Our Team

Abhishek began his work in the development sector as a social studies teacher in Mumbai with a desire to understand and improve education and its perception in the country. He believes it is crucial to encourage groups of thoughtful, committed citizens who wish to change the world. What excites him most about the sector is the potential of learnings from local innovations/communities to spark a change in systems and mindsets at scale. At Dasra, Abhishek will collaborate with non-profits to amplify their impact through the adoption of open-source technology and the use of data for decision making. Before joining Dasra Abhishek managed social impact programs at ConveGenius, a social enterprise that works directly with state governments to provide ed tech solutions to students in public schools. Other organisations he has worked with include Atma, Antarang, and Teach for India. Abhishek graduated from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship.

The fact that the slightest bit of concentrated effort could make a positive difference and that her actions could affect change in someone else’s life motivated Ada to work in the field of social impact. Her tenure as a Teach For India Fellow cemented her resolve to work within the sector.

Dasra’s model of working towards a more equal world for all by collaborating with different stakeholders deeply resonates with Ada. As a part of the 10to19: Dasra Adolescents Collaborative, she works towards enabling meaningful youth and adolescent engagement and facilitating the creation of platforms for sustained engagement between young people and decision-makers.

Before joining Dasra, Ada worked with on-ground organisations focusing on education, sexual and reproductive health and child protection, including two of Dasra’s partner organisations - Atma and Aangan. She has worked as an external consultant with organisations such as the UNFPA, Population Council and ICRW; as well as local social enterprises working on safe menstruation, education and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Ada holds a BA in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College and a Graduate Certificate in Public Policy. She is a Chevening Scholar and holds an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, where she specialised in Gender and Impact Evaluation.

Aditi’s journey in the development sector started when she was in high school. She volunteered with a Mumbai-based education non-profit where she became interested in understanding how community, business and policy efforts converge to solve intractable problems. At Dasra, she works for the 10to19 Adolescents Collaborative, supporting implementing non-profits to strengthen their programs, build the Collaborative’s MEL practice and foster meaningful relationships with the government.

Prior to working at Dasra, Aditi worked with a Chennai based research and advisory firm, Okapi, where she researched and reported on issues across the areas of urban development and resilience. She has also interned at a range of organisations working on various facets of the social impact ecosystem in India including Elevar Equity, Brookings India and 321 Education Foundation.

Aditi graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in Political Science and Public Affairs.

Aditi has always believed in the need for inclusive social development and started her journey as a volunteer in 2013. However, it was a meeting with a young mother who had been released from a prison along with her infants that left a deep impact and has been a key factor in propelling her towards social development.
With the conviction that every sentient being is deserving of dignity simply by virtue of their existence, she has been working in the social development sector for 5+ years now.
Aditi has worked in a varied capacity with implementation NGOs and grounds her work with the aim of adding to the body of knowledge of community psychosocial development, which found resonance at Dasra. It has been exciting to be a part of the development movement which has gained much traction in the last decade with increased awareness and participation. 
Aditi holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from Macquarie University and Psychology from Mumbai University. She has completed her Masters in Psychosocial clinical studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi and is also a practising psychotherapist.

“Akshita has spent a decade in the social impact space and draws from her experience of growing up between an urban and rural setting to inform her understanding of social enterprise and sustainable community building.
 
She started her journey in the development sector as an associate with the International Rescue Committee working on refugee resettlement in New York City and went on to work with the public affairs and public relations team at Edelman. Before joining Dasra, Akshita was part of the Wadhwani Institute of Artificial Intelligence as an program and partnership specialist working with the agriculture, health and new business development verticals.

Akshita is a Davis scholar from UWCSEA and completed her graduation in Political Science and Human Rights Bard College. She is a TedX speaker and Net Zero Fellow of the SPG School of Governance (Bangalore) in their joint program with the European Climate Fund, which brings a cohort of public policy youth leaders to understand over a 6 month period ways to mitigate climate change and how to build climate resilience.”

Coming from a modest background, Alefiya has always believed in the power of education and the transformation it brings in individuals. This solemn belief motivated her to work with organizations in facilitating this view, both through conducting sessions herself & through mobilization of communities.  Alefiya is a Master's graduate in Sociology from the University of Mumbai. She possess a rich 4+ years’ experience working with adolescents and adults in the education & training on employability skills, soft skills, functional English, Classroom methodologies, etc. She is a born & brought up Mumbaikar and her pronouns are she/her.

Ever since she was in high school, Ami wanted to help make the world a better place. She followed her heart, chose an education accordingly and has been a committed development sector professional for the last seven years.

Ami has worked in different capacities providing small inputs promoting evidence-based solutions and convergence across development programmes. She is fortunate to have had a wide range of experiences, from travelling to remote villages for research projects to working with the union government. These experiences have always reinforced her conviction that social impact requires a ripple effect of actions by diverse stakeholders. Dasra’s vision aligns perfectly with her thoughts. As part of the Knowledge Creation and Dissemination team, Ami’s portfolio entails advisory research, studying the macro picture and building useful insights for the sector.

Ami is interested in gender and social policy. Her worldview is rooted in feminism, compassion and an intuitive optimism.

Ami holds a Certificate of Advance Studies in Public Governance and Administration from ETH Zurich and a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Prior to joining Dasra, Ami has worked with TISS, NITI Aayog, UN Women, and Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai.

Solving for India’s developmental challenges requires the highest level of innovation, given the scale and diversity of the issues at hand. Anannya hopes to contribute to this and believes that her work at Dasra keeps her at the edge of innovation.

Anannya leads the Strategic Philanthropy team, which works to deepen engagements with givers by guiding them towards impactful giving and personalized giving options. She has also worked on supporting philanthropy focused research and curating innovative strategic philanthropy products.

Previously, Anannya has worked with the HNI Giving Division of GiveIndia, where she led the donor management team that managed more than 50 HNI families, and aided research & support on varied causes like livelihood, women empowerment and healthcare for UHNI donors. She has also worked with A.T. Kearney as a strategy management consultant, with experience in Consumer & Retail, Oil & Gas and Automotive industries; and as a chemical engineering consultant with Engineers India Limited.

She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. She also has a gold medal in B.Ch.E from Jadavpur University.

Anantvijay’s concern for environment and nature led him to the social sector. He spent some time working in rural Rajasthan which left a lasting impression upon him and highlighted a need for more sustainable on ground impact and the importance of strengthening institutions. Dasra’s Capacity Building team lends him the chance to learn from a wide breadth of organisations, as well as an opportunity to work closely with organizations changing lives through innovative solutions. Anantvijay provides hands-on capacity building support to organizations in Dasra’s portfolio, helping them grow institutionally and function strategically, and thus enabling them to create impact at scale.

