Director of Business Development and Fundraising

Job description

The context:

Across the developing world, more children than ever are in school – but they are not learning. A recent study estimated that less than 1% of school children in Sub-Saharan Africa attend a school where the teaching meets basic standards of quality. At Rising Academies, we’re changing that, and we want your help. Our mission is to create the best schools and the most powerful teaching and learning tools for the people that need it most. We’re one of the fastest-growing quality-focused education companies in Africa, and a Certified B Corp®.

About us:

Founded in Sierra Leone in 2014, we’ve spent over a decade crafting a unique blend of high-tech and low-tech learning solutions proven to dramatically improve student outcomes that elevate teaching quality at scale. 7 RCTs have shown that the students we support learn, on average, 2.4x faster each year than their peers in comparable schools.

Today, we serve more than a quarter of a million students across 1,000 schools in West and East Africa through three integrated and complimentary channels:

• Pioneering Great-Value Private Schools: Our innovative networks of private schools deliver best-in-class results for children while developing highly scalable new technologies and approaches.
• Scalable Government Partnerships: We partner and collaborate with local and national governments across Africa to transform the quality of public school systems at scale.
• High Impact Solutions for Partners: We offer our proven high-impact solutions to other education providers and schools to improve school performance & increase outcomes.

Our innovative approaches combine expertly designed curriculum materials, personalized learning experiences, intensive teacher coaching and actionable data for school leaders. You can learn more about our solutions here: https://www.risingacademies.com/oursolutions

About the role:

We are on a mission to transform education across Africa, and we know bold ambitions require bold resources. As Director of Business Development and Fundraising, you will drive this effort by leading efforts to secure major multi-year funding that unlock ambitious growth for Rising’s mission and scaling our impact.

You’ll be both architect and driver, building the fundraising engine for scale, leading a high-performing team, and delivering world-class proposals that win transformative partnerships. This is a role for someone who thrives at the intersection of vision and execution, spotting the biggest opportunities, bringing clarity to complexity, and ensuring Rising is always positioned for the next major win.

The Director of Business Development and Fundraising will:

• Secure transformative funding by leading efforts to raise $50m over the next 5 years to power our impact in partnerships with local and national governments.
• Build Rising’s fundraising engine for scale by developing the systems, team, and external advisor network needed to consistently deliver major wins.
• Lead and coach the fundraising/BD team to hit deadlines with high-quality work, ensuring Rising’s management team can move quickly and confidently on big opportunities.
• Originate and prioritize opportunities in partnership with the SLT, balancing ambition with focus, and ensuring Rising is always pursuing the right bets.
• Write, review, and refine proposals, pitches, and presentations at the highest standard, producing external-ready material that is sharply tailored to funder audiences and aligned with Rising’s brand.
• Develop and oversee budgets for proposals and projects, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and alignment with funder requirements.
• Build and embed systems (e.g. CRM, pipelines, reporting) that provide clarity, transparency, and accountability across the BD function.
• Cultivate and deepen relationships with existing funders, ensuring ≥90% satisfaction and year-on-year growth of partnerships.
• Represent Rising externally with authority and skill, bringing excellent listening and communication skills to build trust, uncover opportunities, and position Rising as a leading thought partner in education.

Qualifications and Experience:

We’re looking for someone who brings both the vision and the discipline to build Rising’s fundraising engine for scale. The ideal candidate will have:

• Proven fundraising and business development success – a track record of securing major multi-year grants or investments (ideally $10m+ in aggregate), with exposure to large institutional funders, philanthropies, or multi-stakeholder consortia.
• Experience managing transformative opportunities, leading multi-partner bids and navigating rigorous application and due diligence processes that involve senior stakeholders and significant resources.
• Demonstrated ability to create or significantly strengthen BD/fundraising systems (pipelines, CRMs, reporting tools) rather than just operate within established ones.
• Exceptional written communication skills - able to draft and refine proposals, cases for support, and funder communications to a standard that is “external-ready” and highly persuasive.
• Evidence of building strong, trust-based, and strategic relationships with senior funders, partners, and internal leadership teams.
• Good financial acumen with developing and reviewing budgets for complex projects, ensuring compliance with funder requirements.
• Proven ability to lead small teams and consultants, give clear and constructive feedback, coach and maintain high standards under pressure.
• Able to deliver polished, accurate outputs, while keeping momentum on multiple projects simultaneously with strong attention to detail.
• Experience in education, international development, or adjacent fields where large-scale partnership funding is common.

About You:

• You are a builder at heart. You thrive in fast-moving environments where there isn’t always a ready-made playbook, and you are motivated by the chance to shape systems that last.
• You combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution — equally comfortable sketching a multi-year fundraising plan and rolling up your sleeves to polish a last-minute proposal.
• You are a compelling communicator, with the ability to tailor complex ideas into clear, persuasive narratives for different audiences.
• You are a great listener, able to read between the lines in conversations and spot opportunities others might miss.
• You hold exceptionally high standards and pay close attention to detail — whether reviewing budgets, refining copy, or ensuring outputs are on brand.
• You are skilled at giving and receiving feedback in a way that builds trust and sharpens performance.
• You are energized by collaboration and transparency, and you share information freely so that others can succeed alongside you.
• You learn quickly, keep a strong pulse on what’s happening across the organisation, and bring order and grip to complex projects.
• You balance ambition with pragmatism, keeping big goals in view while making steady progress toward them.

Location and reporting:

This role can either be a full-time or long term consultancy position. The role can be done as a fully remote role, or from one of Rising’s operating countries (Ghana, Rwanda, SL, Liberia). The role will report directly to Rising’s Chief Strategy Officer.

Application deadline: Target start date for this role is January 2026.

Why Join Us?

• Impact: Our students achieve learning gains 2.4 times faster than their peers in comparable schools, positioning our impact in the top 10% of global education interventions. This role offers an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to this proven success.
• Continuous Development and Growth: Rising is a Certified B Corp and twice named in its “Best for the World” list. We are committed to continuous development, which is grounded in our values and a vital part of how we bring the ‘Rising Way’ to life. We provide a nurturing environment where our staff are supported with the right ongoing conversations with their managers, among teams and as an organization, to support their career growth and help us reach our goals.
• Compensation: We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. We regularly benchmark our compensation against comparable businesses, social ventures and non-profits. Rising’s goal is to be transparent about salaries at all levels of the organisation and have a standard, global pay scale for all positions that is non-negotiable.

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Rising is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing a work environment that is inclusive and free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, national origin, family or parental status, veteran or disability status.

Rising is committed to creating a culture within the organisation, and its schools, that recognises the importance of safeguarding children and prioritising their rights and needs. We strive to uphold international safeguarding standards, and keep the safety and well-being of our students at the heart of what we do. All Rising employees are expected to abide by the Child Protection Policy, and to have the same level of commitment to protect children from harm. Safeguarding questions are part of every interview process and all Rising employees undergo reference checks before joining the organisation.