No-Cost Extension with Deval Sanghavi

The Rebuild Conversations is a series in which the No-Cost Extension team checks in with the Rebuild India Fund Investment Committee members to see how they’re doing, what they’ve been learning and how they envisage for the future of the Fund. Rebuild India’s mission is to provide grassroot organizations with long-term flexible funding that can support them through the course of 5-10 years, without constraints or targets. As of early 2024, the fund has been working with over 142 NGOs from across India.   In this conversation recorded in January 2024, you can hear Rameez Alam (Catalyst 2030), Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma (Farm 2 Food), Deepa Pawar (Anubhuti Trust), Anita Patil (Goonj) and Nandita Pradhan Bhatt (Martha Farrell Foundation) talk about the learning and unlearning of past ideas, grappling with the preconceived biases that we all go into the work with and the difficult questions that need to be asked when navigating the sector.  You can listen to the first two Rebuild Conversations on this feed. To know more about the Rebuild India Fund, the work that it does, or more about the investment committee members go to www.rebuildindiafund.org.  If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we’ve got show notes, links and a lot more. 

Twenty five years ago Vishal Talreja founded Dream-a-Dream as a voluntary effort in Mumbai with eleven other individuals who were committed to working with young people.  Since then, Ðream-A-Dream has become a non-profit that works with close to 5 million children across six Indian states, with a vision to provide transformative educational experiences that impart life skills to children living in poverty. Deval and Vishal have known each other since the beginning of their journeys in the social sector, and over the years their relationship has grown from one of co-travellers in the same sector and strengthened into one of friendship. After a brief stint in investment banking and running Dream-A-Dream as a volunteer effort, Vishal committed to Dream-A-Dream full time, a decision that wasn’t met with approval by his family. Listen as the Ashoka Fellow and Eisenhower Fellow  speaks candidly about his early years setting up Dream-A-Dream, the societal pressures to conform and get a ‘real’ job and meeting his life partner Suchetha who is now the CEO of Dream-A-Dream.  In this episode, Vishal also opens up about how building an organization came at the cost of his own mental health and the well-being of his organization.  He speaks of his burnout and depression, and how his physical and mental health forced him to pull back and recalibrate, which led him to found The Cocoon Initiative, which allows civil society leaders to take a break from their work to rest, rejuvenate, reflect and revive their core strengths, clarify their purpose and heal their body, mind and spirit from years of having given fully into one’s cause.  To know more about the work of Dream-A-Dream please visit www.dreamadream.org. You can find The Cocoon Initiative at https://www.cocooninitiative.org/.  For more information on No-Cost Extension go to https://www.dasra.org/nce  and follow Deval on X at @deval_sanghavi  and @Dasra  

Rahima Khatun has been associated with Nari-O-Shishu Kalyan Kendra (NOSKK)  an NGO working extensively with  the rights and dignity of women and children across West Bengal for over two decades.  The earliest seed for NOSKK was sown on Republic Day in 1952 when Rahima’s father started a community library in their village before going on to open madrassas to promote education amongst both men and women.  A strong desire to work for the community was ingrained in Rahima as a child and she often spent her weekends building houses, cleaning drains and later worked tirelessly as a youth leader.  But it was attending the UN World Conferences on Women in Beijing in 1995 that close to 50,000 women from across the world attended, that strengthened Rahima’s resolve to work in the field of gender rights through NOSKK.   In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval and Rahima talk about how attending the Beijing conference impacted her and the organisation’s growth, NOSKK’s work in livelihoods, with self help groups and adolescent health and how they intersect. She also speaks about the transformative work of the Migration Resilience Collaborative, changing gender norms and destigmatising mental health in the communities they work with and within her organisation.  As a member of the Rebuild India Fund, Rahima shares how unrestricted funding has made a huge change to NOSKK’s way of working and how being a part of the cohort has helped them in myriad ways. Mahaswetha Chakraborty, a member of the Rebuild India Fund communications team was the translator during this conversation.  To know more about the work of NOSKK please visit https://www.noskk.in/ For more information on No-Cost Extension go to https://www.dasra.org/nce  and follow Deval on X at @deval_sanghavi  and @Dasra  