Before joining Dasra, he spent 3 years working with Seva Mandir and Udaipur Urja Initiatives (a producer company promoted by Seva Mandir), engaging with tribal populations in South Rajasthan. His work there focused on climate change, accessibility of clean energy technology  and creation of market linkages for farmers in villages. He holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Vellore Institute of Technology.

Ankit comes with extensive experience in engineering and has also worked in the impact space. During his last 17+ years of career, he has worked in different domains, spanning various technologies. He has co-founded an NGO - "Adopt a Family" that focuses on providing ration to visually impaired families and on making them self-reliant. As part of the Tech4Dev 2.0 initiative, he is taking up assignments under the Fractional CTO program and helping different NGOs leverage technology to further their missions.

Solving for India’s complex social issues that are multi-layered and multi-faceted requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Anupama believes that it is crucial to reimagine the dynamic interplay between the country’s private and public sectors to achieve this. She hopes to work at the intersection of different sectors and stakeholders, facilitating an equitable and self-sustainable India. Her role at Dasra’s 10to19 collaborative involves leading projects across various themes of adolescent’s wellbeing and managing critical civil society and other stakeholder relationships.

Anupama is an engineer by educational qualification who pivoted to the social sector. Her interest in the social sector originated during a volunteer experience during high school that opened her eyes to the world of injustice. From then on, she has interned with various not-for-profit organizations such as the Tata Institute of Institution throughout her undergraduate days. Her passion to explore social issues at a grassroots level drove her to work as a fellow with Teach For India for two years. As a fellow, Anupama undertook multiple projects to strengthen the community and worked as a reviewer at the selection review committee.

Social change is a constant and dynamic force in India, and everyone plays their part in influencing it. For Anushka, she believes that her place is in the development sector, where knowledge and innovation can work to strengthen systems that serve the people. 
 
With a focus on mental health and wellbeing, Anushka believes that building community resilience and capacity is the way to driving human development in India. Her view on development falls in line with Dasra’s core values of thinking community first, and catalysing positive practices for maximum impact.

The world is a testament to changing socioeconomic constraints, and it is crucial to develop a multifaceted approach to solving them. After having worked within a traditional advisory vertical, Anushka seeks to build on her analytical and comprehensive research skills to evaluate the economic feasibility of social responsibility and drive solutions to impact social outcomes.

As a part of Dasra, she hopes to engage with and learn from budding social entrepreneurs, aspiring changemakers and ambitious donors. In her role within the Catalytic Philanthropy team, she will strive to creatively navigate the intersectionality of constraints faced by funders and beneficiaries to accelerate their impact.

Anushka is a graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Grinnell College. Prior to Dasra, she worked as a Senior Analyst in the Deals Advisory team at KPMG. Along with her friends, she co-founded Mission Aamra, a Covid Relief Initiative that supported front-line workers, Covid-affected families, and daily wage earners during the second wave in West Bengal.

Aravind Ravi is a highly accomplished product management professional with a strong passion for entrepreneurship, startups and technology. Aravind is now committed to using his skills to make a positive impact in the social sector. Driven by his inquisitive nature and natural leadership abilities, Aravind seeks to make a meaningful contribution to society by leveraging his knowledge and experience in product management. He is excited by the prospect of working with a team of like-minded individuals who are dedicated to creating lasting change and improving the lives of others.  

What excites Aravind most about the social sector is the opportunity to use his skills to make a tangible difference in the world. He is committed to leveraging his expertise to drive innovation and growth within Dasra, while also supporting the organization's mission of empowering social entrepreneurs and catalyzing social change. As a member of Dasra, Aravind seeks to create a lasting impact by helping to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within the social sector. He believes that by supporting social entrepreneurs and leveraging technology, it is possible to address some of the most pressing challenges facing society today. With his inquisitive nature, passion for learning and unwavering commitment to creating positive change, Aravind is poised to make a significant contribution to the social sector in the years to come

Ashwin work in accounts and finance team at Dasra. He has completed his bachelors in 2011 and General LLB in the year 2018.

He is very passionate about his work, loves to learn new things every day, he believes in the idea of 'self research and development'. 

Previously he was working with the charter accountant and having more the 6 years’ experience. He was working under both direct & indirect tax but the major part of working was indirect taxation with new regime i.e GST.

Ayush aims to be part of a society where at least the basic resources for leading a comfortable life are available, affordable, and accessible to everyone in the community. His first tryst with the development sector was with a nonprofit organization working in rural Rajasthan and the experiences from this fieldwork made him realize the gap between goals and outputs of many such nonprofits is possibly due to a lack of financial and organizational capacity, inability to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, and the absence of a well-defined outcomes-based strategy. 

Ayush's developmental philosophy aligns perfectly with that of Dasra which aims to create a social change through strategic philanthropy and collaborative action. He works as part of the Catalytic Philanthropy team on funder advisory and NGO capacity building by fostering trust-based relationships between funders and nonprofits and leveraging this network of stakeholders to create transformational impact for vulnerable communities. 

Ayush holds a Master's in Public Policy (MPP) from National Law School of India University, Bengaluru and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Ramjas College, University of Delhi. He has previously interned with Fiscal Policy Institute, Government of Karnataka and PRS Legislative Research, Delhi.

Bumica works in the Accounts and Finance team at Dasra and is responsible for Finance, Legal and Secretarial compliances. The desire to work for mission-based organizations, rather than profit-based organizations is what drew Bumica to this sector. Bumica likes that her day-to-day work provides her an opportunity to work towards improving the lives fo people. She wants to take this opportunity to demonstrate commitment to bringing equity in a disadvantaged society.

Bumica is a Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary and LLB by qualification. She has around 8 years of experience in Finance and Accounts.  Before Joining Dasra, Bumica has worked in Deloitte, Sharda Cropchem Limited and MT Educare Limited.

Candolina is an alumna of St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and has completed her Diploma in Aviation, Hospitality and Travel Management programme from Frankfinn Institute, post which she joined the hospitality industry.

She has worked with some of the iconic luxury hotel brands like, IHCL (Taj Group), ITC Limited, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts where she explored Wellness in a big way, thus had the most enriching experiences in the World of Hospitality.

She then took up a role of an Administration Executive at one of India's leading developer of industrial and warehousing parks, Indospace which gave her a breakthrough in the Corporate Administration and contributed to the Company's success for 05 years and has the privilege of setting up the new office which helped her hone her organizational skills.

With a passion for serving her people through constant innovation make her a people's person and her willingness to go the extra mile to contribute to India's development, especially in the rural areas made her choose Dasra as her next big step. Quality Education for children and Clean Drinking Water along with Healthy Nutrtion in the rural and urban areas of India are the key changes she seeks and has been supporting the causes through Magic Bus & GiveIndia.

