Mission in progress counting-down to launch

Chief Funding Officer/Co-Founder Profile

IMPECCABLE AI

Position: Co-Founder & Chief Funding Officer

Position Overview

We're seeking a mission-driven co-founder to lead fundraising and financial sustainability for Impeccable AI—an offline-first AI literacy agent for children ages 8-16 in the Global South and around the globe. This role requires someone who can navigate the complex landscape of philanthropic funding, impact investment, and mission-aligned partnerships while maintaining our uncompromising commitment to child privacy and community governance.

This is not a typical fundraising role. You'll be promoting a vision that explicitly rejects the business models that make most EdTech companies profitable. You'll need to convince funders that ethical AI for children is worth supporting precisely because it refuses to extract data, maximize engagement, or compromise on privacy.

Key Challenge: Secure $500K-1M in initial funding for a startup that promises never to monetize children's data or attention.

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Core Responsibilities

Phase 1: Foundation & Strategy

1. Define organizational structure and funding strategy

   • Determine nonprofit vs. for-profit vs. hybrid model

   • Research optimal legal structure (501(c)(3), B-Corp, PBC, hybrid)

   • Develop a 3-year financial sustainability roadmap

   • Identify funding sources aligned with our mission

2. Build funder relationships

   • Map foundation landscape (Gates, Mastercard, Schmidt Futures, Jacobs, Mozilla, etc.)

   • Identify program officers and decision-makers

   • Cultivate relationships with impact investors (if for-profit path)

   • Connect with government grant programs (USAID, UK Aid, EU)

3. Develop fundraising materials

   • Create a compelling pitch deck

   • Write grant proposals and letters of inquiry

   • Develop budget models and financial projections

   • Build a case for support with impact metrics

Phase 2: Fundraising Sprint

4. Execute fundraising campaign

   • Submit applications to 15-20 aligned funders

   • Schedule meetings with foundation officers

   • Negotiate terms that protect mission integrity

   • Secure first $500K-1M in committed funding

5. Build financial infrastructure

   • Help establish bank accounts, accounting systems

   • Set up grant management and reporting processes

   • Create transparent budget allocation framework

   • Develop funder communication and stewardship plan

Phase 3: Sustainability & Growth

6. Diversify revenue streams

   • Explore earned revenue opportunities (facilitator training, premium tools)

   • Develop Global North licensing model to subsidize Global South

   • Build corporate partnership pipeline (Google.org, Microsoft Philanthropies)

   • Create multi-year funding commitments from diverse sources

7. Financial leadership

   • Manage organizational budget and cash flow

   • Report to funders with transparency and impact data

   • Advise on strategic decisions with financial implications

   • Plan for scaling while maintaining mission integrity

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Required Skills & Experience

Must-Have (Non-Negotiable)

Fundraising Experience

• ✅ 3+ years securing grants or investments for mission-driven organizations

• ✅ Proven track record raising $500K+ (cumulative)

• ✅ Experience with foundations, government grants, or impact investors

• ✅ Ability to write compelling grant proposals and pitch decks

• ✅ Understanding of nonprofit vs. for-profit funding landscapes

Mission Alignment & Values

• ✅ Deep commitment to ethical technology and child protection

• ✅ Understanding of Global South development challenges

• ✅ Ability to advocate for mission over financial expediency

• ✅ Comfort saying "no" to funding that compromises values

Strategic Thinking

• ✅ Financial modeling and budget development

• ✅ Understanding of organizational sustainability models

• ✅ Ability to balance idealism with pragmatism

• ✅ Systems thinking about funding ecosystems

Communication Skills

• ✅ Exceptional written and verbal communication

• ✅ Storytelling ability to make complex tech accessible

• ✅ Relationship-building with diverse stakeholders

• ✅ Cultural sensitivity and humility

Highly Desirable

EdTech or International Development

• 🔸 Experience in education technology or Global South contexts

• 🔸 Knowledge of USAID, Gates Foundation, or similar major funders

• 🔸 Connections in philanthropic or impact investing communities

• 🔸 Understanding of ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development)

