The Dasra Social Impact Leadership Programme began in 2006 as the DSI accelerator programme for leaders of not-for-profit organisations early in their scaling journeys. The DSI Leadership Programme was launched in 2014 in collaboration with Harvard Business School and today has an alumni base of over 600 leaders. Earlier this year, we caught up with the Dasra team and the current cohort of the Leadership Programme to learn more about this initiative.

Our thanks to Amit Chandra, Kavneet Kaur, Saiprasad Sale, Kirti Chaturvedi, Disket Angmo, Nita Row, Sohan Mutha, Ahona Krishna and Nehal Parekh. 

 For more information about the next cohort of the Dasra Social Impact Leadership program, and details on when and how to apply, write to dsilp@dasra.org. 

Earlier this year during Dasra Philanthropy Week 2025, innovators, changemakers, and thought leaders came together in Bengaluru to explore the role of Data, Technology, and AI in driving social impact. 

We caught up with three panellists to find out what was discussed at their sessions and to hear their views on the future of technology in the social sector. 

Sarayu Natarajan, the founder of the Aapti Institute was on the panel "Gender inclusive Data technologies - Need for a paradigm shift". She shares with us how her work intersects with AI and her views on the opportunities and challenges raised by it.

Vijay Sai Pratap from Graamvani, was on a panel that discussed "The Power of Open Source and Collaborative Technology for Social Change". He talks about how contextual community-based knowledge should get incorporated into large models and the importance of collaborative development in the context of tech and its applications for the social sector.

Finally we have Vaibhav Chugh from the Council on Energy Environment and Water, a public policy think tank who was a panelist on "Collaborating for Impact: Tech & AI Innovations for Community Resilience in India". Vaibhav talks through his work on climate change, "building in public" and building for interoperability. He also talks about the need to address bias.

For more about No-Cost Extension Podcast and to listen to previous episodes, visit https://www.dasra.org/nce

Over the next few episodes we'll be meeting the grassroots organizations who are part of the first cohort of The Pride Fund, India's first dedicated LBTQIA+ fund launched in February 2025. 

Sappho for Equality has been working to address the unique, intersectional challenges faced by lesbian, bisexual and transmasculine individual for over a quarter of a century. The organisation has evolved from an emotional support network to one that works in advocacy, public education and sensitising the police, medical professionals and the judicial system. Their repository of colloquial language writing on queer trans rights and experiences is something of immense importance and value. 

You can find out more about the work of Sappho for Equality here: https://www.sapphokolkata.in/

The Pride Fund is led by three philanthropists. Radhika Piramal Keshav Suri, the executive director of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and the founder of the Keshav Suri Foundation, and Parmesh Shahani, head of Godrej Dei Labs from the Godrej Industries Group. Read more about it here: https://thepridefundindia.org/about-the-pride

We're kicking off a new season of No-Cost Extension with a conversation with Radhika Piramal.  Radhika Piramal is one of the founding patrons of the Pride Fund India.

Radhika Piramal holds several senior leadership positions in corporate India across various companies and brands and is a charity trustee holding trustee positions at Dasra UK and Give Out - an award-winning international LGBTQ Community Foundation.

A leading LQBTQIA+ advocate, Radhika is one of three Indian philanthropists supporting The Pride Fund, India's first LGBTQIA+ philanthropy fund. In this episode, Deval and Radhika speak about her personal journey, the communities she sought comfort and acceptance in and the need for a Pride Fund in India today.

More about The Pride Fund: Launched in February 2025, the Pride Fund is supported by three philanthropists: Radhika Piramal, Keshav Suri, the Executive Director of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and the founder of the Keshav Suri Foundation, and Parmesh Shahani, Head of the Godrej DEI Labs from the Godrej Industries Group. Reach more about it here: https://thepridefundindia.org/about-the-pride

For more about No-Cost Extension Podcast and to listen to previous episodes, visit https://www.dasra.org/nce 

To coincide with the launch of the Rebuild India Fund's 7th cohort of grassroots NGOs, entirely women led AND assessed by women leaders from within the Rebuild portfolio, we thought we would revisit conversations with power house leaders on No-Cost Extension.

Our first conversation is from earlier this year, with Deepa Pawar, founder and director of the Anubhuti Trust and a member of the Rebuild India Fund Investment Committee. This is a  conversation on the contribution of women in keeping the culture of the community alive, anti-caste feminism and more.

Deepa Pawar has over 22 years of experience in facilitating community-led programs and working with state and local governments on themes of youth-leadership, advocacy, mental justice, sanitation and sexual and reproductive health.