An avid traveller and gourmet, she loves exploring new places. 

The reason why Deepak wants to join Dasra is because he believes that he has good experience and he also wants to explore something new in different sectors which Keeps him motivated. He likes accepting challenges and he knows that he will ensure whatever task Is given to him . It Also excites him that going forward, the journey with Dasra will be Challenging & Excitement . He is self-motivated person and doesn’t need an external push during hardships. He knows how to manage time-based situations and do smart work accordingly. Education wise, he has completed his graduation from Rizvi College in Commerce Field .Overall, he has 14 Years of experience in the BPO sector .

A couple of years into his first job at Morgan Stanley in New York, Deval realized he wanted to be in India, to focus on the lives of the many millions that live without dignity and equity. So the Texas-born investment banker packed up, came to Mumbai, and co-founded Dasra.

It’s very first workshop, for around 20 non-profit organizations working with children, was to support them in learning from each other – and this collaborative learning philosophy remains central to how Dasra functions even today - nurturing powerful partnerships among stakeholders across the spectrum – including government, donors, organizations, experts and the media.

Deval leads Dasra’s strategic philanthropy efforts, and provides foreign and domestic philanthropists with informed investment strategies for the social sector – keeping human lives at the center of all of its thinking. Since 1999, he has directed over USD 72 million to the Indian social sector; incubated and launched the Dasra Philanthropy Forum and Dasra Philanthropy Week; initiated the Dasra Giving Circle, India’s largest collaborative giving platform; and launched the Dasra Changemakers program, a peer-led learning platform aimed at inspiring philanthropists to take bold action to solve some of India’s most pressing problems.

Deval holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration with a dual Honor's degree in Business and Finance from the University of Texas, Austin, is a Cordes Fellow, and a founding board member of Magic Bus and Villgro. In 2014, he was awarded the Forbes Philanthropy Award in the 'Crossover Leaders' category for successfully transitioning from investment banking to the non-profit sector.

Dhananjay has always tried to stay connected with sustainability and the social sector wherever he has contributed. As a member of the Urban Sanitation team at Dasra, he facilitates collaborations between organizations in the Gates Foundation’s Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WSH) network of partners.

Born and brought up in Jodhpur, he moved to Mumbai for his graduation in Accounting and Finance from H.R. College, Mumbai. With an interest in strategy, he pursued his Masters in Strategy and International Management from Vlerick Business School, Belgium. After which, he completed a consultancy project with an NGO called Synchronicity Earth in London. He joined AXA XL as a credit controller where he handled accounts of over 30 countries. Alongside, he worked with the Head of Climate at AXA XL where he was selected to strategize inclusion of employees in the fight against climate change. Dhananjay is a keen learner and always prioritises impact in all his decisions. He is always ready to try new things and adventures.

Dhruv holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Industrial Organization from the University of Warwick, UK. At Warwick, he worked on various research projects involving econometric analysis on education interventions in India.

Dhruv’s journey in the social sector started with his contribution to the community service programme in his school. Seeing the long-term impact that he was able to create, he actively took leadership roles part in activities with the objective of creating a positive impact for the communities we live in. He led Warwick UNICEF to undertake fundraising, campaigning, and volunteering activities for those affected by different prevailing crises around the globe.

Prior to this, Dhruv was a development sector consultant at Think through Consulting. Here, he undertook strategy development, impact assessments, M&E, and research & documentation for corporates and development agencies. He has worked across varied thematic areas including education, women entrepreneurship, WASH, and livelihood enhancement.

At Dasra, he is a part of the Urban Sanitation team where he works with different organizations to solve complex issues across the sanitation value chain and create sustainable impact for all stakeholders.

Having worked in corporates for more than six years, Diego decided to join the social sector with the aim of sharing his knowledge and skills with many more organizations and supporting them in their efforts to reduce the time and cost required to execute programs. He thus hopes to increase the operational efficiency of Dasra as well as our partner NGOs.

Before joining the technology team at Dasra, Diego worked in MI Web pro as an IT Support consultant for their clients' US Business Centre and Ten Group. He managed their network servers, access control, and reporting systems. Prior to that, Diego worked at Zenith Infotech as a Network support executive (level 2).

Diego has a Bachelor’s in Commerce from Mumbai University and is a Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) with VMware V6 Cloud certification.

Diksha's work at Dasra is focused on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene portfolio. She enables organisations to build institutional capacity, amplify their work and foster collaboration among key stakeholders in the sector.  

Diksha is an Economics graduate (Honours) from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Diksha's first experience in the development sector was working at a women's shelter. Witnessing the severe lack of resources and managerial constraints, she soon realised that nonprofits were facing barriers to scale and required strategy, a growth plan and financial stability.

Diksha was keen on finding solutions that could create sustainable impact at scale. To this end, she was one of the founding members at X Billion Skills Lab, an early stage social enterprise focused on digital learning and providing access to jobs. Diksha developed XBSL's business model and led business intelligence projects including their customer acquisition strategy, competitor analysis and evaluation of India's skills gap.

Having worked with different models in the social sector (including non profits, public policy, journalism and social enterprises), Diksha believes Dasra’s focus on creating impact through strategic philantrophy, capacity building, and advocacy aligns perfectly with her development philosophy.

As a part of the internal operations team at Dasra, Dinella leads the Talent Management, IT and Admin functions, while also leading key organisation-wide initiatives such as SM office, internal and board governance and employee engagement.

Prior to joining Dasra, Dinella was associated with The Wine Society of India for 6 years, where, as HoD-Operations, she was a key member of the leadership team and second in line to the Managing Director. Dinella’s experience and portfolio comprises of Project & team management, customer service, data analysis, operations and administration.

With the drive to learn more about the social sector, Dinella took the plunge and is enthusiastic about learning new things through every available platform.

Divya has since her college days at St. Xavier’s Mumbai been involved in projects which have tried to create a more equal world. She holds a MPhil in Social Work from TISS, and has worked across a spectrum of roles with NGOs and Research organizations. Divya has through her work at TISS and Naandi Foundation developed skills across teaching, research, project planning, management and implementation.  She was heading projects on improving Student learning abilities in Government Schools in Mumbai, Placements and Job specific Training for underprivileged graduates, setting up a Digital Marketing Training platform for underprivileged students across India, writing grant proposals and conducting baseline and impact assessment studies for training programmes. She is an avid traveller and enjoys exploring different cultures and meeting new people. She is a trained dancer and yoga practitioner

Divya has 20 years of experience in the development sector with key skills in forging and strengthening partnerships with CSOs at the grassroots, national and international level. Her early stints of volunteering as a teacher for children from a slum in Lucknow and later as a counsellor at ChildLine UK helped set her path in the social sector. She honed her skills of partnerships, grants management as well as perspective on gender and its intersections with livelihoods while working at Oxfam GB in West India. At Pravah, she led on growing partnerships and programmes on youth leadership. Prior to joining Dasra, she was the Head of Asia at Girls Not Brides where she enhanced her ability to nurture civil society coalitions in South Asia to generate evidence, learning and advocate with governments to end child, early and forced marriage. Divya is also a core member of the Young Voices National Movement, a network of 95 civil society organisations and 2500 young people from 15 states of India. She has a Masters in Development Studies from the London School of Economics. She is passionate about gender equity and expanding rights and choices for young people and keen to explore innovations and learning around the same.