Business & Legal Knowledge

• 🔸 Understanding of nonprofit law and compliance

• 🔸 Experience with B-Corps, Public Benefit Corporations, or social enterprises

• 🔸 Knowledge of impact measurement frameworks (Theory of Change, SROI)

• 🔸 Familiarity with grant compliance and financial reporting

Network & Connections

• 🔸 Existing relationships with education or child-focused foundations

• 🔸 Connections to impact investors or philanthropists

• 🔸 Network in the Global South NGO ecosystem

• 🔸 Access to corporate social responsibility decision-makers

Nice-to-Have

• 📎 MBA or graduate degree in nonprofit management, public policy, or international development

• 📎 Experience working with AI safety or digital rights organizations

• 📎 Background in privacy advocacy or child protection

• 📎 Multilingual abilities (especially French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi)

• 📎 Experience living or working in target regions (Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia)

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What Makes This Role Unique

The Challenge

Most EdTech fundraising involves promising scale, engagement metrics, and data-driven personalization. We're explicitly rejecting all of that.

You'll need to convince funders that:

• Privacy-first architecture is a feature, not a bug

• Offline-first design enables true scale in underserved markets

• Refusing to collect data is ethical AND pragmatic

• Community governance is sustainable, not chaotic

• "Boring on purpose" is the right strategy for children

The Opportunity

You're not just raising money—you're building a new model for ethical EdTech funding.

You'll be able to:

• Shape organizational structure from day one

• Say "no" to misaligned funding without apology

• Build relationships with mission-aligned funders

• Prove that ethical tech can be financially sustainable

• Create a blueprint others can follow

The Vision

If we succeed, we'll demonstrate that:

• You can build meaningful EdTech without surveillance capitalism

• Philanthropic and impact capital can support truly ethical AI

• Mission-protected structures can scale globally

• Children's privacy and well-being can be non-negotiable

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Ideal Candidate Profile

Background

• 5+ years in fundraising, development, or finance

• Proven success securing 6-7 figure funding commitments

• Experience in nonprofit, social enterprise, or impact investing

• Understanding of the international development or education sectors

Mindset

• Mission-first: Will walk away from funding that compromises values

• Pragmatic idealist: Can balance vision with financial realities

• Relationship-builder: Sees fundraising as a partnership, not an extraction

• Patient and persistent: Comfortable with long grant cycles and rejection

• Systems thinker: Understands how funding shapes organizational culture

• Humble learner: Willing to take guidance from communities we serve

Work Style

• Excellent writer and storyteller

• Comfortable with ambiguity and startup chaos

• Self-directed and proactive

• Transparent about challenges and risks

• Excited by hard problems with meaningful stakes

• Willing to wear multiple hats (finance, strategy, operations)

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Compensation & Equity

Current Reality: We're a volunteer-driven startup in the pre-funding stage. Financial reward will never be our primary goal. We want to be "The Trusted Source" for AI literacy training.

The Honest Truth

Right Now:

• Salary: $0 - This is volunteer work initially

• Role: Co-Founder & Chief Funding Officer

• Commitment: We're asking you to join as a "gift to humanity"

• Timeline: Financial compensation TBD based on funding success

Everyone on the team is currently volunteering. We believe this mission matters enough to build before we're paid to build it.

When We Secure Funding (Which Is Your Job!)

If We Launch as Nonprofit:

• Salary: TBD based on funding secured

  • Target range once funded: $70K-130K (depending on location, experience, and grant amounts)

  • Competitive with mission-driven nonprofits like Mozilla, Wikimedia, Learning Equality

• Equity: N/A (nonprofit structure)

• Benefits: Leadership role, significant autonomy, global impact, co-founder recognition

If We Launch as For-Profit (or Hybrid):

• Salary: TBD based on funding/revenue

  • Ramp from volunteer → modest stipend → market rate as funding grows

  • Target eventual range: $90K-160K

• Equity: 15-25% co-founder equity (vesting over 4 years)

• Model: Mission-protected structure (B-Corp, PBC, or equivalent)

