The ILSS Fundraising Program

Strategy Head, Janaagraha

Krishnan S

Krishnan leads the strategy function at Janaagraha, a non-profit that aims to systemically transform India’s cities. He works closely with the CEO to implement the organisational strategy and operating model, scope and anchor institutional partnerships, support organisation development initiatives, watch emerging trends and shape Janaagraha’s response to them over the medium and long term. Prior to this, he was part of the early leadership team at Central Square Foundation, where he spent more than eight years working at the intersection of governments, non-profits, researchers and funders to drive system-led reform in India’s school education sector. His commitment to the development sector was seeded through the Teach for India fellowship, where he led a class of 45 students in an under-resourced school towards academic and social success as a full-time teacher for two years. He started his career with a short stint in Infrastructure Project Finance at Axis Bank. Krishnan holds an MBA in finance and economics from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and is a gold medalist in instrumentation and control engineering from NIT, Trichy.

Social Sector Leader, Ex-Director-Centre for Social Impact & Philanthropy Ashoka University

Ingrid Srinath

Ingrid has been a passionate advocate for human rights, social justice and civil society for the past 25 years. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, Ingrid transitioned from her 12-year career in advertising to the non-profit sector in 1998 with CRY (Child Rights and You), where she was CEO from 2004-08. She has served as secretary-general at CIVICUS, executive director of CHILDLINE India Foundation, CEO of Hivos India and, most recently, as founder director of the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP) at Ashoka University. She currently serves on the Governing Council of the new BSE Social Stock Exchange and the boards of Co-Impact, WINGS, the Resource Alliance, Majlis Law, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park and the Bangalore Museum of Art and Photography.

Partner at Sattva, Leads Nonprofit Advisory Practice

Arun Nathan

Over the past two decades, Arun has worked extensively across social and corporate sectors. This includes heading CSR and Sustainability functions (L&T Finance, Lifestyle International Private Ltd, IDFC Group); leading philanthropy efforts (Jagtiani Foundation); and teaching (IRMA, TERI University, Shiv Nadar University). 

He has also held leadership roles in implementing organisations (Restless Development International, Gramin Vikas Trust, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation) across South Asia, Africa, and Europe and led programs on livelihoods and skilling, micro-enterprise development, health, education, natural resources management, and women’s empowerment.

Arun is an alumnus of The London School of Economics and IRMA.

Principal, and India Lead (Rural Prosperity), Bridgespan

Shashank Rastogi

Shashank is a principal in The Bridgespan Group, where he leads the rural prosperity vertical in India and is co-leading the Pay-What-It-Takes India Initiative, which focuses on transforming funder-NGO relationships.

At Bridgespan, he has supported CSR organisations, philanthropic foundations, and NGOs across sectors to envision a better, just, and equitable future and develop a strategy to strive for it. He has also led and co-authored several reports, such as Bridging the Gap on Funding the True Costs of NGOs in India, Building Strong, Resilient NGOs in India: Time for New Funding Practices, and Building High Impact CSR programs in India.

In his prior social sector experience, Shashank set up and developed the impact investing practice in CIIE.CO at IIM Ahmedabad invests in companies in a range of sectors, including rural energy access, agriculture and agtech, and health. He was also the co-founder and chief operating officer of Sarvajal.

Senior Manager, Bridgespan

Aditi Sharma

Aditi is a manager in Bridgespan’s Mumbai office. She has more than eight years of experience in social impact consulting.

At Bridgespan, she has worked with philanthropists and social sector organisations on advisory and knowledge cases including strategy development for a leading domestic philanthropic organization in the area of early childhood education, and a range of multiyear, multi-stakeholder field-building initiatives including the Pay-What-It-Takes India Initiative, and the Community-Driven Change (CDC) Initiative

Before joining Bridgespan, Aditi worked with the Health, Human and Social Services Practice at KPMG in India. She advised and supported government and bi-/multi-lateral clients on policy and strategy, program management, and monitoring and evaluation in the areas of social protection and inclusion, early childhood development, sanitation, and sustainable livelihood. Aditi holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Bristol.

Independent Consultant

Amita Puri

Amita has over two decades of experience in the Indian development space and has been exposed to and worked in the areas of child rights, gender, livelihoods, and business and human rights. Her roles have included developing organisational sustainability strategies and being involved in the raising of funds from individual, corporate and institutional donors, both in India and overseas, as well as promoting and influencing philanthropy for social justice issues and supporting the development of an ecosystem for it.

Amita has led organisations and had programme oversight for the entire organisation. Her last few full-time roles included executive director of fundraising, marketing, and communications at CARE India. Previously, she was executive director of All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association-AIACA and CEO of Charities Aid Foundation, India.

Amita has also worked directly with communities and grantees to facilitate change, been involved in capacity-building and institution-strengthening work, and worked on collaborative models. She currently works as an independent consultant and partners with diverse stakeholders, both within and outside the country.