Drishti aims to contribute to the larger social impact landscape which is established on statues of sustainability and inclusiveness. She had her first immersion in the development space as a member of Enactus, which allowed her to have an on-field and secondary research experience. She ended up establishing a currently operational enterprise in maternal and child healthcare, a cause she still feels about very passionately. 

As a member of the Urban Sanitation team at Dasra, she facilitates collaborations between organizations in the Gates Foundation’s Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WSH) network of partners. Through her work at Dasra, Drishti hopes to get a deeper understanding of the organizational landscape and get a better sense of what goes into creating and sustaining continuous impact in various fields of social development. 

Prior to Dasra, Drishti has worked in management consulting with Bain. She hopes to bring on-board her analytical and stakeholder management skills from her time there. She holds a degree in Management Studies with a specialization in Finance from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University.

Bringing about any social change is a mammoth task and needs many hands. Ekansh believes that simple acts clubbed together can bring about a big change. And that this simplicity allows for greater participation. With this thought, Ekansh started volunteering for social work much before he formally joined the development sector. He believes it is possible to merge traditional wisdom with scientific/professional rigor which can then nurture a just society and a vibrant planet,At Dasra, Ekansh works with the ReBuild team to design and execute the $50 million #RebuildIndiaFund that will build resilience for 500+ high-impact NGOs across the country over five years. He also leads the digitalization effort for the Philanthropic Grant Management System.

Prior to Dasra, Ekansh worked with Arghyam which is a philanthropy that aims to enable water security for 100 million people. A rural manager from IRMA, Ekansh spent five years at Arghyam collaborating with NGOs, funders, and state departments. With a focus on capacity building and using tech to design and manage large-scale programs, he has been working to push the agenda of community-based natural resource management. Earlier, he spent four years with Infosys working for a US-based CPG client.

The seed to work for the social sector got planted in Epcita’s mind when she was quite young. Growing up, she led a peripatetic lifestyle which made her get exposure to diverse cultures, lifestyles, and perspectives. However, it also led her to witness the scale of disparity and injustice throughout the country. This made her volunteer extensively. The entire experience ignited a passion in her towards working in the impact space. The vast potential and collaborative action of like-minded people makes her believe in the power of transformational change that social sector can enable. 

 At Dasra, she’s a part of the 10to19 Adolescents Collaborative and aims to enable structures that cater to the needs of the marginalised youth of the country.  

Prior to Dasra, Epcita worked with UNESCO-MGIEP where she worked on a research project on digitalisation of education in Asia. After that, she worked in the micro-finance industry, building interventions and partnerships towards the socio-economic growth of micro and nano entrepreneurs in the country. 

Epcita graduated in Political Science honours from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi and holds a Master’s degree in International Studies.

What gets measured, gets improved. And what gets repeated, must be automated. I strongly believe in these two principles in life. Among the multiple hats that I have worn in the last two decades, I have always loved to be a creator who likes designing solutions for the Digital Transformation of Non-Profits, with a deep focus on Cost, Efficiency, Speed, and Quality. Currently, I head Project Tech4Dev, with the mission to transform the way non-profits use technology and data.

Ethna joined the development sector with the hope to relay stories from different communities of India - stories of struggles, challenges and everyday triumph. She is deeply passionate about children’ education and welfare of the elderly, and is a strong believer of preserving cultural uniqueness.

She started her journey in the development sector as a fellow with Teach for India and went on to work with leading MNCs, such as Hindustan Unilever and Sterlite Industries, as a CSR professional. Before joining Dasra, Ethna was leading a Mumbai-based NGO with operations in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the Kashmir valley and Manipur, focused at delivering quality educational opportunities to children in conflict zones.

Ethna completed her graduation in English Language & Literature from Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, and went on to pursue Master’s degrees in English and Sociology from the University of Pune. She also holds an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship from NMIMS, Mumbai.

During her Teach For India Fellowship, Gagan got introduced to the challenges and opportunities in this sector along with the scope of impact and hence, decided to continue working in the sector. What excites Gagan most about this space is that there is essentially no limit to how much one can contribute through their work, along with having a steep learning curve. Her work at Dasra revolves around working with different non profit organizations to help them scale. Through this, she aims to create a multifold impact on all the people being impacted by the initiatives run by these organizations.

Gagan recently earned her Msc. in International Management from Kings College London, after the completion of her MBA in International Business and Finance. She has a little over three years of work experience in the Financial and Not-For-Profit sector, having worked in GE India and Teach For India respectively.

Garima moved to Mumbai 6.5 years back, during her travel in a local train she felt that she must do something towards the hygiene & cleanliness of the city in partnership with the government & other social activists. Joining a social sector was not intended as part of career but when the opportunity came her way from Dasra, she was excited to pick the path.

Prior to joining Dasra, Garima was associated with Reliance Brands Limited for 5.5 years, Pepperfry, Reliance Jio & HR Anexi, each for a year respectively. She joined the Internal Operations team, to lead the Talent Management. She brings in wide knowledge on strategies & contemporary HR practices from Startup-Corporates and intends to blend those practices into a wonderful culture of Dasra. Her academics include Masters in Psychology & Human Resource Development & Management from Christ University & an Executive Course in People Analytics & Digitization from IIM Indore.

Gayatri's proclivity to work in the social sector was in part due to her understanding of the magnitude of social issues afflicting the country and in part a realization that the skills and experience she had gained in the investment banking world could be easily transposed to the sector, given that there was a dearth of young, passionate and empathetic individuals in this space.

Within the Strategic Philanthropy team she works closely with an array of funders: corporates, foundations and individuals, to help align their goals with their respective philosophies and design a more structured approach to their philanthropy. At Dasra, she aspires to collaborate with influencers to make philanthropy more impact driven, whilst fostering personal growth in the process.

Gayatri brings in strategy consulting experience from Nomura where she worked prior to joining Dasra. She holds a Masters degree in International Relations from King’s College London and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi. Gayatri is a trained vocalist and a travel enthusiast.