What We Can Offer Now

• Ownership: True co-founder role with decision-making power

• Impact: Shape funding strategy for reaching millions of children

• Flexibility: Fully remote, work on your schedule

• Mission: Build financial sustainability with integrity from day one

• Integrity: No compromises on values for funding

• Community: Team of mission-driven volunteers

• Story: Prove ethical EdTech can be financially viable

Why This Might Work for You

This role makes sense if you:

• ✅ Have savings or other income to sustain yourself (6-12 months minimum)

• ✅ Believe proving ethical EdTech is fundable is worth the bet

• ✅ Want to build something meaningful more than you want a paycheck

• ✅ See this as an investment in changing how EdTech is funded

• ✅ Are at a life stage where you can take this risk (sabbatical, between roles, financially stable)

This role does NOT make sense if you:

• ❌ Need income to support yourself or family immediately

• ❌ Are looking for a stable paycheck

• ❌ Want proven ROI before committing time

• ❌ Prefer established organizations to early-stage ventures

• ❌ Are uncomfortable with the irony of volunteering while raising salaries for others

Our Funding Plan (That You'll Execute)

Timeline to First Funding: 6-12 months (realistic estimate)

Target Funders:

• Foundations: Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Jacobs Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Open Society Foundations

• Impact Investors: Omidyar Network, Imaginable Futures, WISE (if for-profit)

• Government: USAID, UK Aid, EU development funds, World Bank

• Corporate: Google.org, Microsoft Philanthropies, Meta's Llama Impact Grants

First Funding Target: $500K-1M

• 50% salaries (team of 4-5)

• 30% pilot deployment (2-3 communities)

• 20% operational costs and reserves

Your Compensation Once Funded: First priority after securing grant/investment

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Key Funding Challenges You'll Navigate

1. The Privacy Paradox

Challenge: Most funders want data, metrics, and proof of personalized learning. We refuse to collect individual student data.

Your Approach:

• Frame privacy as an enabler of trust and scale

• Develop community-level impact metrics

• Show facilitator feedback as a quality indicator

• Find privacy-aligned funders (Mozilla, Omidyar, EFF partnerships)

2. The Scale Question

Challenge: Funders want to know how we'll reach millions. We're starting with 100 kids in one village.

Your Approach:

• Articulate theory of change: deep community co-design → culturally adapted model → organic spread

• Show how offline-first enables exponential device-to-device distribution

• Demonstrate unit economics: low marginal cost after development

• Highlight comparable successful models (Pratham, One Laptop Per Child lessons learned)

3. The Revenue Model Uncertainty

Challenge: We haven't decided if we're nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid.

Your Approach:

• Research optimal structure for our mission and market

• Present clear pros/cons to team

• Develop funding strategy for each path

• Make recommendations based on funder landscape and mission fit

4. The "Boring Tech" Sell

Challenge: We're intentionally NOT building addictive, engagement-maximizing AI. That's hard to pitch in a world obsessed with virality.

Your Approach:

• Reframe "boring" as "respectful" and "sustainable"

• Connect to the growing backlash against the attention economy

• Highlight alignment with UNESCO, UNICEF child protection frameworks

• Find funders who've been burned by engagement-optimized failures

5. Maintaining Mission Integrity

Challenge: Funders may want influence over curriculum, distribution, or business model.

Your Approach:

• Establish non-negotiables before fundraising begins

• Screen funders for mission alignment before applying

• Walk away from misaligned funding gracefully

• Build relationships with mission-aligned funders first

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What You're NOT Expected to Do

We don't need:

• ❌ Someone to compromise our values for funding

• ❌ A traditional venture capital pitch (we're not building a unicorn)

• ❌ Grant writers who just fill out forms (we need strategic relationship-builders)

• ❌ Financial engineering to maximize profit extraction

• ❌ Someone who sees philanthropy as charity rather than partnership

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The Fundraising Landscape You'll Navigate

Foundation Grants (Most Likely Path)