From selling horlicks in the Burdwan coalmine districts to studying filmmaking, this week’s guest on No-Cost Extension, Yasmin Madan has led a rich and varied life.  After holding various senior level positions at PSI and serving as the Private Sector Lead at Thinkwell, Yasmini joined Co-Impact – a global philanthropic collaborative ‘supporting locally-rooted coalitions working to achieve impact at scale in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.’ At Co-Impact, Yasmin is the Director and US Lead for Philanthropic Collaboration. Her extensive experience running country programs in Zimbabwe, Vietnam and Cambodia working across HIV, malaria, reproductive health, sanitation and cervical cancer led her to realise that there were genuine problems in the system that needed to be dealt with so that the system could serve its people in the long run.  In this episode, Yasmin talks about how social innovation is not about disruption  but about coordination, collaboration and orchestration. We discuss the difference between funder attribution and contribution, the life changing work of Lend A Hand India, and why we have a moral obligation to impact and scale.  You can read more about Co-Impact's work here https://co-impact.org/ For more information on No-Cost Extension go to https://www.dasra.org/nce  and follow Deval on X at @deval_sanghavi  and @Dasra  

Deepa Pawar is the founder and director of the Anubhuti Trust, an organization formed and self-led by women, with the intention to work with youth on developing their leadership so that there are aware and responsible youth in society who can lead change for a more just and equitable world. In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval and Deepa sit down at the Dasra office to talk about the stigmatization of Nomadic and Denotifed Tribes in India from the time of colonial rule, their unacknowledged role in the freedom struggle and how they have been historically viewed as outlaws.  Deepa speaks of how NDT communities cannot be viewed only through the lens of vulnerability and marginalization, the contribution of women in keeping the culture of the community alive, and how Anubhuti Trust places agency and liberty at the heart of their approach to movement building. She speaks of her accidental entry into the NGO sector, how Anubhuti came to be formed, the various areas their work touches upon - from Dalit activism to anti-caste feminism to environmental justice.  Deepa is also a member of the Rebuild India Fund Investment Committee and discusses the need for the development sector to be experimental, the myopic lens through which we often look at results and success and how funders can sometimes get in the way of the work organisations are trying to do.   For more information on Anubhuti’s work check out their website at https://www.anubhutitrust.org/.  For more information on No-Cost Extension go to https://www.dasra.org/nce  and follow Deval on X at @deval_sanghavi  and @Dasra All additional audio courtesy of Anubhuti Trust/Youtube and field recordings.   

What is it like to dedicate one's life to working for some of the most under-represented groups? Nandita Pradhan Bhatt is the Director of the Martha Farrell Foundation, an NGO that supports informal, migrant workers, mostly female domestic workers and adolescent children to build their leadership and collective voice against injustice. Nandita has been a civil society practitioner decades, and has worked extensively on gender inclusion and the prevention of sexual harassment against women. In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Nandita speaks of her childhood on tea plantations in Dooars and Darjeeling, where her father was a senior manager and she had an upbringing that cultivated a deep sense of respect, dignity and privilege. Deval and Nandita discuss the issues that workers face and how they were invisible to her growing up.  But as the Director of the Martha Farrell Foundation these deep issues are now only too obvious to her now that she’s ‘on the other side’.  After training as a special educator and working with young people, Nandita went back to college for a gender studies degree. She then worked with Dr. Martha Farell at PRIA, working in the space of gender mainstreaming in leadership and conducting gender audits of panchayats. From there her work has gone on to encompass sexual harassment at the workplace, the rights of domestic workers, and more.  Nandita and Deval discuss equality and equity and the difference between the two, how young people have very definite ideas about what they want, and the Rebuild India fund, which Nandita says her heart is tied to.  The Martha Farrell Foundation supports practical interventions which are committed to achieving a gender-just society and promoting life-long learning. You can find out more about them at https://www.marthafarrellfoundation.org/ For more information on No-Cost Extension go to https://www.dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on X at @deval_sanghavi  and @Dasra  