Anubhuti Trust is 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.

About #RootedinHerPower: The 7th cohort of the Rebuild India Fund is a vibrant grassroots movement for community-led resilience, a testament to the power of women's leadership, and a step toward a future built on inclusion, empathy, and unwavering strength. Spread across 70+ districts, these women-led NGOs are championing change where it's needed most.

Follow #RootedInHerPower across social media for updates. For more information to go www.dasra.org 

This episode originally aired in February 2024. 

Divya Varma represented the  Ajeevika Bureau and Work Fair and Free Foundation at Dasra Philanthropy Week 2024.

She spoke passionately about India's internal migrant population who are often forced to move from rural India to its cities due to climate variabilities which have rapidly degenerated agricultural livelihoods.Mired in indignity and invisibility, India's migrant labour workforce works and lives at the very bottom of the societal pyramid at the mercy of a regulation free environment. 

Listen to her plans for fostering solidarity through unions and collectives and working towards generating more knowledge and research in this space.

Find out more about Ajeevika Bureau here https://aajeevika.org/ and the Work Fair and Free Foundation here https://workfairandfree.org/. For more information on Dasra's work, go to www.dasra.org.

Jackie Jones is the Director, Gender Norms Portfolios and Office of the President at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where amongst many other things she thinks of gender dimensions and how they intersect with solving programs across the many verticals the foundation works across. 

At the Dasra Philanthropy Forum 2024, Jackie shared a story from one of the foundation's immunization clinics in the Congo where there was low immunization uptake across genders. Find out how one health care worker's insight changed this.

For more information on any of Dasra's work, or on any of the guests on the show, go to www.dasra.org 

Join Maya Patel from the Tarsadia Foundation, Hechin Haokip from the Centre for Women and Girls, Manohari Doss from the Institute for Self Management and Farida Kathawalla from Circle of Hope in a conversation around women grassroots leaders. 

A small percentage of philanthropic capital globally is earmarked for gender equality, and the funding gap for feminist or women led organizations is quite glaring. Maya Patel, Hechin Haokip, Manohari Doss and Farida Kathawalla share from their lived experiences in running organizations and from championing women leaders at the grassroots. How can we invest in more women led proximate leaders to see large scale meaningful change and break gender norms that exist in the philanthropic ecosystem? 

 For more information on Dasra Philanthropy Week 2024, or on any of the guests on the show, go to www.dasra.org. 

Binoy Acharya is the Founder-Director of Unnati - Organisation for Development Education. Unnati works in the spaces of  Civic Leadership and Governance and Social Accountability, Disaster Risk Reduction and Social Inclusion and Empowerment. 

At Dasra Philanthropy Forum 2024, Binoy spoke of how governments are failing at last mile delivery across the world, and philanthropic support is needed to bridge this gap. 

For more information on any of Dasra's work, or on any of the guests on the show, go to www.dasra.org

Kuldeep Dantewadia is the founder of Reap Benefit, a non-profit based in Bengaluru, India that is igniting a movement of young changemakers  to redefine civic and climate leadership, one action at a time.

At Dasra Philanthropy Forum 2024, Kuldeep shared two stories of young changemakers whose individual actions lead to larger systemic changes in their community and how giving young people the agency and skills they need to effect change can move the needle on apathy. India, he says needs an army of young changemakers and unlocking their potential and change making one abilities one street at a time in not cute, it's the need of the hour.

We'll be back with new episodes next time!

If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

In today's episode, we're bringing to you Dr Arunabha Ghosh's Keynote Address from Dasra Philanthropy Week 2024 held in New York. Dr Arunabha Ghosh is a public policy expert, author and columnist and founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, or CEEW, one of Asia's leading policy research institutions and climate think-tanks. 

At DPW, Dr Ghosh spoke about how we must internalise two important paradigmatic shifts: away from centralised to decentralised systems that embrace local solutions and are embedded in communities, and move our ideation away from linear thinking to non-linear approaches if we are to truly accelerate India's energy transition and climate action. 

We'll be back next time with new episodes! For more information on the show, or any of the guests, go to www.dasra.org. 

We're taking a break from regular programming with a series of conversations and microtalks from the recently concluded Dasra Philanthropy Forum 2024.

2024 was a milestone year with Dasra celebrating twenty five years as an organisation. At DPF 2024,  Deval Sanghavi, co-founder of Dasra and host of No-Cost Extension Podcast, Boris Siperstein, Global Council Member Dasra, Akruti Desai from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation discussed the organisation's journey, and the intentional way in which equity has been centred at the heart of Dasra's work.

