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 www.rebuildindiafund.org or follow @Dasra for updates.

To follow No-Cost Extension go to dasra.org/nce and follow Deval on Twitter at @Deval Sanghavi and @Dasra

This interview was recorded in 2022.
To get No-Cost Extension news and behind-the-scenes sneak-peaks, follow Deval Sanghavi at @Deval_Sanghavi on Twitter.

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