Pros: Mission alignment, patient capital, willing to fund R&D
Cons: Slow decision cycles, extensive reporting, competitive
Timeline: 6-18 months per grant
Your Work: Cultivate relationships, write proposals, manage compliance

Impact Investment (If For-Profit)

Pros: Larger amounts, faster decisions, business discipline
Cons: Return expectations, potential mission drift, fewer aligned investors
Timeline: 3-12 months
Your Work: Pitch investors, negotiate terms, build pipeline

Government Grants

Pros: Large scale potential, legitimacy, aligned with development goals
Cons: Complex compliance, political risks, slow bureaucracy
Timeline: 12-24 months
Your Work: RFP responses, government relations, program design

Corporate Partnerships

Pros: Resources beyond cash (tech, distribution), legitimacy, scale
Cons: Brand risk, influence concerns, limited flexibility
Timeline: 6-12 months
Your Work: Identify aligned companies, negotiate partnerships, and manage expectations

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Application Instructions (See form below)

Send CV to: careers@impeccableai.org

Subject: "Co-Founder, Chief Funding Officer - Impeccable AI"

If shortlisted, you will be asked the following questions:

1. Why this mission matters to you

   • What draws you to ethical EdTech and child protection?

   • What's your personal connection to education, privacy, or the Global South?

   • Why do you believe ethical AI for children can be funded?

2. Relevant fundraising experience (bullet points fine)

   • Amounts raised and from which sources

   • Types of funders you've worked with (foundations, investors, government, corporate)

   • Grant writing, pitch decks, or proposals you're proud of

   • Relationships in philanthropic or impact investing communities

3. Strategic approach

   • If you were starting tomorrow, what would your first 60 days look like?

   • Which 5 funders would you prioritize and why?

   • How would you pitch our "anti-engagement" model to funders?

   • What's your recommendation on nonprofit vs. for-profit structure?

4. Practical details

   • Location & timezone

   • Availability (full-time, part-time initially?)

   • Timeline (when could you start?)

   • Any conflicts of interest or existing commitments

5. Track record

   • Examples of successful grant proposals or pitch decks (redacted if needed)

   • LinkedIn profile or resume

   • References from funders or organizational leaders you've worked with

What we're looking for:

• Proven ability to secure significant funding

• Clear values alignment and mission commitment

• Strategic thinking about financial sustainability

• Excellent communication skills

• Genuine excitement about the challenge

• Comfort with ambiguity and startup chaos

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FAQ for Candidates

Q: Do you have funding?
A: Not yet. You are joining at initial design and business concept launch. This is a bet on mission and team.

Q: What if I can only commit part-time initially?
A: That might work for the first months during strategy development. The faster we secure funding, the faster we all get paid—including you!

Q: Do I need to choose nonprofit vs. for-profit?
A: No, but you should have an informed opinion. We'll decide together based on your research and the funder landscape.

Q: I have connections to funders. Is that a conflict?
A: Probably not, but let's discuss. Existing relationships are valuable as long as they don't compromise our independence.

Q: What if funders want us to collect student data?
A: We say no. Your job is to find funders who respect our values, not convince us to change them.

Q: Can I work remotely?
A: Yes. We're remote-first.

Q: What happens if fundraising takes longer than expected?
A: We're realistic about 12+ months being possible. You need a financial runway. We're betting on mission, not guarantees.

Q: I'm from the Global South. Do you have a bias toward that?
A: Yes, positive bias. Understanding the funding landscape for Global South education from lived experience is valuable.

Q: What's your stance on venture capital?
A: Skeptical but not dogmatic. If mission-aligned VC exists, we're open. But we won't sacrifice values for growth capital.

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Why This Role Matters

You're not just raising money. You're proving that a different model for EdTech is possible.

If you succeed, you'll demonstrate:

• Ethical AI for children can attract significant funding

• Philanthropic capital can support privacy-preserving technology

• Mission-protected structures can scale globally

• Saying "no" to surveillance capitalism is financially viable

And you'll help millions of children access AI literacy education that respects their privacy, serves their communities, and empowers their futures.

That's what you'd be funding.

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