Akruti Desai looked back at her own philanthropic journey which began as a Dasra Fellow in 2009 and speaks of the shift from a technocratic approach to the current trust based model that is more rooted in equity. Boris Siperstein speaks of being more congnizant of ground realities, working closely with grassroot leaders, and the Rebuild India Fund model which is built on a foundation of trust and equity. Deval speaks candidly about the early years of Dasra, the vision he and Neera had for the organisation at the outset and what he hopes the next twenty five years will bring. Anannya Chakrabarty, Associate Director, Dasra moderated this conversation.

 If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

Bhagwan P Thacker is the founder of The Empowerment Fund,  a private, charitable foundation with an aim to support underserved communities in the Kutch District of Gujarat with a focus on education, health and technology. 

Born in Anjar, a town in Kutch, a remote region of Western Gujarat, Bhagwan P Thacker had fairly humble beginnings. He was one of the first young people in Anjar to go to a college and attended Saint Xavier's in Ahmedabad. He then studied chemical engineering at Bombay University after which he left for the United States of America, where he worked at IBM before starting his own business.

He started the Empowerment Foundation in 1995 with the desire to work in his home town of Anjar. Thacker speaks candidly of the reactions of his family in India, the ups and downs faced in the early years of the foundation, his journey learning how to give, and the changing landscape of philanthropy in India. 

Listen to this episode of No-Cost Extension podcast to hear of the journey of a funder over time and see how their approach has evolved as they learn. 

For more about No-Cost Extension Podcast and to listen to previous episodes, visit https://www.dasra.org/nce

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval speaks to Vimal Jat, the co-founder and CEO of Synergy Sansthan, an organization in Madhya Pradesh that works on development programs for underserved youth. 

 Born in Seoni Malwa block of Hoshangabad district, Madhya Pradesh, Vimal has a postgraduate degree in Social Work from Devi Ahilya University, Indore. During his time at university he and his friends formed a youth group with the aim to advocate for adolescent and youth rights.

Vimal went on to co-found Synergy Sansthan in 2006,  a youth-led non-profit that works with marginalized children, adolescents and youth leadership from rural and tribal areas. The non-profit has co-created context based leadership journeys for rural and tribal youths in Madhya Pradesh and worked on a range of issues from gender based violence, education, governance, livelihoods, constitutional literacy, and child protection.

Today, Synergy Sansthan is a leading youth-led organization in  Madhya Pradesh with a dedicated team of over 50 staff, 300 fellows, and 2000 volunteers based out of 120 villages and slums across 3 districts in the state.

Deval and Vimal speak about the importance of listening to young people,  building grassroot leadership and co-creating solutions with community members.

Synergy Sansthan is a part of Rebuild India.  To know more about their work visit www.synergysansthan.org

If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

Additional Audio: 

Our Story - Synergy by Synergy Sansthan

Udaan - We are ready to raise our voice to end violence against women. By Synergy Sansthan

Youth Meet 2024-Yuva Aagaz Yuva Aawaz| State youth Conference 2024| by Synergy Sansthan

In this special episode of No-Cost Extension, we look back at conversations we've had on the podcast around serving with and for dignity. 

Many NGOs work at the grassroot level with communities that have a deep-rooted legacy of oppression which manifests in every economic and socio-political facet of life. From lack of access to education, employment, resources and legal recourse, all while facing discrimination spanning generations. The only way forward to detangle this insidious web of oppression, is to provide space and resources that enable these very people to take back their power.

Listen to Nandita Bhatt from the Martha Farrell Foundation talk about her experience in working with and for domestic workers in India. Revathi Radhakrishnan from Vanavil Trust talks about the stigma and discrimination she's seen the people of NT-DNT communities in Tamil Nadu face. Deepa Pawar from Anubhuti Trust, reflects on her own journey as an NT-DNT woman herself, and what she wants the future of the sector to be like for her people.

You can listen to each of their individual conversations with Deval on the No-Cost Extension feed. 

If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

In this special episode of No-Cost Extension we speak to three development sector leaders about This past season, Deval and his guests have talked about mental health in the development sector.  From the sense of urgency that never leaves the work and the feeling of inadequacy that leaders experience when faced with the immense scale of the problem at hand. 

You'll hear Dhruv Lakra get candid about how the constant hustle of the early days took a toll on him emotionally and physically.   

