About Us

At ILSS, we aim to build the leadership talent and capacity that India’s social sector needs in order to create catalytic impact at scale.

Mission & Vision

The non-profit sector in India has 500+ nonprofits with an annual budget above 5 crores. Although it is the largest nonprofit sector in the world, it is still nascent in terms of a focus on leadership development and capacity building for sustainability, growth, and resilience.

ILSS aims to strengthen leadership capacity in the development sector through:
- Strong research-based design for Programs
- Access to the best faculty from practitioners to academics
- A growing network of social sector individuals and organizations

Our Approach

Our Founding Story

India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS) was set up in September 2017 with the aim of creating a learning and leadership development organisation that will help build leadership capacity for India’s social sector.

The growing complexity of problems faced by India on the development front underlines the need for organisations to devise innovative, sustainable, efficient and scalable solutions; it has also renewed the focus on the importance of developing skills to oversee the implementation of these solutions and to plan for future challenges.

Incubated by Central Square Foundation, with ISDM as knowledge partner, ILSS held the first edition of our flagship leadership program in January 2018 to offer senior leaders from diverse backgrounds a deeper understanding of the social sector – and how they can help in achieving India’s development goals. The Program also serves as a learning platform for leaders in the social sector by offering opportunities to gain multiple perspectives, tune into emerging discussions in development leadership and update their knowledge.

After successfully running the Leadership Program for two years, we launched the ILSS Fundraising Program in 2020. As a response to the resounding desire for building fundraising capacities in the development sector, the Fundraising Program was designed specifically for social sector leaders and fundraising professionals. We hope to design and bring together more such capacity-building programs specially curated for the social sector and its needs.

With organizational partners ranging from NGOs, social enterprises, consultancies, academic institutions, to foundations, our Programs highlight our commitment to strengthen and advocate for the social sector, ultimately multiplying impact on the ground.