Belonging to a tribal area and coming from a family of educationists Ieshan from the very start was instilled with the idea that an individual being a product nurtured by the society and community has a responsibility to give back and contribute towards the evolution of the society. This influence made Ieshan actively seek ways in which he could use his education, skills, and abilities for contributing to the general welfare right from his school days. His prime motivation to work in the social sector is to make vulnerable communities self-resilient by helping them expand their social capital and cohesion. At Dasra, Ieshan is part of the Rebuild team. He works to develop a deep understanding of grassroots organizations and social issues in the non-profit sector in addition to supporting the team in overseeing project management systems and tracking deliverables. 

Ieshan holds a postgraduate degree in Public Policy. Before joining Dasra he worked with various NGOs at the grassroots in Jammu and Kashmir, co-founded a Public Policy think tank, and a music ed-tech. He has also worked as a consultant with various state governments on various developmental and public policy-related issues.

Ishwarya believes in being the nudge that helps people solve complex social issues. There is an invincible potential in people who live these realities every day, who, if given the right resources have the ability to design change and take ownership. The ideal world would be the one with equal set of opportunities and same level of dignity, irrespective of where anyone belongs and that possibility excites her the most about the social sector.

Prior to Dasra, she worked with Give as an NGO ecosystem manager that introduced her to 200+ nonprofit organizations, their work and their stories that kept her passion for the sector intact. She completed a brief stint at Citius Tech and JP Morgan India Services Pvt Ltd. She has completed her Social Innovation Management fellowship from Amani Institute and Bachelors’ in Banking and Insurance from the University of Mumbai.

She enjoys scouting second hand books, listening to podcasts, writing comic strips, having open idealistic conversations and roots for inclusiveness and mental health.

Jyotirmoy is an Acumen Fellow with more than a decade of experience in the impact space in India as a social entrepreneur, CSR consultant and philanthropy advisor. He has consulted funders, non-profits, multi-national companies and governments on creating and executing projects across seven states in India through interventions in the domains of energy access, financial inclusion, sanitation, livelihood generation, agriculture and development technology. Jyotirmoy is passionate about solving problems that are challenging, targeted towards emerging markets, involve multi-stakeholder integration, leverage technology, and are driven by market-driven models and a systems-thinking approach to create solutions that can impact millions of people. Apart from this, Jyotirmoy has been the co-organizer of TEDxGateway - Asia’s largest TEDx conference and the Co-President of the United Nations Young Changemakers Conclave.

As part of the Strategic Philanthropy Leadership Team at Dasra, Jyotirmoy advises funders on their giving journeys, designs Dasra’s Philanthropy strategy and leads the Dasra Philanthropy Labs – an incubator for philanthropy ideas, narratives and impact solutions for India.

Kalpana began her journey in the development sector with WHO, which highlighted the prevailing marginalized issues that directed her to contribute to this sector with the belief that, “It is not enough to be compassionate, one must contribute”. The thought “we are accountable to give back to society” evoked her to continue in this sector through many impactful organizations working towards upliftment of the community, like Sightsavers, Reliance Foundation etc. Opportunities to interact with the beneficiaries and reviewing NGOs portfolio has added more understanding about the difficult and challenging requirements of teh social sector. Her work at Dasra allows her to interact with various like minded donors and ensure donor grants are ethically utilized and validate value for money.

She is a Postgraduate in accounts from Mumbai University with a Diploma in NPO’s financial framework from TISS. She has over 15 years of experience in the developmental sector including financial management, partner reviews, auditing, accounting, donor reporting and so on.

Karishma (she / her) is a development practitioner with seven years of experience in the sector. Her areas of interest include social protection, structure and agency, and community systems of support. Her stint as a rural development fellow shaped her understanding of development challenges, particularly of people at the intersections of marginalisation. Her hope is to strengthen labour rights in the country which she seeks to further through Dasra's work in Social Compact. She has completed her MA in Politics from Mumbai University and also holds a degree in Mass Media (Journalism).

Kasturi works with the Catalytic Philanthropy team at Dasra, building research, insights and knowledge bases that inform and enable transformative change via various programs across the organisation. To do so, she draws from her core strengths: reading, analysing and writing, and her core philosophy: every data point has a human story.

Moved by the human dimension of India’s critical development challenges, she consciously centres her work in representation, justice, and sustainability ––  facets that she believes can help the world achieve more equitable development. Kasturi has previously worked roles spanning research, management and communications, most recently as a Graduate Fellow with The Bosserman Center for Conflict Resolution (USA) with an original study of representativeness in Environmental Education in India. Her portfolio further includes interdisciplinary programs with Conservation Action Trust (Mumbai), Bombay Hemp Company, Khamir (Kutch), and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development –– each of which has helped organisations scale and advocate for their community-driven livelihood projects.

Continually in pursuit of work which serves India's most marginalised people and landscapes, Kasturi is keen to communicate her knowledge/expertise empathetically, in a way that is accessible to all, and as a vehicle to drive maximum social impact. Kasturi has a Master's in Public Policy, a Post Graduate Diploma in Communications for Development, and a BA in English Literature from St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, the city in which she was born, raised, and currently lives.

Kavneet joined the social sector in 2013 to help non-profit organizations understand the importance of investing in their institutional growth and leadership development; areas often left unaddressed by both social organizations as well as the donors. The aspiration to bridge this gap led her to join Dasra, which offers support in these areas to high performing non-profits. Kavneet’s core strengths include designing and managing training programs for social leaders, with a focus on leadership development. She also leads project management, impact assessment, and strengthening stakeholder relationships. As part of the Capacity Building team at Dasra, Kavneet is responsible for planning and execution of the DSI programs. She engages with leaders of social organizations, helping them understand their leadership styles and building their capacity to create stronger and efficient organizations. She also helps facilitate partnerships and ascertain the impact of these programs on the leaders.

Kavneet brings with her four years of experience in the education sector. She has worked at Alliance University, Bangalore and IMFS, Mumbai, handling challenging roles in HR, Branding and Operations. Kavneet pursued a Master's degree in Economics from Panjab University and later a Post Graduate Diploma in Management, specializing in HR.

Kirti is a part of the Urban Sanitation team at Dasra. Her work enables partner organizations to amplify their reach and work, explore new opportunities to create impact and foster collaboration with other stakeholders in the sector.
Kirti graduated in Economics from Hans Raj College, Delhi and post-graduated from Jawahar Lal Nehru University. Before joining Dasra, Kirti was a consultant with the Economics and Public Policy team at PwC. She worked on several high-impact, high-value projects on mainstreaming sustainability, gender equality and social Inclusion (GESI) in public service delivery for national/sub-national governments and multilateral agencies across South Asia. She has also worked as a researcher for the former Chief Economic Adviser of India, aiding in the development of Economic Survey, 2020-21.
Kirti’s drive to work in the development sector stems from her deep-rooted beliefs in the ethos of equality, equity, and compassion. Through her work she aims to contribute in achieving a just world that leaves no one behind.

