Global Vice President of Resource Mobilization (Remote)

Position description

VisionSpring, an international social enterprise, seeks a dynamic global vice president of resource mobilization to accelerate the uptake of eyeglasses in low-income communities. Why eyeglasses? Eyeglasses are a low-cost, high-impact, scalable product that enable people to maintain their livelihoods, achieve in school, stay safe on roads, and participate fully in society, yet more than 1 billion people do not have the eyeglasses they need to see well and do well.

In 2021, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the ‘Vision for Everyone’ resolution recognizing eye health and vision correction as a driver of multiple sustainable development goals. The resolution gave rise to the global strategy, WHO SPECS 2030, to achieve the target adopted by UN member states of increasing the effective coverage of refractive errors with eyeglasses by 40 percentage points by the year 2030.

Once an outside voice championing eyeglasses as a powerful tool for social and economic development, VisionSpring is at the heart of a global movement to close the clear vision gap. Our most recent randomized controlled trial conducted with third-party researchers revealed that reading glasses increased median monthly income in rural Bangladesh by 33% (THRIVE, 2024). With new evidence, systems change momentum, a transformational gift from MacKenzie Scott, and VisionSpring’s 20+ year track record of delivering vision access solutions, we are scaling up our most promising product and service delivery models that serve people living on less than $4 per day.

The global vice president designs and leads the resource mobilization strategy for VisionSpring’s next growth stage, in which we will double our impact to correct the vision of our 20-millionth customer by 2026. The person in this role raises more than $16M a year in earned contract revenue and philanthropic capital, and develops and leads a $70M Livelihoods in Focus campaign—expanding upon a robust portfolio of leading foundations such as the Skoll Foundation and Mulago Foundation; bilateral donors, including USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures; a preeminent buy-one-give-one partnership with Warby Parker; and a growing cadre of corporate social responsibility partners.

The global vice president skillfully leads all aspects of fundraising from pipeline and proposal development to reporting and relationship stewardship. They work closely with the CEO and founder to explore innovative funding and financing opportunities. This person fosters an organizational culture that advances social equity, takes calculated risks, and learns together.

This position reports to the CEO, leads a team of 11 fundraising and business development professionals based in the U.S., Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, and works closely with the communications team. The global vice president must be located between UTC-05:00 and UTC+06:00, with Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Eastern Time Zone, or Zambia preferred, and must be legally eligible to work in their country of residence.

ABOUT YOU

• Activator: You have deep experience with international fundraising and are energized by raising new growth capital to fuel strategic expansion and achieve mission objectives.
• Relationship builder: You paint a picture of the future that excites others about what they are going to make possible. You bring stakeholders together to invest in collaborative action and nurture lasting, trust-based relationships.
• Goal oriented: You are a top performer in a high-growth environment. You build a robust funding pipeline and manage to milestones that make big goals attainable.
• Skilled writer: You find it easy to get thoughts on paper. Colleagues consider you their editor-in-chief and seek your help to build cases for support.
• Inclusive player-coach: You mentor and develop people. In a diverse organization, you create opportunities for participation and increased responsibility. You model vulnerability, accountability, and roll-up your sleeves to deliver. 

ABOUT US

• VisionSpring is creating access to affordable eyewear, everywhere. Clear vision creates opportunities for increased learning, work, safety, civic participation, and quality of life.
• As a social enterprise, social change motivates us first. Our focus on sales and revenue targets serves and advances our mission objective—to increase functioning, productivity, and income earning potential for our low-income consumers by correcting refractive error and presbyopia with eyeglasses.
• We are working to transform the systemic dysfunction of an optical market that has failed to deliver eyeglasses—a 700-year-old technology—to 1 billion consumers in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 a day.
• We serve low-income consumers, not as beneficiaries but as customers. Our customers expect a high-quality and affordable product, and they will spend limited discretionary income for the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• By selling eyeglasses, we awaken new demand and seed a viable market. To efficiently scale, we must deliver each new unit with lower cost.
• We run our business on both sales metrics and social impact measures. We use a range of organizational forms and practices to get the job done.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organization. We are a lean team of doers.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Resource Mobilization Strategy

• Develop a resource mobilization strategy that fuels VisionSpring’s aspiration to correct the vision of 5M people, with $16M in raised funds annually by 2026.
• Prepare annual, global department goals and budget, and country- and program-specific business plans aligned to the enterprise strategy.
• Maintain VisionSpring’s high level of unrestricted support and continue to increase VisionSpring’s institutional philanthropy, corporate giving and contracts, and bilateral and multilateral agency support.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of resource mobilization initiatives to inform future plans.
• Work with the marketing and communications team to elevate VisionSpring’s funder-facing brand, and ensure messaging aligns with VisionSpring’s values and voice.
• Stay abreast of sector developments, demonstrating an in-depth understanding of issues pertaining to vision, livelihoods, education, and road safety, as well as deep knowledge of VisionSpring’s business models, evidence, and impact.

