Head - Foundation - NGO

Organization: LANDMARK FOUNDATION

Job Title: HEAD OF FOUNDATION

Reports to: PROMOTING FAMILITY, LIPL BOARD AND LF TRUSTEES

Location: BANGALORE

Introduction:

Founded in 1973 with the belief that everybody should have access to great retail at the best value, Landmark Group has grown into one of the largest retail and hospitality organisations in the Middle East, India and South-East Asia.

The Group has 48,000 employees and operates more than 2,200 outlets in 21 countries, covering over 30 million square feet. Its portfolio of in-house brands include apparel, footwear, home goods, as well as fitness centres, restaurants, hotels and family entertainment.

Landmark Group is committed to being a sustainable organisation. Their People and Planet strategy describes their agenda and ambitions across their value chain. This includes taking a circular approach on how their products are made, ensuring a fair and safe workplace for their employees and suppliers, as well as creating positive social impact across communities.

Landmark Group's Community Investment:

They believe in a world where people have the opportunity to live healthy and dignified lives. To create greater impact, they focus on areas where they can do the most good, by combining the unique strengths of their business alongside their philanthropy.

They focus on three areas - Education & Employment, Health & Well-being and Disaster Relief - collaborating with various stakeholders representing civil society, including local social organisations, UN agencies, governments and academic institutions.

In India, they manage their community investments through their corporate CSR, as well as through Life Foundation, an operational foundation driven as a separate social impact arm.

Education & Employment:

They aim to provide opportunities through quality education and encourage employment, giving young people and vulnerable groups the opportunity of a decent life. They do this through various programmes, including employment and apprenticeship opportunities for people with disabilities, women and other marginalized groups.

Life Foundation is the largest educational partner of Mumbai's municipal body, running programmes to enhance public education, including teacher networks and training as well as academic and life skills education. In the last 22 years, the foundation has impacted over 5 million lives.

Health & Well-being:

Their Health & Well-being programmes focus on providing access to physical and mental health support and encourage people to live active, healthy lifestyles. In 2009, they launched their flagship Beat Diabetes programme to spread awareness on the prevention and management of diabetes. They conduct year-round activities, community events and media campaigns reaching over 20 million people annually. They've engaged in over 100 public and private sector partnerships including schools, regional and international diabetes associations and, recently, the World Health Organisation's Global Diabetes Compact Forum.

They also focus on supporting stakeholders in their value chain, particularly factory workers and communities near distribution centres through comprehensive health interventions. And through Life Foundation, their health programmes intersect with their educational efforts in public schools, childcare centres and surrounding communities. Interventions include health camps, food banks and emergency medical treatment.

Disaster Relief:

They mobilize to execute short- and long-term activities which respond to natural disasters, drawing on their strengths and resources to support relief efforts for people in emergency situations. Since the onset of COVID-19, they mobilized a relief programme to support various vulnerable communities and people across their value chain, including access to health services and vaccinations, food and other essential items, donations of health equipment and other efforts to meet the needs of society in the Middle East, South Asia and beyond.

Way Forward:

Going forward, they are evolving their model in India, bringing their community work in CSR and philanthropy under one umbrella, with the aim to drive more strategic, focused social impact. This will be housed by Landmark Foundation, a new organisation they will be setting up, with the ambition to enable and accelerate their impact, driven by their philosophy of creating meaningful value for all lives.

In particular, the foundation is looking to focus on skilling, enabling underprivileged youth to lead empowered and dignified lives.

This is an exciting turning point for Landmark Group, with the opportunity to set the strategic and programmatic direction of the foundation, enabling the highest and best uses of resources to advance social impact.

Read more about Landmark Foundation's work at: https://www.landmarkgroup.com/int/en/home

Reason for the hire:

Landmark Foundation is seeking a Foundation Head who is passionate about implementing efficient, effective and scalable programmes for marginalized communities through their own programs and partners. The incumbent will be responsible for setting up the foundation, building a high-performing team, defining the strategy and programmes which underpin Landmark Group's social objectives, managing the budget and fundraising aspects, as well as guide on overall operations. The candidate must be an experienced leader with a successful history of advising founders, leading programmes through the complete life cycle. She/he/they must be a leader, problem-solver, and trusted business partner, in managing programmes at a large scale. Most crucial is their ability to measure outcomes and ensure that the beneficiary receives the maximum benefit of the funds.

To be successful in this role, they will have to challenge the status quo and constantly seek innovative, simple solutions to exciting and complex problems. The incumbent must be a data-driven decision maker and have the ability to see the big picture, but never lose sight of the detail. She\he\they must be driven to create change, yet understand patience and collaboration are required in successfully launching complex programmes. Most importantly, the incumbent must be a talented, top-performing management professional who will never sacrifice their integrity and is passionate about the mission, which is what drives them to bring their whole self to work each day.

Roles and Responsibilities:

- Provide Leadership

- Fundraising and Communications

- Operations and Governance

Note: The roles and responsibilities outlined above are not meant to be an exhaustive list of tasks.

The need for flexibility is required and the job holder is expected to carry out any other related duties that are within the employee's skills and abilities whenever reasonably instructed.

Must Haves:

- The incumbent must come with a hybrid experience in private and social sector: 20+ years of total experience, of which 8-10 years have be spent in social sector.

- The incumbent must have demonstrated record of experience in senior leadership roles in comparable and complex organisations with a growth mindset and high levels of ambition.

- The incumbent should have the ability to show both business acumen, including an understanding of different financial models and approaches, and manage complexity and scale.

- The incumbent must have a demonstrated track of success in strategic planning, partnership building, program design and implementation, along with a demonstrated experience in scaling up a business/not for profit organization in terms of expanded budgets, revenue and team size and operational capacities.

- The incumbent should have sound experience in developing and strengthening operational management systems and policies for effective implementation of programmes and operations at scale.

- The incumbent should have the ability to raise substantial funds and build strategic partnerships for organizational sustainability and growth.

- The incumbent must be experienced in high level stakeholder engagement with leadership in Government, Donors, Philanthropies, Private Sector, Boards and High-Level Committees; having secured income to fund organizational growth.

- The incumbent must have an understanding of the political economy narrative of the country at the national and sub-national level. She\he\they must have demonstrated experience in strategic partnership development, with proven ability to network and influence at the highest levels of government, business, civil society and engage a wide range of stakeholders.

- The incumbent must have a demonstrated track record of team management experience; having built and led a diverse and high performing team. Is able to recruit, guide and build capabilities of teams to support institutional growth.

Third Sector Partners is a pioneering cause-connected executive search firm and has been retained for this position. Interested candidates can send in their CVs along with three references and a cover note. The last date to send in your application is February 29th 2024.

Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.