Founder & CEO, danamojo

Dhaval Udani

Dhaval, the founder & CEO of danamojo is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a computer science graduate from VJTI, Mumbai. Dhaval has over 20 years of experience spanning technology, management consulting, and philanthropy advisory. Dhaval has worked with multinationals such as Citigroup and A.T. Kearney before he began his social sector journey with GiveIndia, initially as a volunteer for two and a half years and then in a full-time role. He started by leading their operations, technology, and online giving teams before leading GiveIndia as the CEO for four years. During his association with GiveIndia, he helped increase donations by individuals from Rs. 7 cr to Rs. 42 cr through more than 150,000 donors.

Dhaval currently runs danamojo, India’s first payment solutions platform specifically designed for NGOs. It enables more than 1,100 NGOs to access compliant payment systems channelling over Rs. 50 cr by retail donors. Danamojo has been funded by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Social Alpha. In 2018, its technology platform was awarded the NASSCOM Social Innovation Award, and it has gained multiple other awards and recognitions.

Dhaval has been widely quoted in various press media on issues related to individual donations and the overall sector. He has also authored articles for various publications, including The Times of India, Forbes, and Hindu Business Line. Dhaval is also an Aspen Fellow and part of its India Leadership Initiative.

Co-founder, Pramiti, Philanthropy Partners

Deepa Vardarajan

Deepa is the co-founder of Pramiti Philanthropy Partners. Pramiti provides holistic advice and assistance to philanthropists to enable them to achieve their long-term philanthropic objectives in their preferred areas of interest. They assist philanthropy and corporates with philanthropy strategy and roadmap, partner organisation identification and diligence, ongoing grant monitoring and evaluation, and philanthropy portfolio management.

Deepa brings over a decade of experience in philanthropy advisory and grant assessments, including diligence, monitoring and evaluation. having worked with Asha for Education-Dallas (volunteer capacity, Givelndia, Dasra and India Philanthropy Initiative (housed under Azim Premji Foundation). Deepa built the HNI Giving vertical at Givendia to engage and assist over 50 HNI/UHNI families in their personal philanthropy by providing customised solutions (including but not limited to connecting to NGOs, experts, grant management. monitoring, peer connects) to meet their philanthropic objectives.

Co-founder, TeamStreet Fundraising Solutions

Sushanta Gupta

Sushanta is a fundraising expert and donor retention strategist with 16 years of experience in fundraising, sales, and donor communications. He specialises in designing long-term income development plans and implementing strategic fundraising efforts to maximise fundraising opportunities in a growth market.

He has held management and consulting positions with multiple non-profit organisations in India, such as Greenpeace, Amnesty, MSF India, and various international foundations. He is the co-founder of TeamStreet Fundraising Solutions and leads consulting projects and initiatives at TeamStreet.

Asst. Vice President, SBI Foundation

Aman Bhaiya

Aman is a dynamic CSR professional with more than ten years of leadership experience in corporate social responsibility and advisory experience in financial markets. He was a founding member of a three-member team that launched the first Section 8 Company (nonprofit) in the public sector banking space – State Bank of India (SBI) Foundation. He has been instrumental in framing SBI Foundation’s strategy, policies &  procedures, planning and implementing CSR activities to the tune of Rs. 750 Cr for State Bank of India, SBI Foundation and Group subsidiaries.

He has participated in various initiatives. He was selected as a member of the FICCI’s taskforce on diversity and inclusion. He also successfully launched the India Health Alliance (IHA) in May 2020, a collaborative health program led by the SBI Foundation in partnership with USAID, IPE Global PAHAL, and Xynteo India. For his work, he was also awarded the ABP News’ Young CSR Leader Award at the World CSR Congress in February 2017.

Partner and Business Head, Studio Subu

Meghna Rakshit

Meghna is a partner and business head at Studio Subu. She has over 20 years of experience in marketing and communications with corporate and social sector companies. She is passionate about leveraging communications to drive gender equality and empower women. Meghna holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business and a BA in Marketing and Psychology from Hamilton College, NY. She brings extensive experience in user-centred problem-solving, communications, business planning and design thinking to her work. She sits on the advisory board of ATMA and has been a speaker at several development sector forums.

Prior to Studio Subu, Meghna worked as a communications director at Womanity Foundation and Teach For India. Her corporate experience includes working as a media planner at Mindshare New York & Mumbai and as a marketing strategist at 9.9 Media, and Anandabazar Patrika.

Founder and Story Coach, Story Rules

Ravishankar Iyer

Ravi is a storytelling coach and consultant and operates under the brand name of ‘Story Rules’. He enjoys enabling mid-senior-level leaders to improve their work outcomes by using effective storytelling techniques. He has successfully delivered training programs to varied marquee clients like Accenture, JPMorgan, Google, Walmart and many more.