Krishna Priya has always been a problem solver and is actively involved in solving social problems since the age of 17. Her journey in the social sector began, when she initiated a social service project in the first year of college, to help & make people help. Post her graduation, she started volunteering with NGOs in different departments like Operations, Fundraising,Marketing etc, while working as a quality analyst in MNCs. After 4+ years of working in for-profit sector, she moved to the development sector full-time, to pursue her passion. She played a pivotal role in development of two Products from conception to evaluation,which continues to impact ~12000 children. She currently works as a Product Manager for the product Glific at Tech4Dev. She aspires to ensure that all the associated non-profits are able to reach/impact their last mile beneficiary, by using the product to its fullest potential. She also aims to build more products which will empower NGOs to use technology & data for amplifying their impact. You will find her travelling, talking to people, making craft and exploring new hobbies, when she isn't at work.

Kumar leads the Finance team at Dasra, providing supportive supervision, capacity building support to finance and other teams, ensures overall efficiency and transparency to the financial, grants management as well as for regulatory compliance. He feels motivated working with the social development sectors and is able to contribute his skills for non-profits and community based organisations. 

He believes working with Dasra will allow him to contribute to the growth and success of an organization by utilizing his breadth of experience, technical and analytical skills in finance, management, accounting and statutory compliance.

Kumar brought experience of more than 18 years working with not for profit organisation.  He commenced his professional journey from CASP and Plan international between year 2000-2004. He was remarkably associated with Pathfinder International in a leadership role for more than ten years.

 Kumar has a Bachelor’s degree in commerce and Masters in Finance and corporate law. Apart from work, he likes listening gazals and sufi songs.

Madhulica’s journey in the development sector began with an interest in alternative education for children, based on socially inclusive, experiential learning in a natural environment. This led her to meet people who introduced her to the intersections between education, the environment and sanitation. She hopes to keep learning at Dasra, and explore models of sanitation which would be inclusive, sustainable, accessible and safe for everybody involved. 

Madhulica is an English Literature major from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, and a postgraduate in “Literatures in English” from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Prior to joining Dasra, Madhulica was a copywriter for Slurrp Farm, a Gurgaon-based children’s health food company, focused on promoting the use of millets in children’s food. 

Mahasweta is a committed development sector professional with a flair for research. She has acquired a diverse set of professional competencies in communications, research and project management. After gaining two years of experience in the non-profit sector, Mahasweta recognized the significance of providing grassroots organizations with flexible funding and capacity building support. This realization led her to join Dasra, an organization that shares her long-term goal of making a positive difference in the lives of marginalized communities.

 Mahasweta holds a Masters degree in Water Policy and Governance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. During her academic journey, she engaged in extensive fieldwork, as well as primary and secondary research, focusing on understanding the impact of renewable energy policies on farmers. Her commitment to conducting thorough research demonstrates her dedication to gaining in-depth knowledge and insights that can drive meaningful change in the development sector. Her passion for storytelling and human interest narratives further enhances her ability to effectively communicate the challenges faced by marginalized communities and advocate for their rights and well-being.

Mahesh is passionate about his role in Dasra’s Finance team. Since NGOs completely rely on funding to do their good work, having proper accounting systems in place is crucial. As an NGO, it is especially important to manage all funds in a careful manner and be accountable to donor agencies and individuals who support them. Only with proper systems can one keep track of expenditures and submit timely reports to donors. This enhances trust between the NGO and the donor, thereby increasing the NGO’s chances of getting continuous support.

Furthermore, proper finance systems also help the NGO maintain financial reports and showcase their spending suitably to regulatory bodies. Mahesh is extremely cognizant of the opportunities he has had which enable him to be where he is today. Therefore he feels it is his duty to contribute to the efforts being made to enable a billion in India to thrive.

Mahesh is a commerce graduate from the University of Mumbai. Prior to Dasra, he worked with Disha Logistics Pvt.Ltd. (a shipping and logistics company) as an Accounts Executive for five years. At Dasra, he is responsible for maintaining accounts, vendor payments, handling taxation and various other regulatory matters.

Mahima’s interest in public service was borne out of a deep sense of frustration and helplessness with the inequality faced by many at-risk groups in India. In particular, Mahima struggles with the unique barriers women and girls face relative to their male counterparts, and hopes to dedicate her career to leveling the playing field. Systemic challenges mean that the voices of underrepresented groups rarely reach philanthropic donors, and thus Mahima is committed to using her position at Dasra to hold up a microphone, bridge this gap, and help empower these unheard demographics.

Originally from Jaipur, Mahima graduated with a Master in Public Administration from New York University, where she was also a Gallatin Global Fellow in Human Rights. She also holds a master’s degree in financial economics from Singapore Management University. Mahima has worked at a variety of intergovernmental organizations, think tanks, and nonprofits prior to joining Dasra including the United Nations Development Programme, the International Crisis Group, and the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN.

Mansi is an advocate for systemic change with a goal to create sustainable impact at scale. She started her journey in social sector as a volunteer and took up leadership responsibilities. Her understanding of systems as a whole motivates her to solve for the challenges that government or civil society bodies face with on-ground implementation of solutions. She wishes to empower communities with tools and adequate resources of change. Through her work with Dasra in WSH portfolio, she wishes to gain a hands-on experience of the field and utilize her technical and stakeholder management skills to create lasting change.

Prior to Dasra, Mansi has worked as Gandhi Fellow with Rajasthan State Education Department and Program lead with Piramal Foundation’s Strategic arm. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai.

Shamoon is the person on the team that is curious and will always check on what's new and happening out there in the tech world. He likes to solve problems in the world through the use of technology in the best way possible. He is working actively to build Glific for the past two years and helping non-profits scale and increase their reach to beneficiaries.

Nandika has had an inherent interest in social transformation, making the development sector an obvious career choice. She is fascinated by the interconnected nature of complex social problems and is passionate about the need to build more equitable socio-economic systems.

At Dasra, Nandika is part of the Adolescents Collaborative team. Here she is involved in bolstering engagement across the development sector and with the government in order to create a greater positive impact on the lives of adolescents.

Nandika has a Masters Degree in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a Bachelors Degree in Sociology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. In the past, she has worked with the Government of India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development on building women-centric policies. She has also worked on public health research with a consulting firm in Delhi and with a community-based organization for the rights of homeless citizens of Mumbai.