Revathi Radhakrishnan the founder of Vanavil Trust opens up about how her mental health took a huge hit doing relief work post with nomadic communities and Denotified Tribes during Covid19. 

And Vishal Talreja, co-founder of Dream-A-Dream foundation is frank about the toll aspects of his 25 year long stint in the social sector lead to burnout and depression, and how that fuelled the founding of The Cocoon Initiative, a  program that provides leaders an opportunity to have an extended break from their work for personal rejuvenation.  

You can listen to each of their individual conversations with Deval on the No-Cost Extension feed. 

If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

Dr. Sitavva Jodatti is the founder of the Mahila Abhivruddhi Mattu Samrakshna Samsthe (MASS), an organisation founded to end the devadasi practice in the Belgaum district of Karnataka. 

The devadasi practice is one in which young girls are devoted and married to a religious deity, before they reaches puberty, to act as a caretaker. Recently, this practice has been used to push girls into prostitution.

Dr. Sitavva herself was forced into the devadasi practice at the age of seven and it's her own experiences that lead to the formation of MASS in 1997.

MASS is an association of ex-Devadasi women that largely works  with dalit women and children, as well as ex-Devadasis from the dalit community to secure citizen rights and their access to education, livelihoods, and healthcare.

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval, Dr. Jodatti and Sabera Shaikh  who has been associated with MASS for the last 26 years trace the growth of the organisation, their work with Myrada & KSWDC to end the practice and spread awareness about the system, and their many livelihood and upskilling initiatives in the community. They are also joined by Ustati Gujral, a member of Dasra's Rebuild India Fund. 

Sitravvaji was conferred the Padma Shri in 2018 for the incredible work she's done for the people she represents. 

This  conversation takes place in English, Kannada and Hindi. 

If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

AUDIO: 

MASS NGO GHATAPRABHA BELGAUM - by MASS NGO BELGAUM

Hejang Misao is the founder and CEO of Integrated Social & Institutional Development for Empowerment (InSIDE-North East), an organization that works towards the empowerment of children, youth and women in Manipur, under the Gun2Pen project.  

Hejang is no stranger to conflict in his state, and it prompted him to start an organisation that would help those directly or indirectly affected by conflict and violence.

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval and Hejang touch upon the history of Manipur, the socio-economic disparities that prevail in the region, and the violence that has beset the state for decades, and which grabbed national and international attention in 2023. 

Hejang also speaks about the power of music, his belief in bringing people together through sports, and using sports to empower girls in his home state.

To know more about the work InSIDE North East does visit https://insidenortheast.org/

If you want to listen to more of No Cost Extension, go to https://www.dasra.org/podcast.php where we have show notes, links and more. 

Audio used: 

forest-bird (1).WAV by sama66 CC0 1.0

Football Match ( ALL MANIPUR CINEMATOGRAPHY ASSOCIATION VS ALL MANIPUR MATAM ISHEI KANGLUM KANGLUP) by Sahil Malom CC BY 3.0

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. 

Meet the grassroots organizations who are part of the first cohort of The Pride Fund, India's first dedicated LBTQIA+ fund launched in February 2025. 

The Chhattisgarh Mitwa Sankalp Samiti is a Community Based Organization working for the development and mobilization of the transgender community in the region of Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The organisation works to change societal attitudes towards the community, ensuring that government policies and schemes reach the transgender community and also conduct health related workshops. They have also collaborated with the government to set up a TransGender Welfare Board in districts and their advocacy with the police has helped transwomen join the local police force as constables. 

Listen to Vidya Rajput speak about their work. 

The Pride Fund is led by three philanthropists. Radhika Piramal, Keshav Suri, the executive director of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and the founder of the Keshav Suri Foundation, and Parmesh Shahani, head of Godrej Dei Labs from the Godrej Industries Group. Read more about it here: https://thepridefundindia.org/about-the-pride. 

This episode is in Hindi. 

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

Meet the grassroots organizations who are part of the first cohort of The Pride Fund, India's first dedicated LBTQIA+ fund launched in February 2025. 

Deepshikha Samiti is committed to fostering socio-economic development in Delhi/NCR through education, health initiatives, and employment opportunities, with an aim to empower women, youth, and transgender communities Since 1994, they have been building a safe, healthy and empowered environment for the transgender and MSM community and provide opportunities for them to earn a livelihood and integrate within society.

