program, including data collection, analysis, and reporting

- Help reconcile expenditures for grant reporting purposes

What Skills and Experiences You Offer

- Strong connection to the organization’s mission; Familiarity with and/or strong interest in improving literacy in India, especially for women and children

- Extensive experience in fundraising, grant proposal development, relationship cultivation and management, and new partnership building

- Knowledge of effective fundraising strategies, principles, and techniques of major gift fundraising, corporate and foundation philanthropic giving, and planned giving for individuals

- Access to networks of donors in the US who are potential funders of global development initiatives and/or excellent prospecting skills

- Excellent communication and writing skills 

- A proactive, entrepreneurial, and resourceful mindset along with results orientation and timely completion of deadlines 

- Proficiency in productivity tools, including Google Suite, Microsoft Office, and ideally CRM applications

COMPENSATION

$25K-$35K base at 10 hours per week, negotiable and depending on experience and access to funding networks, plus 5% commission on successful proposals

HOW TO APPLY

Click here for more information or to apply. Please email your resume and cover letter to [email protected] by Friday, September 30.