Fundraising

• Develop a dynamic portfolio of grants, contracts, and other financing that generate multi-year funding.
• Position VisionSpring for strategic opportunities. Gain early intelligence on donor initiatives and capitalize on VisionSpring’s hybrid revenue model.
• Manage the global fundraising pipeline using a metrics-driven approach. Guide teams to maintain and use accurate information in Salesforce to track progress against goals.
• Facilitate collaborative proposal development processes that draw upon the technical and contextual knowledge of VisionSpring team members.
• Refine technically sound proposal and reporting processes, tools, and templates (including logic models, work plans, and budgets). Guide fundraising staff in using them.
• Support the CEO and founder with developing new relationships and participating in public forums.

Retention and Relationship Growth

• Effectively connect VisionSpring’s funders with the impact they make possible through succinct reports, multi-media, quarterly briefings, site visits, co-presentations, and helping funders share their experiences with internal and external stakeholders.
• Cultivate and sustain long-term collaborations, including consortium. Lead joint-funding submissions and develop opportunities for co-investment among funders.
• Work with market-based teams to proactively share timely and accurate information about successes, challenges, and remediation.
• Serve as an ambassador who draws new audiences to eyeglasses, not as a health intervention, but as a livelihood, education, and road safety intervention.

Development Team Management

• Manage the global resource mobilization team, guiding the work of in-market business development team members through a matrixed structure.
• Engage team members in developing the resource mobilization strategy and champion their professional development.
• Evolve the composition and functions of a geographically distributed team to meet VisionSpring’s changing needs.
• Promote a team culture that embodies VisionSpring’s core values: help others to do well; advance equity; constantly adapt, relentlessly improve; default to transparency, reveal hard truths; learn together.

Cross-enterprise Leadership

• Contribute to evolving VisionSpring’s strategic framework and business models, offering insights regarding donor/client strategies and funding trends, as a member of the leadership team.
• Actively champion, model, and advance the organizational commitment to racial, gender, and geographic equity and inclusion.
• Foster the development of all VisionSpring staff to participate in organizational fundraising by leading internal training sessions, informal staff coaching, etc.
• Contribute to the creation and implementation of organizational policies, and facilitate collaboration and information sharing across the organization.
• Support the governance mandate of the board of directors through transparent, timely information sharing regarding VisionSpring’s fundraising position and plans.

WHAT’S REQUIRED

• 15+ years of experience raising philanthropic funds, forging relationships with government agencies and multilaterals, and managing relations with a client services approach. 
• Demonstrated success leading a global portfolio of unrestricted and restricted funds with revenue performance of $10 million or more.
• Strong management skills. Solution oriented. Experience developing systems to meet deadlines and managing multiple initiatives effectively.
• Exceptional skills in proposal writing and meeting facilitation.
• Effective across diverse contexts and cultures. Proven commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Meets the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity, with demonstrated discretion in handling confidential information.
• Must be legally authorized to work in your chosen country of residence.
• Ability to travel, up to 25% of time, to locations with limited infrastructure.
• Extra Credit—Preference will be given to candidates with any of the following areas of experience: (1) Living and working in a low-income setting in a low- or middle-income country; (2) Deep knowledge of VisionSpring’s subject areas—vision, global health, livelihoods, road safety, and/or social entrepreneurship; (3) Multi-stakeholder fundraising, i.e., developing a pooled fund, alliance, etc.; (4) Leadership role in a successful capital campaign; (5) Working in a high-growth environment; and/or (6) Master’s degree in a relevant field.

COMPENSATION

• VisionSpring offers competitive benefits, including a performance-based bonus, health insurance, and five weeks of paid time off.
• Salary range will be disclosed to candidates invited to interview.

Application instructions

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