After a short year end break, No-Cost Extension is back! In the first episode of 2024, Deval sits down with Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma, co-founder of Farm2Food Foundation. Deep speaks of his early years growing up and studying in Arunachal Pradesh, the impact the turbulent times in the North Eastern region had on him and later experiences with people led movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan. His journey lead him back to Assam with a desire to work with young people and communities and place their needs at the centre. What grew from that desire was Farm2Food, a non-profit social enterprise working with communities to create sustainable, farm-based livelihoods, revive indigenous food traditions and improve the nutritional quality of the food people eat.  Deep and Deval talk about the staggering diversity of India’s North Eastern states - culturally, linguistically and agriculturally - and why it’s important to protect this diversity from homogenisation. Deep shares how climate change has impacted communities, why ‘modernisation’ is not always the best thing, and how communities are increasingly disconnected from their natural surroundings.  They also touch upon the work the Rebuild India Fund and it’s principles which deeply align with Deep’s own beliefs and practices.  Listen to Deep and Deval discuss farming techniques, climate change, community led movements and why it’s important to place nature at the centre. To know more about Farm2Food, visit http://farm2food.org For more information on No-Cost Extension go to https://www.dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on X at @deval_sanghavi  and @Dasra  

Revathi Radhakrishnan is the founder-director of the Vanavil Trust, a non profit founded in  2004 that supports children of two Nomadic communities: Boom Boom Mattikarars and Narikuravars, in Tamil Nadu. After 17 years of working with the communities, Vanavil now has grown into an organisation that works in child protection,  health and nutrition, holistic education and livelihoods. As a child, Revathi was a vociferous reader, devouring whatever books she could lay her hands on. She had to give up her dreams of being a journalist and studied mathematics instead, but after graduating she went on to work in film, journalism and as a tv producer. Through her many professional avatars, Revathi kept her volunteering side alive. But it was the South Asian Tsunami of 2004 that set her onto the path that led to the formation of Vanavil. Revati arrived in Nagapattinam to help with relief efforts in the wake of the tsunami. But it was the death of a young baby Lakshmi that cemented her decision to work more formally with children from nomadic tribes in her home state of Tamil Nadu. In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Revathi tells Deval Sanghavi about the early years of working in this space and the heartbreak that goes along with it, what it means to be a member of a nomadic tribe, how they have been criminialised for centuries and the stigmas that still persist. But this is a conversation laced with hope - Vanavil’s work in educating young people, the unconventional ways in which they got students in to their school and how they are propelled forward by their belief that all children have a right to their childhoods. To know more about Vanavil Trust visit https://vanavil.org/  For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on X at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra

Season 3 of No-Cost Extension kicks off with host Deval Sanghavi in conversation with Dhruv Lakra, founder and CEO of Mirakle Couriers, a for- profit courier service that employs low income deaf adults thereby delinking charity with disability.  Dhruv grew up in Kashmir before moving to Mumbai for college, after a brief stint as an investment banker he joined Dasra as one of the organisation’s first team members in 2004. He then went on to become a Skoll scholar at the Said School of Business, Oxford, after which he returned to India to bootstrap Mirakle Courier.  In this episode, Dhruv talks about how perceptions around the social sector have changed in the last two decades, the personal motivation to begin a social enterprise that worked with people with disabilities, the stigma and social conditioning around disabilities that sets in very early in society, the flipside of bootstrapping, mental health and what he would have done differently. Plus, some stories you might not have heard before, like the time Dhruv, Deval and Neera were house mates.   To know more about Mirakle Couriers visit https://www.miraklecouriers.com/ For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra

Deval Sanghavi is back with a new season of No-Cost Extension! In this season Deval’s talking to some of the most committed social leaders from India and around the world on what it’s like to work towards the challenging goal of equity. Deval and his guests also speak about what it is like to run organizations post COVID, bootstrapping and entrepreneurship, the work of philanthropy, and what it is like to work with the most marginalized and excluded communities.  Episodes drop November 30, 2023! Subscribe now where ever you get your podcasts to never miss an episode. For more information, go to www.dasra.org/nce.   

