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The Role
Leads ISDM’s alumni advancement and placement agenda by building alumni engagement, chapters, mentorship, career programs, employer partnerships, communications, and placement initiatives. The role manages founder advancement support, alumni events, professional development, CRM data, dashboards, institutional partnerships, and fundraising coordination. It also develops relationships with social purpose organizations and sector leaders to expand career opportunities, strengthen recruitment partnerships, and support long-term alumni and institutional outcomes.
Summary Generated by Built In
About ISDM
The Indian School of Development Management (ISDM) is a pioneering management school dedicated to strengthening leadership and management in social development work, producing the future CEOs and founders of impactful social purpose organisations. Since 2016, ISDM has worked across three strategic pillars: preparing talent, influencing practice, and building knowledge for Development Management.
With the rapid growth of India's economy and the rapid growth of development capital in the country, there is a huge opportunity to make a difference to over a billion people over the next couple of decades. However, this burgeoning development capital will need high-quality leadership and management talent to translate this possibility into real impact - talent that understands the complex nature of society and the complexities of driving social change, that can design interventions within these complexities, and that has the knowledge and skills to build and lead development organisations and translate their work into deep, sustained impact at scale.
Development Management needs to bring the head, heart, and hand together to engage with diverse communities, build on their agency, work with limited resources and divergent societal aspirations, and move towards a shared vision of a desirable society. India needs Development Management talent and capabilities across the Samaaj, Sarkaar, and Bazaar to translate this opportunity into reality on the ground, transforming the lives of over a billion people in the country, and eventually offering this discipline to countries across the Global South.
ISDM invites individuals who share its vision to join in creating a dynamic, catalytic ecosystem and positioning India as a thought leader in Development Management, ultimately enabling sustainable social impact at scale. Know more at www.isdm.org.in.
Role Purpose
The Alumni Relations & Placements Manager will drive the execution of ISDM's alumni advancement and placement agenda by building and managing alumni engagement, career development, mentorship, employer partnerships, and placement initiatives that create long-term value for graduates. Working closely with the Associate Director – Partnerships, the role will translate strategy into action through alumni programs, community-building, communications, and industry engagement. The Manager will develop and nurture relationships with Social Purpose Organizations, expanding ISDM's employer network, creating meaningful collaboration opportunities, and strengthening placement outcomes.
Collaborating with alumni, students, faculty, employers, and internal teams, the role will serve as a key steward of ISDM's alumni community while fostering career opportunities and long-term institutional partnerships.
Key Responsibilities
01 Alumni Advancement — Program Implementation
- Support the Associate Director in refining ISDM's Alumni Advancement Strategy, and lead its day-to-day implementation, translating the Theory of Change into concrete programs and activities.
- Implement and continuously improve programs that drive the shift from alumni engagement (participation) to alumni advancement (career and leadership progression), ensuring measurable value for alumni.
- Manage the dual-track model in practice: run differentiated pathways and support structures for founder alumni and employed alumni at each lifecycle stage.
- Coordinate strategy discussions with the internal team and the Leadership Committee, ensuring decisions are documented and followed through on.
- Conduct the Alumni Insight & Strategy Validation Study, synthesize findings and present recommendations to institutional leadership for integration into strategy.
02 Community Building & Chapter Development
- Design and activate a regional and thematic alumni chapter model — mapping potential chapters, recruiting chapter champions and establishing operating norms and support structures.
- Organize and manage a year-round alumni events calendar: reunions, networking mixers, webinars, panel discussions and the annual alumni meet, across physical and virtual formats.
- Design and deliver continuing professional development programs (masterclasses, workshops, sector learning sessions) to support alumni growth throughout their careers.
- Coordinate the recruitment, onboarding and ongoing engagement of the Alumni Advisory Board and Alumni Leadership Council, with mandate-setting and governance framework led by institutional leadership.
- Foster a culture of peer learning, reciprocal mentorship and sector solidarity within the alumni community.
03 Founder Advancement & Institution-Building Support
- Coordinate and implement the Founder Advancement Framework — a priority institutional initiative for 2026–2028 led by the Associate Director — including mapping founder alumni, assessing stage-wise needs and running differentiated support across stages (Emerging → Establishing → Accelerating → Influencing).
- Establish and facilitate Founder Circles: small peer-learning and problem-solving cohorts for alumni building social sector organizations.
- Connect founder alumni to legal, compliance, governance, fundraising and ecosystem partnership resources through ISDM's existing network.
- Identify potential partnerships with incubators, accelerators, CSR teams and sector investors, and escalate promising opportunities to institutional leadership for development.
- Track and report founder advancement outcomes — organizational health, funding secured, team size, sector reach and impact — to inform leadership decision-making.
04 Career Support & Mentorship
- Design and manage a structured mentorship framework matching experienced alumni with current students and recent graduates, with clear onboarding, matching criteria and check-in systems.
- Collaborate with the Placement and Career Services team to surface alumni-led job opportunities, referrals, lateral hiring tracks and sector career pathways.
- Build and maintain relationships with Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs), alumni and sector leaders to create placements, mentorship, guest lectures and career exposure opportunities.
- Lead student placement-readiness initiatives, including career guidance, CV reviews and interview preparation.
- Create platforms for alumni to share sector insights, career case studies, lived experiences and professional advice with current ISDM batches.
- Organize alumni career panels, sector briefings and guest lecture series connecting students to real-world development management contexts.
- Conduct a formal mentorship program review every six months and iterate based on mentor and mentee feedback.
05 Communications & Outreach
- Develop and execute a comprehensive alumni communications plan — spanning newsletters, impact stories, LinkedIn, WhatsApp groups, the alumni portal and periodic direct outreach.
