Partnerships Lead

Consultancy: Partnerships Lead (Bay Area)

Location: Must be based in the Bay Area, California
Working model: Remote, with regular in-person presence across the Bay Area ecosystem
Hours: 15–20 hours per week
Period: October 2026 – March 2027, with option to renew
Travel: Occasional domestic travel; one visit to Kenya anticipated
Fee: Flat monthly retainer
Start date: October 2026

About Food for Education (F4E)  
Food4Education is an award-winning, African-led nonprofit tackling classroom hunger with a locally rooted, scalable model. Building on more than a decade of learning by doing, we are powering a new school-feeding industry and sharing our blueprint to scale sustainable, nutritious and affordable school-feeding programs across Africa.

We serve over 650,000 students daily in Kenya, but what we deliver goes beyond the meal. Each plate improves nutrition, fuels learning and creates jobs that uplift entire communities. We have served more than 220 million cumulative meals since inception, growing from 25 children fed daily in 2012 to over 650,000 students every day in 2026, across 2,000+ public schools and early childhood centers.

Parents pay for meals through a mobile money system linked to NFC wristbands, which children wear and “Tap2Eat” in under five seconds to access their meal. We are an experienced, trusted nonprofit partner that operates with the excellence of a global business, reinvesting the value we create into local economies.
Our goal is to sustainably reach 1 million students in Kenya by 2027, and at least another 2 million across Africa by 2030 through our new Center of Excellence and technical assistance arm. 

About the Role  
The Bay Area is one of the wealthiest metropolitan areas in the US, with a significant transfer of new wealth currently underway. A dense concentration of high-growth technology, venture capital and finance companies is moving through IPOs, acquisitions and other liquidity events at a scale and pace few other regions can match, creating an unusually large and fast-growing pool of newly liquid individual wealth. 
Historical patterns suggest a meaningful share of that flows into charitable vehicles: in 2021, a $142 billion IPO year coincided with a 46.6% jump in contributions to donor-advised funds. Analysts project $12–32 billion in new DAF contributions from the current wave.

Three features of this opportunity define the shape of this consultancy.

• The money moves late. Charitable capital is not nonprofit revenue. DAFs pay out at roughly 25% annually, and the steepest increases in actual giving occur 12–18 months after a liquidity event, not at the IPO itself. The organizations that receive this money will be the ones already known and trusted before the window opens. Food4Education’s task in the next six months is therefore to become known, not to close gifts.
• The donors are not only founders. The larger and more accessible population is several thousand newly liquid engineers, researchers, and early employees making gifts in the $10,000–$500,000 range, often through employer matching and DAFs. This is a materially different prospecting motion from institutional foundations, and one in which F4E currently has no presence.
• F4E has an unusually strong narrative fit. Tap2Eat, NFC wristbands, mobile money rails and a data-instrumented supply chain feeding hundreds of thousands of children daily at a few cents per meal is an infrastructure and systems story, not a charity story. It is credible to technically literate donors who are skeptical of traditional aid narratives, and it speaks directly to a segment of the Bay Area's newly wealthy who are actively looking to direct that wealth toward tangible, measurable human outcomes.

The consultant’s job is to convert that fit into access, before the giving window opens. 
 
Objective of the Consultancy
To establish Food4Education as a known, credible, and well-positioned recipient of philanthropic capital within the Bay Area's wealthy donor ecosystem, by mapping the prospect landscape, generating qualified warm introductions, and building the partnership infrastructure required for F4E leadership to convert those relationships into funding.

Scope of Work
Workstream 1: Landscape mapping and prospect intelligence

• Produce a segmented map of the Bay Area giving landscape, covering: companies at or approaching liquidity; founders and executives with declared or emerging philanthropic intent; corporate social impact and employee-giving functions; the DAF sponsors, family offices and philanthropic advisors who intermediate this capital; and the funder collaboratives and giving circles active in global development, education and food systems.
• Prioritize a target list of 50 named prospects with a stated rationale, estimated capacity, and route to introduction for each.
• Provide a written point of view on where F4E’s mission has genuine resonance and, equally important, where it does not.

Workstream 2: Access and ecosystem presence

• Generate qualified warm introductions from the consultant’s own network and through systematically cultivated second-degree routes.
• Secure and prepare speaking, panel and convening opportunities that place F4E leadership in front of relevant audiences.
• Represent F4E at relevant Bay Area events, and identify the small number of gatherings where F4E’s presence is worth the cost.
• Advise on and, where appropriate, help design a Bay Area convening hosted or co-hosted by F4E.