Listen in to Tajuddin Khan speak about their work. To know more about their work visit https://deepshikha.org.in/

The Pride Fund is led by three philanthropists: Radhika Piramal, Keshav Suri, the executive director of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and the founder of the Keshav Suri Foundation, and Parmesh Shahani, head of Godrej Dei Labs from the Godrej Industries Group. Read more about it here: https://thepridefundindia.org/about-the-pride. Find us at Dasra. 

This episode is in Hindi. 

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.

How can we challenge the top-down approach to solving social problems? Can we build bridges between powerful sectors and community organisations? What role does sustained inner work play in serving with love? 

Deval sits down with Peggy Dulany, Founder & Chair of Synergos, a global organisation helping dismantle systems that create the most urgent problems of our time: poverty, social injustice, and climate change

From absorbing ideas about philanthropy 'through her skin' at dinner table conversations from a young age to starting The Global Philanthropists Circle (GPC) a home for individuals and families from around the world to re-imagine how to address society's most pressing needs, Peggy traces her journey in the sector, and the phenomenal work Synergos has facilitated. 

You can find our more about Synergos here (https://www.synergos.org) and follow their work here https://twitter.com/synergos. To follow No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra.

How should funders be rethinking philanthropy in the wake of the pandemic? How can they take their egos out of the equation? How can they operate with a greater sense of urgency, transparency, and trust with grantee centric mechanisms? 

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval Sanghavi sits down with Lior Ipp, the CEO of the Roddenberry Foundation that is inspired by the life and legacy of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry who believed that human potential is remarkable and would lead us to a better, fairer world. 

Lior speaks with candour about the power dynamics between donor and grantee, how the pandemic was a catalyst for the philanthropic sector to do things differently and how the first of its kind +1 Global Fund enables small organisations across the world to challenge the status quo of burdensome applications, restrictions, or reports, and instead driven by a "network-of-networks" of social entrepreneurs and innovators.

To know more about The Roddenberry Foundation visit https://roddenberryfoundation.org or follow them on @roddenberryfdn on Twitter. To follow No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra.

The Rebuild India Fund will support 1000 small community based organizations in the next decade through flexible funding and capacity building, enabling them to survive and thrive. 

How do committees select organizations for funding? What is it like to be on a selection committee? What can we learn and unlearn from the hundreds of small organizations doing meaningful work across the country? What can we do better next time?

In this second episode of the Rebuild Conversations, Deval Sanghavi catches up with the Investment Committee after their meeting to select the first set of 23 organizations for the Rebuild India fund.

Listen in to Anita Patil of Goonj, Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma from Farm2Food Foundation, Deepa Pawar, from Anubhuti Trust, Nandita Pradhan from the Martha Farrell Foundation and Rameez Alam, from Catalyst 2030 – NASE. 

The Rebuild India Fund, founded by @Dasra and Tarsadia Foundation. For more information about the Rebuild India Fund visit https://www.rebuildindiafund.org/ or follow www.twitter.com/dasra for updates. 

For more information about the Rebuild India Fund visit https://www.rebuildindiafund.org/ or follow www.twitter.com/dasra for updates. 

When COVID-19 hit, it made clear the undeniable fact of just how vulnerable our poorest communities are. It was a setback of huge proportions, creating a crisis that extended well beyond health to impact on work and livelihoods, education, access to food and nutrition. It exposed how a shock in any one area can snowball pushing communities deeper into poverty. Many small grassroots organizations were the primary support for communities in the worst phases of the pandemic. 

The Rebuild India Fund was set up to support those closest to the ground - the small community organizations working at the grassroots to support these communities to become more resilient. The Rebuild Fund does this through flexible funding and capacity building and by recognizing and respecting NGO leaders' ability and power to run their organizations in a manner that serves their communities most meaningfully.

Why is flexible funding so critical for small organizations? How can funders support communities better? After working remotely for so many months, what's it like to sit down with a group of people in the same room? What is the idea of India? How do we have conversations about change that are respectful and inclusive? 

In the first conversation in this series, Deval Sanghavi sits down with the Investment Committee of the fund, made up of NGO leaders from across the country who assess and select the NGOs for the Rebuild India Fund. 

Listen in as Anita Patil of Goonj, Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma from Farm2Food Foundation, Deepa Pawar, from Anubhuti Trust, Nandita Pradhan from the Martha Farrell Foundation and Rameez Alam, from Catalyst 2030 – NASE share their thoughts about the initiative and why they believe it's important. 

The Rebuild India Fund, founded by @Dasra and Tarsadia Foundation. For more information about the Rebuild India Fund visit https://www.rebuildindiafund.org/ or follow www.twitter.com/dasra for updates. 