How does it all begin? Was there a singular experience or encounter that sparked a desire to work on social change? How do you go from being affected by an issue, to contributing a few times, to the realisation that there is more to this? - that working in social change could be the calling, or the profession, and how do you go from that to wanting to build an organisation and so much more? In this No-Cost Extension special, we combed through our two seasons to bring you inspiring origin stories.  Anu Aga, and her daughter Mehr Padumjee talk about how they found their way into philanthropy.  Gagan Sethi, talks about the start of Janvikas, an organisation dedicated to fighting for human dignity and equality. And finally, Mathew Spacie on how Magic Bus, a foundation that uses a livelihood program to support disadvantaged youth and help them out of poverty, took shape.  For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra  

Over the past two seasons, host Deval Sanghavi has talked about the idea of impact with his guests: what does it mean and what should it mean? How can we further our understanding of social impact?  From the archives we bring you Donald Lobo of the Chintu Gudiya Foundation, Karen Doff of Sharanam Centre for Girls, Safeena Hussain of Educate Girls and Ravi Chopra and Jo McGowan Chopra from the Latika Royal foundation talking about impact and scale and how they look at these as individuals and organisation.  For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra

Gagan Sethi is the founder of Janvikas, an NGO that has worked in the space of holistic human development for over three decades. Gagan has helped set up several strategic organizations in the country, like Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, Sahjeevan, Drishti, Centre for Social justice and the HID forum. In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval and Gagan talk about disaster relief work, what happens when there’s discrimination in relief work and the toll working in the development sector takes on family relationships and mental health.     Gagan speaks of the impact of partition on his family, the social compact initiative and how his quarterly workshops with rural communities leave him energised.    You can follow Gagan and keep abreast of the work of Janvikas at www.janvikas.in If you haven't listened to Deval's conversation with Aakash Sethi, go check out the first season of No-Cost Extension! For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra

Loren Cardeli is the Executive Director at A Growing Culture, a non profit that believes in food sovereignty for everyone everywhere and works with farmers to ensure they decide what to grow, where to grow it and who to sell it to. Deval and Loren met at a Synergos retreat and found they had much to talk about and bond over, prompting Deval to invite Loren on to No-Cost Extension as a guest.  Listen to Loren talk about his growing years in New York City in a family that loved to argue, what made him buy a one way ticket to Belize and the experiences he had there that made him think more deeply about food, agriculture and the people who feed us.  Loren speaks passionately about the framing of language, providing farmers support to tell their own stories and working with them to reclaim their ownership across the lands they preserve. You can follow Loren on Twitter @LorenCardeli and A Growing Culture @agcconnect. For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra

We're pausing our regular programming on No-Cost Extension with Deval Sanghavi to bring you this panel discussion from Dasra Philanthropy Week 2023. Deval will be back next week with a new guest! The Going Platinum: Past, Present and Future of Civil Society in India @ 75 report is a collective effort by India’s leading non-profits to showcase and celebrate civil society's contribution to India's development. The conversation at DPW 2023 was based on the report and spanned policy, service delivery and research/ advocacy – reminiscing the past with an eye to the future.  The panel was moderated by Sneha Menon of Dasra and the panellists were Sanjoy Roy, founder-trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust, Farida Lambe, co-founder Pratham and head of Pratham’s Council for Vulnerable Children, Aditya Natraj, CEO of Piramal Foundation, Priti Patkar, co-founder and director of Prerana and Pushpa Aman Singh co-founder Guidestar India.  To know more about Dasra Philanthropy Week visit http://dasraphilanthropyweek.org For more information on No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra  