Workstream 3: The US technology partnership offer

• Develop a clear, differentiated partnership offer for Bay Area companies and newly wealthy donors, spanning corporate giving, sponsorship, employee engagement and matching, and skills-based collaboration.
• Translate F4E’s existing impact evidence into materials that read as credible to a technical audience — unit economics, systems design and measurement, rather than sentiment.
• Work with F4E communications to adapt existing collateral rather than commissioning new production.

Deliverables and Timeline

Month 1 (October 2026)

• Inception note: the consultant’s reading of the opportunity, proposed prioritization, and any challenge to the assumptions in this ToR.
• Version 1 of the ecosystem map and the draft target list of 50 prospects.
• Agreed engagement calendar for the six-month term.

Month 2 (November 2026)

• Final prioritized target list with routes to introduction.
• Outreach underway; first introductions made.
• Draft US technology partnership offer.
• Readiness assessment for gift instruments and matching platforms.

Month 3 (December 2026) — Review Gate

• Joint go / adjust / no-go decision with Development Team Leadership on priority leads 

Months 4–6 (January 2026 – March 2027)

• Sustained introduction and cultivation cadence at the agreed monthly rate.
• Final partnership offer and supporting materials in use.
• At least two substantive partnership or gift conversations advanced to a stage where F4E leadership can solicit.
• Closing report: the full mapped landscape, the state of every relationship, a 12-month recommended plan, and a handover pack enabling F4E to continue without the consultant.

Reporting and Management
The consultant reports to the Head of US Philanthropy. The working rhythm is:

• A 45-minute one-on-one each week.
• A short written weekly report: pipeline, introductions made and their status, what is working, what is not, and what the consultant needs from F4E.
• All contacts, conversations, and next steps logged in Salesforce

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrable, current relationships within the Bay Area technology ecosystem, and a track record of converting those relationships into introductions that led somewhere. Candidates should expect to evidence this specifically.
• Seven or more years in development, partnerships, marketing, sales or an adjacent field, including experience with major gifts, corporate giving or sponsorship.
• Working knowledge of how technology wealth actually gives: DAFs, appreciated stock, matching programs, family offices and philanthropic advisors.
• Strong written and verbal communication, with the judgment to pitch to both executive and technically literate audiences.
• Fluency with CRM discipline; Salesforce experience required.
• Bay Area based, with the ability to be physically present in the ecosystem.
• Comfortable operating with high autonomy in a remote, fast-moving organization across a significant time-zone difference from headquarters.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience with technology corporate philanthropy, employee giving programs, or cause-related partnerships.
• Experience fundraising for global development, education or food systems organizations.
• Familiarity with venture, accelerator and corporate innovation communities.
• Genuine interest in what a school day looks like when a child is not hungry, and the ability to tell that story to people who will not be moved by a photograph.

What This Role Is Not
Stated plainly: this is not a general fundraising role, not a grant-writing role, and not a communications production role. It is a role for someone with an existing network. And it is not, in this first term, a solicitation role — F4E leadership will make the asks.

Fees and Payment
This engagement is compensated as a flat monthly retainer, invoiced monthly in arrears and paid within 30 days. Candidates should propose their own fee, stating the proposed monthly retainer, the daily rate, and the number of days per month that retainer assumes.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this term is measured in access, intelligence, and readiness.

At Month 3, the review gate. The engagement continues if:

• A prioritized target list of 40-50 named prospects exists
• At least 10 qualified conversations have taken place — meaning a real meeting with someone who can influence a giving decision, not a message sent.
• At least 3 of those have progressed to a second interaction.

At Month 6, the successful candidate will have had:

• 30–40 qualified conversations 
• 10–15 relationships are live and warm, with a named F4E owner and a defined next step.
• At least 2 opportunities have reached the point where F4E leadership can make a specific, sized ask.
• At least 1 corporate partnership or employee-giving conversation has reached the stage of a concrete proposal.
• The partnership offer and materials exist and are being used.
• The handover pack means the pipeline survives the consultant’s departure.

How to Apply
Please submit a CV or professional profile together with a short proposal, no more than three pages, covering:

• Your read on this opportunity, including anything you think the ToR is missing
• Two or three specific examples of introductions you have generated and where they led. 
• How you would spend the first 30 days.
• Your proposed monthly retainer, the day rate, and days per month it assumes
• Two references from organizations that engaged you for network access.

Selection Process
Shortlisted candidates will complete a first conversation with the team; a working session in which they present an initial view of the prospect landscape and how they would approach it; and a reference stage focused specifically on whether the network is real and currently active.

F4E is committed to building an inclusive workplace where diverse perspectives are valued. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and lived experiences, and make engagement decisions based on merit, potential and alignment with our values.