- Write and publish a regular alumni newsletter (minimum quarterly) featuring career updates, sector insights, alumni achievements, institutional news and upcoming opportunities.
- Maintain an up-to-date and searchable Alumni Directory tracking where alumni are working, what they are building and the impact they are creating.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for all alumni queries, ideas, collaboration requests and initiative proposals.
- Manage alumni communications for key institutional moments — admissions season, placement cycles, fundraising campaigns and sector events.
06 Institutional Alignment & Fundraising Support
- Identify and facilitate opportunities for alumni to contribute to ISDM through guest lectures, curriculum advisory roles, admissions outreach, capstone mentorship and research collaboration.
- Support institutional leadership in executing alumni giving campaigns (scholarships, research and institutional development) — managing logistics, communications and alumni-facing coordination.
- Identify and nurture relationships with senior alumni at Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs), escalating high potential institutional partnership opportunities to the Associate Director for development.
- Develop and nurture relationships with HR leaders, Sector partners and senior stakeholders across Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs) to strengthen recruitment partnerships, expand employer networks and support ISDM's placement objectives
07 Governance, Data Management & Reporting
- Maintain a robust, accurate and secure alumni database — tracking career progression, role changes, sector movements, achievements and engagement history for all ISDM graduates.
- Audit and clean the CRM at role-start; establish data hygiene protocols and update cadences to keep information current.
- Set up and manage an Alumni Advancement Dashboard — tracking engagement metrics, mentorship outcomes, founder advancement indicators, chapter activity and giving data.
- Maintain a robust, accurate and secure alumni database — tracking career progression, role changes, sector movements, achievements and engagement history for all ISDM graduates.
- Support the Alumni Advisory Board and institutional leadership in operationalizing alumni association policies, bylaws and governance guidelines.
Qualifications & Experience
Education
• Master's degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Human Resource Management, Public Relations, Communications, Management or a related field.
• A postgraduate qualification from a development management or social sector institution is an advantage.
Experience
• 5–7 years of relevant professional experience in alumni relations, community management, stakeholder engagement, development sector networking, higher education administration or public relations.
• Demonstrated experience designing and managing programmes or initiatives end-to-end. • Experience working within or closely with NGOs, social enterprises, foundations, CSR teams or development sector institutions is strongly preferred.
• Prior exposure to research, data management or CRM systems is an advantage.
Preferred Background
• Candidates who have spent significant time in the social sector as practitioners bring natural credibility and community trust to this role.
• Experience managing a volunteer or chapter network, or coordinating with senior professional communities, is particularly valuable.
Key Competencies
- Community Cultivation & Relationship Building - Proven ability to build authentic relationships with diverse professionals and sustain long-term engagement across career stages, geographies and sector contexts.
- Programme Design & Delivery - Ability to translate strategic direction into well-designed and effectively delivered programmes and systems, while continuously improving them based on feedback, learning and outcomes.
- Communication & Storytelling - Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling newsletters, impact stories and communications that represent ISDM's mission with clarity, warmth and authenticity.
- Research & Insight Integration - Comfortable designing and facilitating alumni listening sessions and focus group discussions (FGDs), with the ability to synthesise insights and translate findings into actionable programme recommendations.
- Event & Project Management - Strong organisational and project management skills to plan and execute events ranging from intimate founder circles to large-scale annual alumni meets, ensuring timely delivery and effective budget management.
- Data & CRM Management - Proficiency in CRM platforms, alumni portals and engagement dashboards, with a strong commitment to maintaining data accuracy, hygiene, confidentiality and meaningful reporting.
- Collaborative & Cross-functional Working - Ability to work effectively across admissions, marketing, placements, faculty and leadership teams, building strong partnerships and driving outcomes without formal authority.
- Development Sector Alignment - Deep understanding of the social impact ecosystem, its career pathways, institutional structures and the professional realities of development sector practitioners.
- Founder Empathy - Genuine understanding of what it means to build a social sector organisation, including the challenges, inflection points and evolving support needs of development management founders.
Why This Role
High institutional priority
Alumni advancement is one of ISDM's top three institutional priorities for 2026–2028. This role works in close, direct partnership with institutional leadership on a high-visibility mandate.
Purpose-driven community
ISDM alumni are practitioners committed to social change. This is a community worth building, and the Alumni Relations Manager will shape its day-to-day experience for a generation of graduates.
Room to build
This is a build role, not a maintenance role. You will design systems, launch programmes and establish structures that don't yet exist — with institutional support, creative latitude and a clear line of sight to leadership.
Remuneration for this role will be commensurate with qualifications & experience. To learn more about us and apply, check out isdm.org.in/careers.
ISDM is an equal-opportunity organization with a particular emphasis on affirmative action. The culture of the organization is one of professionalism while also one that greatly values relationships.
Skills Required
- Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Human Resource Management, Public Relations, Communications, Management, or a related field
- 5–7 years of relevant experience in alumni relations, community management, stakeholder engagement, development-sector networking, higher education administration, or public relations
- Demonstrated experience designing and managing programs or initiatives end-to-end
- Experience working with NGOs, social enterprises, foundations, CSR teams, or development-sector institutions
- Experience with research, data management, or CRM systems
- Experience managing volunteer or chapter networks or coordinating senior professional communities
- Strong relationship-building, program delivery, communication, research, event management, project management, and cross-functional collaboration skills
- Understanding of the social impact ecosystem, development-sector career pathways, and social-sector organizational challenges
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The Company
What We Do
ISDM is an Indian management school and institutional home of Development Management. It prepares leaders for India’s development ecosystem through postgraduate education, research, strategic capacity-building, and knowledge creation. Its work integrates leadership, management, and social-change practice to strengthen social-purpose organisations and institutions, helping address complex social challenges and enable sustainable transformation at scale throughout India.
