Social Synthesis
Website:
socialsynthesis.in
Job details:
CEO / Founding Leader
Building India's Compassionate Education Movement Opportunity
Based in Delhi or Bangalore.
(This will be a registered independent entity post initial set-up under India Animal Fund)
India has made significant progress in expanding access to education, strengthening life skills, and promoting values-based learning. Yet there remains a largely unaddressed opportunity: helping young people develop empathy, compassion, and ethical consideration towards animals as part of becoming responsible citizens, leaders, and changemakers. Globally, humane education has contributed to broader goals such as empathy, social-emotional learning, responsible citizenship, environmental stewardship, and non-violence. In India, however, efforts remain fragmented and have yet to evolve into a strong, coordinated movement operating at scale.
We believe the time is right to build a new organization dedicated to advancing compassion towards animals across India's educational ecosystem. We are seeking an exceptional Founding Leader to help create and scale this movement.
The Vision
To integrate compassion and empathy towards animals into India's educational ecosystem, reaching students through schools, higher education institutions, educators, foundations, and public systems.
The goal is not simply to run programmes. The goal is to create lasting institutional change.
The Challenge
This is a founder's role, not an operational management role.
The successful candidate will help answer questions such as:
- How can compassion towards animals be integrated into mainstream education?
- How can large education foundations become partners in this effort?
- What role can school networks, teacher-training institutions, and universities play?
- How can governments and public education systems be engaged over time?
- What evidence, content, and partnerships are needed to enable large-scale adoption?
- How can future business, policy, and social leaders be exposed to these ideas through institutions such as IIMs, universities, and professional schools?
The initial focus will be on simultaneously building the ecosystem and demonstrating what works through carefully chosen pilot initiatives. The organization will seek to develop partnerships, generate evidence, test models, and create practical examples that can be adopted and scaled by educational institutions, foundations, and public systems.
The objective is not to build a large direct-delivery organization. Rather, it is to combine ecosystem influence with credible experimentation and create pathways for broader adoption and scale.
What Success Could Look Like
Over time, the organization could:
- Partner with leading education foundations and school networks.
- Design and implement innovative pilot programmes in schools, universities, and youth settings.
- Develop and disseminate high-quality educational resources.
- Support integration into social-emotional learning, citizenship education, and related programmes.
- Engage state and national education stakeholders.
- Build partnerships with universities, management institutions, and youth networks.
- Generate evidence and case studies that support wider adoption.
- Serve as a national platform for compassionate and humane education in India.
Who We Are Looking For
We are looking for an exceptional entrepreneurial leader with a strong commitment to the mission.
Essential Attributes
- Deep personal alignment with the values of compassion and empathy towards animals.
- Entrepreneurial mindset and ability to build from scratch.
- Self-starter who thrives in ambiguity.
- Excellent relationship-building and partnership-development capabilities.
- Persistence, resilience, and a long-term orientation.
- Willingness to experiment, learn, adapt, and iterate.
Strongly Preferred
- Experience in education, social impact, public policy, youth development, leadership development, or institutional partnerships.
- Experience working with governments, foundations, universities, or large-scale social initiatives.
Incubation, Support and Governance
The Founding Leader will initially be hosted by the India Animal Fund (www.indiaanimalfund.org) for an incubation period of approximately six months, during which the strategy, partnerships, early pilots, and organizational foundations will be developed.
The leader will become part of the broader India Karuna Collaborative (www.indiakarunacollaborative.org) ecosystem, providing an opportunity to collaborate with experienced leaders working across research, policy, business engagement, communications, philanthropy, and movement building.
While enjoying significant autonomy in shaping the vision, strategy, partnerships, team, and operating model of the new organization, the Founding Leader will be able to draw upon the networks, expertise, and support of the wider IKC community.
Funding for the organization's formative phase, including its initial years of operation, will be secured, enabling the Founding Leader to focus on institution-building, partnerships, talent, evidence generation, and pilot initiatives rather than immediate fundraising.
Competitive compensation will be provided commensurate with experience and leadership responsibility.
Why This Matters
Research suggests that empathy and compassionate behaviour towards animals are associated with greater empathy towards people, stronger prosocial behaviour, and positive social-emotional development. Humane education programmes have been shown to strengthen both affective and cognitive empathy among students, while positive interactions with animals are linked to increased compassion, caring behaviour, and concern for others.
Advancing compassion towards animals is therefore not only beneficial for animals themselves, but also contributes to the development of caring, responsible, and empathetic citizens. By helping young people understand and respect the lives and experiences of animals, we can nurture values that strengthen relationships across society and foster a more compassionate world.
This is a rare opportunity to help build a new field in India and shape a movement that could influence education, leadership, and culture for decades to come.
If you are excited by the prospect of building something that does not yet exist, working at the intersection of education, compassion, and systems change, we would love to hear from you.
Please write to resume@socialsynthesis.in
Click on Apply to know more.