How can community philanthropy grow organically in a way that serves the community, unlocking its potential? Why do we use the word risk so much in philanthropy? How can family philanthropies involve the next gen meaningfully in their work?  

Deval Sanghavi, host of No-Cost Extension Pod sits down with Maya Patel, the CEO of The Tarsadia Foundation, a family philanthropy working both in India and the United States in health and human services, economic empowerment and education. In 2016, the National Center for Family Philanthropy recognized the Tarsadia Foundation as a model of successful next-generation engagement in philanthropy.

Maya traces her family's journey from India to Zambia to America, her father's lifelong desire to help others succeed, and how their approach to giving has changed over the last decade 

To know more about The Tarsadia Fundation visit https://tarsadiafoundation.org/ or follow them on Twitter. To know more about the Rebuild India Fund to go www.rebuildindiafund.org . To follow No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra.

Meet the grassroots organizations who are part of the first cohort of The Pride Fund, India's first dedicated LBTQIA+ fund launched in February 2025. 

Vikalp is a women's rights group that advocates for the rights of marginalised women & gender/sexual minorities, working closely with and in rural tribal areas. Formed in 1996 to combat domestic violence and discrimination against women in Gujarat, India, particularly tribal women, over time Vikalp has evolved at the intersection of class, caste, religion, gender identity and sexual orientation, intervening in the everyday lives of marginalized women and LBT people.

Maya Sharma is a veteran feminist activist, researcher and writer, and part of this grassroots women's organization, Vikalp in Vadodara. 

The Pride Fund is led by three philanthropists. Radhika Piramal Keshav Suri, the executive director of the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and the founder of the Keshav Suri Foundation, and Parmesh Shahani, head of Godrej Dei Labs from the Godrej Industries Group. Read more about it here: https://thepridefundindia.org/about-the-pride. Find us at Dasra. 

Can urban discard be used as a tool to alleviate poverty? How can the poor be involved in evolving their own solutions with dignity? Why must we focus on the receiver's dignity instead of the donor's pride? 

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, host Deval Sanghavi speaks to Anshu and Meenakshi Gupta, co-founders of Goonj. Goonj aims to build an equitable relationship of strength, sustenance and dignity between the cities and villages using the under-utilized urban material as a tool to trigger development with dignity, across the country.

Founded in 1999, today, Goonj works in 31+ states across India with a 1400+ team and a network of 600+ partner grassroots organizations. Their work impacts at scale issues like water, sanitation, agriculture, menstrual health, disaster response and rehabilitation.To know more about Goonj visit www.goonj.org.

For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra.

How can loving a sport lead someone to found an NGO? How can we empower young people to make their own life decisions, rather than giving them solutions? What is the secret to scaling such social initiatives across the world and what changes can one hope to see from the Indian social sector funding landscape?

In the first episode of season 2, Deval Sanghavi speaks to Matthew Spacie, the founder of Magic Bus, an NGO that works with children and young people in India taking them on a journey from childhood to livelihood and out of poverty. There are currently hundreds of thousands of children on this journey of moving out of poverty in 22 states and 80 districts of India.Magic Bus works across south Asia in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. 

Matthew Spacie (@MatthewSpacie) is the founder of Magic Bus (@magicbusindia), an NGO dedicated to using sport and life-skilling to change the lives of the underserved youth of our communities. To know more about Magic Bus, check out their website, www.magicbus.org 

For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra. 

Deval Sanghavi is back with another season of No-Cost Extension, ready to engage more deeply with the theme of rebuilding. Through conversations with social leaders, small NGOs and voices from philanthropies, Season 2 will focus on rebuilding communities, rebuilding India, and rebuilding the fabric of our society. The first episode drops next week!

For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Safeena Husain, the founder of Educate Girls, an NGO that works to support girls' education across India.  Educate Girls has just completed 14 years, and during this period they have grown from working with fifty schools to working in over 18,000 villages across India and reaching millions of children. 

Safeena talks about her own personal journey that led her to set up Educate Girls and how they learnt to use machine learning to identify the most vulnerable locations to work in. She also speaks about how she set up the world's first Development Impact Bond in education (a proof-of-concept that ties funding to outcomes), what we're not seeing when it comes to the fate of millions of children post-COVID, and her pet peeves on the structural dynamics of the development sector. 

Safeena Husain is the founder of Educate Girls, a non-profit that focuses on mobilizing communities for girls' education in India's rural and educationally disadvantaged areas. 

For more information on NCE go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval_Sanghavi and @Dasra