While his overall work experience is about 18 years, his core skills were learnt in a seven-year management consulting stint, where he led teams that made information-rich presentation stories to demanding clients such as PE funds and leading corporates. These skills were enhanced in his role as co-founder and chief storyteller at CaptivaTour – India’s leading mobile audio-guides app for historical monuments.

Ravi is a rank-holder chartered accountant (2001) who subsequently completed his MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad in 2005. He loves reading history and other nonfiction and listening to podcasts. He writes on business storytelling on his LinkedIn page and at www.storyrules.in/blog.

CEO, Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy

Noshir Dadrawala

Noshir is CEO of the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy (CAP), through which he offers compliance-related advisory services to nonprofits and corporate social initiatives. His career spans over 35 years in the nonprofit sector, working with a diverse range of organisations, from large established national and global organisations to corporate and family grantmakers to start-ups.

Drawing upon more than three and a half decades of hands-on experience and practical insights, Noshir’s main role at CAP involves simplifying the confusing and complex maze of old but ever-changing new laws. Noshir’s legal expertise in the sector is widely recognised, as is his deep understanding of compliance within philanthropy.

His current international affiliation includes serving as a member of the advisory board of the International Center for Not-for-profit Law (ICNL). Earlier, he was on the Board of Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), the Resource Alliance, and also Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium (APPC).

In India, he serves as a trustee of the Forbes Marshall Foundation, Everest Industries Foundation, Collective Good Foundation, G. J. Kapoor Foundation, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra, Ashta No Kai Foundation, Make a Wish Foundation and the Bombay Community Trust. He is also a member of the audit committee of the Akshay Patra Foundation.

Noshir has authored several resource books and is currently an active blogger on compliance-related issues for NPOs. He is also a speaker at many local and international conferences and guest faculty at leading business schools.

Partner, The Bridgespan Group

Kashyap Shah

Kashyap is a partner at The Bridgespan Group. He heads the Bridgespan Nonprofit Development Program (BNDP) for Asia and Africa. His experience includes policymaking, development consulting, program management and impact investment.

He has done significant work in the education domain over the last 6 to 7 years. Prior to Bridgespan, Kashyap led the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s (MSDF) efforts to pioneer systemic education reforms in multiple Indian states. Kashyap has also worked as an officer on special duty (OSD) with the Andhra Pradesh Government. Kashyap has spent close to a decade in for profit business consulting.

Kashyap is a British Council scholar and has a dual master’s degree in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Pro-Vice Chancellor-Development, Placements, and Alumni Relations, Ashoka University

Venkatesam Eshwara

Venkat is currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Development, Placements, and Alumni Relations at Ashoka University. His responsibilities include fundraising, providing leadership and developing and implementing strategy for the institution. Before this, he held central roles in top management with organisations of diverse profiles. His core strengths lie in building, growing and managing geographically diverse operations.

With an entrepreneurial and start-up experience of 20 years, Venkat has built three companies from inception to significant growth and profitability. Venkat is an alumnus of St. Xaviers College, Calcutta. June 2022 marked his tenth year at Ashoka University.

Founder-CEO PQ Solutions

Priya RIYA Pannikar

Priya has over two decades of experience in fundraising and related operations. She is the CEO and founder of PQ (Philanthropy Quotient) Solutions. The company helps nonprofits make a positive difference in their communities by providing consulting, knowledge, and software services. Priya has a long tenure at Old Dominion University, where she leads the fundraising operations team.

Priya is a faculty member at the Indian Leaders for the Social Sector (ILSS) and the Naropa Fellowship. She holds master’s degrees from Old Dominion University and the University of Kerala. She earned her Executive Education in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from Harvard University.

CEO, Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation

Anushri Alva

Anushri has worked as an educator for the last 14 years across East Asia, India, and the US on various education-based programs. Since 2017, she has been a founding team member and CEO of Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation, a not-for-profit that builds the capacity of government schools through evidence-based governance. Their work spans four state governments.

She started her career as a teacher at Teach for India after she went on to work for Sanctuary of Families as a literacy coordinator supporting the educational needs of survivors of gender-based violence.

Anushri received her postgraduate degree in international and comparative education from Columbia University in 2014 and her bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from the University of Hong Kong. She is an alum of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship’s Women-Led Accelerator cohort and is an organising committee member of the teacher’s college chapter.

Senior Manager-Resource Mobilisation & Partnerships, Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation

Tiasha Banerjee

Tiasha leads fundraising, focusing on institutional donors and partnerships, for Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation, a capacity-building organisation dedicated to improving the quality of educational leadership and learning outcomes. She is also an active member of the vartaLeap Coalition—Youth Collective.

Tiasha completed her master’s in development at Azim Premji University, Bangalore, and her bachelor’s in mass media from Sophia College for Women, Mumbai. She has been a Teach for India Fellow, teaching students in grades 8 and 9 in a low-income private school in Pune. She is an alum of The ILSS Emerging Women’s Leadership Program.