Navin aims to contribute towards making the society more inclusive and equitable where everyone has an equal opportunity to live a good life. Being born and brought up in a small village and having closely seen the disparities existing in the society, he always had a desire to work for the people and give back to the society. The first time he came across the development space was in college when he got selected for the Yes Foundation’s Media for Social Change Fellowship, under which he worked with a non-profit organisation in Delhi and dealt with causes such as menstrual health, adolescent substance abuse and girl education.
As a part of the ClimateRise team at Dasra, he wishes to foster collaboration among the stakeholders working for climate change with an aim to provide solutions for the most vulnerable communities and bridge the awareness gap existing at the community level.
Navin has worked in ICICI Bank before making a shift to the social impact space by joining as a Program Lead in the partnership and governance team of Piramal Foundation. He holds a Bachelor degree in Commerce with a specialization in Accounting and Finance from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi.

After spending 18 years in an NGO to live a better life, today Neelam is a successful and independent woman. who pursued her career in Accounting and has more than 7+ years of experience.
She strongly believes that every person has the right to live a better life and that motivated her to lead in the social sector.
The journey from Accounts Assistant to Accounts Executive, Neelam now seeks to build on her Analytical knowledge and skill to support the team to achieve its goals with her positive contribution toward the growth and development of society.
Neelam has completed her B.com Graduate from S.N.D.T Women’s University. She has spent her 4 years in a Makeup company and 3 years in a Fashion company, now she is a part of Darsa to get an experience in the social sector. 

Neera’s first grassroots experience of rural India was with the day school for Adivasi children her mother set up near Kharagpur, West Bengal. That was also how she began to empathise with the lives of others, eventually transitioning from her investment banking job in the US to co-found Dasra in 1999, to accelerate social change by driving collaborative action among a trust-based network of stakeholders.

Neera leads Dasra’s ecosystem-building initiatives in the areas of Adolescents, Urban Sanitation, and Democracy & Governance and facilitates collaborative platforms by engaging donors, non-profits, government and other stakeholders. In 2016, she initiated the Dasra Adolescents Collaborative, an impact-driven platform that has united institutional funders, technical experts, government stakeholders from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and several social organizations to focus on four key outcomes for adolescent empowerment.

She initiated and led the launch of the Dasra Social Impact Leadership Program with Harvard Business Publishing, a first-of-its-kind executive education program for social sector leaders in India. Internally, she has supported the analysis of over 70 Dasra sector reports on education, health and livelihoods, enabling over USD 44 million in funding for hundreds of social enterprises.

She has been critical in establishing partnerships with global leaders such as Harvard University, Stanford University, USAID, Omidyar Network and the Gates Foundation to push the boundaries of social impact in India. Closer to the ground, she has worked with Dasra's portfolio organizations such as Educate Girls, SNEHA, Sarathi and Aangan to refine their strategies and accelerate their growth by 10-20x.

Neera holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and is an Indian Leadership Fellow with Anantha-Aspen Institute. She is a recipient of the Canadian Governor General's Medallion for her dedication to addressing India’s critical development challenges, and the Forbes Philanthropy Award in the Crossover Leaders.

Nirali joined the Transformations Team at Dasra after working as a corporate lawyer at Khaitan & Co. and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., Mumbai. She also holds a degree in business management, and a certification in public policy.

During her stint as a lawyer, she felt a strong urge to think beyond her microcosm, and contribute to something larger than herself. She believes that only when every individual is given an equal opportunity to have his / her basic needs met, can the progress of the human race be measured.

The idea of striving towards an inclusive; conscious society, comprising peaceful individuals, inspired her to shift to the development sector. She hopes that through her work at Dasra, she can do her bit to contribute to ‘samaj’, and get one step closer to the utopian world we all dream of.

Nirali is certified to teach hatha yoga, and enjoys slow travel; singing; and capturing images of the beauty in everyday things.

Parnasha works in the Urban Sanitation team at Dasra. She works with the network of partners under the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's WSH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) portfolio and identifies areas for strategic collaboration, capacity building and amplification to further their impact.

Prior to this, Parnasha worked in various teams including monitoring & evaluation, communications and led the WASH implementation program at Safe Water Network India. She has also previously worked at WWF-India in the Climate Change Adaptation team where she primarily looked at water resource management and sustainable agriculture in the Ramganga basin.

Parnasha has a Master's in Water Policy and Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a Bachelor’s in Science from Miranda House, Delhi University.

Hello, I am Piyali. I help set up Technology and Data infrastructure in the social impact sector. I am keen on achieving sustainability and ensuring that technical operations are process-driven and not people-dependent; hence my work style reflects the same. As a hands-on technologist with 12 years of experience, I am well-versed in planning, scheduling, and managing technical projects, IT operations, and automation. I value equality, empathy, teamwork, and integrity, and love working with people with similar values. When I am not working, I love spending time with family and friends and sometimes just being with myself :)

As part of Dasra’s Adolescents Collaborative Team, Pooja primarily works on strategy and funder management initiatives. She believes in building meaningful, accessible and sustainable solutions for social change and hopes to impact the lives of 254 million adolescents through her work.

Her journey with social impact began through serendipity in 2009. After completing her Master’s degree, she started volunteering with an initiative that uses theatre to teach skills like managing conflict, building relationships and empathy with children from vulnerable backgrounds and with disabilities. In a span of two months, she noticed how these children were better equipped to deal with challenges they face everyday - in their homes, communities and schools. This experience propelled her towards the development sector.

Prior to Dasra, Pooja has worked in the nonprofit sector for 9 years with organizations such as Dream a Dream, Azim Premji Foundation and Enable India. Her work spans across program management and design, training and development, community engagement and content development.

Pooja has a Bachelor's of Engineering in Information Science, a Master’s in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University. She also holds an Executive MBA from the Indian School of Business where she received a full scholarship and a certification in Creative and Expressive Arts Therapy.

Prachi holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from LSR, DU, and a Master’s in Development Studies from the IDS, UK. She has volunteered for various Indian and International Organisations such as UN awarded- Becoming I Foundation, Global Changemakers, Qrius, Volunteers for Blind among others. She has 2+ years of experience as a consultant with KPMG India where she supported her team in building digital transformation strategies. She briefly worked with a healthcare startup where she led the technology, marketing, and communications divisions and actively contributed to fundraising, donor reporting, and Covid related initiatives.

Her journey in the social sector began during her volunteering days. Her experience of living in a water sparse region with a high salinity of water deeply impacted her. Living outside the comfort of her urban household, she felt moved by the lack of basic amenities which are often taken for granted. Therein took birth a young interest in her to apply the theory and methodologies of development to the problems that matter. Therefore, she eventually moved from her corporate job to the social sector, in a full-time capacity.