Sonal Shah has spent her career both in the private and public sector, including stints with Goldman Sachs, Google.org and The White House. She is currently the CEO of The Texas Tribune, a politics and public policy-specific news organization. But before embarking on her illustrious career, many years ago, Sonal and Deval were just two teenagers forced to wake up early and help clean up the Gandhi Centre in Houston, Texas after community events. In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Sonal and Deval not only look back and reminisce, but they also talk about the Houston community they grew up in that nurtured so many philanthropic ventures, the pioneering giving philosophies within the Indian diaspora, how to follow stay true to one's work, the need for flexible funding and how it helps build trust and why we need to find the right funding mechanisms for communities.  You can follow Sonal on Twitter @SonalRShah. To know more about The Texas Tribune visit https://www.texastribune.org/.  For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra  

Jo McGowan and Ravi Chopra met in the 70s and fell in love through the post. They got married and moved to India in the early 80s and have since dedicated their lives to serving the communities they live in, albeit in very different ways. From helping set up The Front for Rapid Economic Advancement of India (FREA) to working with the Centre for Science and Environment to setting up the People’s Science Institute in Uttarakhand, Ravi Chopra has spent his life using science and technology to better the lives of others. The People’s Science Institute is known for its pioneering work in the fields livelihoods development, environmental quality monitoring and disaster-safe housing. Jo Chopra McGowan is the founder and director of the Latika Roy Foundation, an organisation that provides specialized, localized services to children with disabilities and their families, and helps others do the same with the aim of creating a better world for children with disabilities. Their work has grown and expanded in different ways reflecting their approach to life and personal philosophies. But what is common to both of them is their innate desire to do good.  You can follow Latika Roy Foundation on social media @LatikaRoyFound1. To know more about the People’s Science Institute visit http://peoplesscienceinstitute.org. For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra  

How do you begin to break intergenerational cycles of poor health and violence in a megapolis? What evidence based models of urban health interventions can we look to?   Content Warning: This episode contains mentions of violence that some listeners may find disturbing and listener discretion is advised.  In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval sits down with Dr. Armida Fernandez, founder-trustee of SNEHA Mumbai (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action) and the organisation’s CEO Vanessa D’Souza.  Listen in as Dr. Armida Fernandez talks about her start as a paediatrician and neonatologist at a Government Hospital in Mumbai where she and her colleagues treated vulnerable mothers and children from low-income households every day, and the series of events that lead her to begin SNEHA and work in the space of health equity. With over more than twenty years of dedicated work, SNEHA is one of the most respected public health NGOs in India.  Vanessa d'Souza joins Dr Fernandez in this conversation, and shares her thoughts on the importance of building the ‘next line’ in organisations, the need for creating safe spaces and the intersectionality of problems in health and nutrition.  You can follow SNEHA on social media @SNEHAMumbai. For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra  

Dasra Philanthropy Week is an annual gathering of diverse stakeholders and voices from the development ecosystem to convene, converse and continue sustained action towards the quest for a billion Indians to thrive with dignity and equity.  As the 14th edition of Dasra Philanthropy Week 2023 gets underway, No-Cost Extension presents DPW specials: conversations that we believe will be of interest to our listeners.   This episode is a conversation between Suparna Gupta, founder of Aangan Trust, and Deval Sanghavi and Neera Nundy at DPW 2022. How do we imagine a future of collaboration? How do we recognize privilege? How do you work to bridge the gap between philanthropy and small organizations and communities?  Listen as the co-founders of Dasra look back at their own journey over the last 23 years.  For more information about Dasra Philanthropy Week visit https://www.dasraphilanthropyweek.org/ or https://www.dasra.org/. We'll be back next week with more episodes!

How can we engage with policymakers in a timely and effective way? What can we do to address the power imbalance between the Global North and the Global South? Why does global philanthropy set aside only 2% of funding for the climate?  In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval Sanghavi has a freewheeling conversation with Alberto Lidji, Founder of the Do One Better Knowledge Hub and Podcast. Alberto talks about his shift from working with private corporations to the world of philanthropy, why he thinks there needs to be a change in the way we work with policy makers, and some of his most memorable guests on the Do One Better Podcast.  You can find out more about the Do One Better Knowledge Hub here https://www.lidji.org/ and follow Alberto on Twitter here https://twitter.com/alberto_lidji To follow No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra.