Who We Are!
🌍 Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more young people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined.
At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent.
Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by:
- Introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary and
- Delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.
To date, more than 500,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.
Educate! is a team of over 300 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations, and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.
We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Livelihood Impact Fund, Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.
Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.
Good to note: To Our Awesome Applicants! 🚀💫
We know that incredible candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don’t meet every requirement. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply!
We’re looking for passionate individuals who believe in our mission and can bring unique perspectives to our team—not just those who check every box. We value diversity and strongly encourage women and individuals from all backgrounds to apply.
Position Overview
Over the past four years, Educate! has grown 3x - and we're just getting started. With an ambitious goal of reaching $100M in revenue by 2035, we are building the team and infrastructure to match the scale of our vision. This is an exciting opportunity to join a high-performing organization at a key inflection point.
High Net Worth (HNW) philanthropy represents one of the most promising frontiers in our fundraising strategy. We know the potential is enormous. We also know that unlocking it requires building the right foundations first.
That's where you come in.
This is not a role for someone who wants to step into a polished, fully-built function. This is a role for a builder - someone who thrives in high-ambiguity environments, is energized by creating infrastructure from scratch, and understands that the most durable fundraising relationships are built on genuine connection and strategic rigour.
Over the next 18–24 months, you will lay the groundwork for a scalable, world-class HNW fundraising operation: mapping our network, developing the systems and materials that will allow us to engage high-value donors at scale, and strategically pursuing the near-term opportunities that prove the model. In doing so, you will directly shape our path to $100M — and position Educate! to make a transformational leap in impact.
What You’ll Do🌟
Network Mapping and Donor Prospecting (20%)
- Build our pipeline of HNW prospects from the ground up. This means identifying the right individuals, organisations (think Jane Street, Anthropic, Bridgewater) family offices, donor-advised fund advisors, and giving networks; developing systems for prospect qualification and tracking; and creating a living, dynamic view of where every relationship stands and what it will take to move it forward. Expect to go deep on research, connect dots others miss, and build a prospecting infrastructure that scales well beyond you.
Relationship Management Infrastructure (20%)
- Implement and oversee the processes, tools, and engagement frameworks - including our CRM - that allow us to manage relationships at the highest standard - bespoke 1:1 engagement plans for our most promising prospects, and scalable stewardship approaches for a broader HNW audience. You will establish gold-standard practices that the function can grow into.
High Net Worth (HNW) Fundraising Materials & Positioning (20%)
- Build Educate!'s HNW-facing collateral: concise, compelling narratives, tailored pitch decks, funding menus, and bespoke briefings for priority prospects. We're looking for someone who can write and think clearly and strategically, and who can synthesize complex programmatic information into compelling, credible stories.
Events and Cultivation (20%)
- Design and coordinate intimate, high-value cultivation events - and other offerings - that deepen existing relationships and open new doors - in particular in high potential geographies (West Coast US, New York, London) leveraging our senior network. You will also increase Educate!'s visibility and presence at the most important external events in the HNW and philanthropy space.
Market Intelligence and Audience Insights (20%)
- Keep your finger on the pulse of the HNW philanthropic landscape - the publications, podcasts, Substacks, social channels, and communities that shape how high-capacity donors think about giving, impact, and global development. You will synthesize these insights and feed them to our communications team, ensuring that Educate!'s external voice consistently shows up where it matters most.
Who You Are 🦸♀️🦸♂️
We are looking for someone early in a high-performance career who is ready to step into genuine ownership and make their mark. What matters most is not years of experience, but the quality of your thinking, your execution, and your drive. The ideal candidate brings:
- Early but clear evidence of high performance in demanding environments — whether in consulting, a fast-growth startup, a nonprofit, or elsewhere. You take ownership, you follow through, and you find a way to make things happen.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, particularly for high-stakes, external-facing materials. You can turn a complex set of ideas into a compelling narrative - and you hold yourself to an unusually high bar.
- Strong organizational skills and a bias for execution. You manage competing priorities without losing momentum, work independently to deadlines, and leave things more structured than you found them.
- Some exposure to high-value external relationships, strategic initiatives, or fundraising - even in a supporting capacity. You understand the care and rigour required to build relationships that move large capital, and you’re ready to take on more ownership of that work.
- The curiosity and intelligence to get up to speed quickly on Educate!'s work, our funder landscape, and the HNW philanthropy ecosystem. You don't need to know everything - you need to be the kind of person who finds out fast.
- A deep commitment to Educate!'s mission and a genuine sense of responsibility for the relationships and workflows you manage. You understand that this work matters.
- Fits our Five Culture Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here
What We Offer
- This is a full-time position. A minimum two-year commitment is requested to best meet potential professional growth at Educate! and team needs.
- This role is preferably based in the UK or East Africa. We are a distributed team and support flexible, high-trust working arrangements across time zones."
- A vibrant, mission-driven environment with a supportive and fun team.
- Competitive salary based on experience.
- Learning & growth opportunities
Application Process: Rolling basis, interviews happening soon!
Terms
Our Culture & Tenets(Values) 🌱
We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.
- We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We are purpose-driven, focused on impact, and prioritize what truly matters. We listen to youth, design our efforts around their needs, and ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences they value.
- We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results—proactively identifying problems and seeking solutions without waiting or stopping at what's requested.
- We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded and continuously try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
- We are One Team, Many Views - We value all individuals, believe diverse ideas and open dialogue drive excellence, foster a supportive and respectful environment where everyone can freely express themselves. We work as one team and prioritize the organization's mission over personal or team interests.
- We have the Startup Mindset - We innovate relentlessly to grow our impact, we never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.”We constantly challenge the status quo, embrace change, and move quickly toward our vision. Unafraid of failure, we question anything that hinders progress.
Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do. Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.
We’re committed to ensuring all candidates are screened for child and youth safety. As part of the process, you’ll need to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct. Educate! reserves the right to withdraw employment offers if any risks to youth are identified.