She aspires to bring forgotten stories to the forefront to challenge the dominant narratives prevailing in the sector. She strongly believes that her role in Dasra will enable her to create knowledge and build communities to enable improved philanthropic decision-making across the sector.

Through timely travel bookings, Prarthana works to ensure that all Dasra staff can be on the ground whenever required and execute our programs effectively. She also ensures that all employees are covered by health insurance. She also helps internal teams in managing the logistics of several events throughout the year helping attendees focus on the agenda and worry less about travel and accommodation. In all of her work, Prarthana aims to employ her strong negotiation skills to maximize cost savings and thus ensure that all funds raised are utilized well.

Prarthana has a Diploma in Computer Applications. She brings with her over 12 years of experience across industries spanning Marketing & Sales, Outdoor Media, BPOs and Banking industries. She is a Graduate from Mumbai University.

Prashant works in the Accounts and Finance team at Dasra. Her has previously worked with IL&FS as an Accounts Office and Aditya Birla Group as an Assistant Manager - Accounts and Finance. He has over 8 years of experience in the corporate and NGO sector. 

He believes that MIS is a very crucial part of an organization, an enabler that helps organiation become more effective and transparent. 

He is a commerce graduate (BCOM) from University of Mumbai. He has also completed his ICWA Inter and MBA in Finance from ISBM, Hyderabad.

Pratyaksha (they/them) is an interdisciplinary social impact researcher and writer, with degrees in Politics from Ashoka University and Women’s Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. They have spent a year in the social sector, working as a researcher in the Centre for Civil Society’s nascent Science & Technology Policy vertical, and then as a research consultant on a project run by Work: No Child’s Business, an anti-child labor coalition spearheaded by UNICEF and Save The Children in the Netherlands.

At Dasra, Pratyaksha works on research and insights for knowledge-led projects within the Catalytic Philanthropy team. This role allows them to draw upon their curiosity as a researcher, their love for the written word, and their primary motivation as a social sector professional— an overarching quest to contribute to democratised ecosystems of information that empower human beings and institutions alike.

Priyadarshika Das is an architect-urban planner with over 6 years of experience. She brings her expertise and passion to help others to the OneDasra team.

While in school, she was an active volunteer at a Child Rights NGO and taught in evening classes for underprivileged children living in slums, as part of their ‘Right to Education’ campaign. Volunteering helped her understand that the social development sector is a space where one gets to fulfil a purpose towards the greater good. It was the same reason that guided her to choose Urban Planning and motivated her to help fight some of its systemic evils, such as existing gender-based inequalities. As a passionate professional, she has always endeavoured for inclusivity and bringing positive change through her work. Dasra’s approach for transforming lives through empowerment, with dignity and equity deeply resonated with her. At Dasra, her work involves collaborating with philanthropists and non-profit organizations to strategize and help reach their impact goals.

She graduated with a Gold Medal in Masters of Urban Planning from School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. Through her past experience in the think-tank consultancy and government advisory, she has been responsible for conceptualizing and executing high-impact strategy initiatives in the social development sector. She has collaborated with international organizations on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) projects, such as inclusive and non-networked sanitation services for in urban areas and mainstreaming hygiene education in schools. She has conducted capacity building and training programmes for urban local bodies as part of Integrated Capacity Building Programme, under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. She has authored several research papers based on her work. She has also documented the ‘Response of Indian Cities towards COVID-19: A Sanitation Perspective' and development of a 'Resilient Urban Emergency Response Framework for Cities' in partnership with National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Radhika has 12 years of work experience in Design, Implementation and Monitoring of Programs and Campaigns, including 3 years of experience in Grant Management at a donor organization and 3 years of experience in internal UN Country Team coordination on Youth Development and Gender Equality.

She started her journey in the development sector with The YP Foundation in 2010. With SEWA Bharat she gained practical knowledge on Community Mobilization, Leadership Building and Collaborative Advocacy for women’s rights. She has also worked on localizing the SDG Agenda with State Governments, Academic Institutions and Civil Society Organizations across the country.

She has been a student of Political Science at Delhi University. She believes in Intersectional Feminism and is keen to explore possibilities for transformational change in the prevalent gendered power dynamics and structures.

As part of Dasra's Strategic Philanthropy team, Rajitha supports the team in reporting to various stakeholders. She believes her role in Donor Reporting allows her to provide donors with a clearer understanding of their impact, thus increasing the motivation of such donors to further their commitment to the social sector. The feeling of contributing towards a better tomorrow is something that excites her about working in the social sector. It brings a sense of job satisfaction and self-motivation to do more.

She also works on database management and data analysis, using a system that captures knowledge about philanthropists, foundations and other organizations. She plays an integral part in refining the system to maximize the value of its output.

Before Dasra, Rajitha has worked with Serco. She has a Bachelor's in Commerce from the University of Mumbai.

‘Kuch na hoga, toh tajurba hoga’ - keeping these words close, Rebecca hopes to be part of movements that help raise inclusive economies, embedded in care and equity. She believes that as daylight fades, every individual must have a comfortable roof to rest under, staples to prepare nourishing supper with, access to feel well and healthy, social protection that shields one from the grasps of exclusion and the audacity to aspire.  

With a drive to visibilize the human aspect of India’s development story, she works with the Social Compact at Dasra. Through her work, she supports the homegrown movement in building ecosystems that humanize labour, invest in the future of the workforce and nurture responsible business practices across value chains.  

In her previous stints with a legal technology firm, a technology start-up that supported non-profit organizations in fundraising and a feminist non-profit organization with primary work in social justice, she gained experience in developing core business processes, policies for contractual workforce and managed key stakeholders and supply chain partners. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy and a Bachelor’s in Sociology from St. Xavier’s College - Autonomous, Mumbai. As Rebecca grows and learns through people, places and experiences, she is keen to strengthen this journey of raising an empathetic economy that includes and cares for all.

Rima works in the Talent Management team at Dasra and is responsible for Audit, Payroll & Compliance. Rima likes that her day-to-day work provides her an opportunity to work towards improving the lives of people

Her inclination towards serving the society is what drew Rima to this sector. Working with a Ngo, makes her build a connect with the society as a whole and she would like to serve for a purpose.

Rima is an MBA in Human Resource Management by qualification. She has around 4 years of work experience in HR. Before joining Dasra, Rima has worked with Accenture and Turing where she has extensively worked on recruitment cycle and HR operations such as onboarding, employee engagement, performance appraisal, exit formalities.

Rima is a trained salsa dance and enjoys listening to different kind of music.

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein

This statement summarizes the decision that Roshni took in initiating a whole new career in the social sector after working as a corporate lawyer for 3.5 years. At Dasra, she is part of the capacity building team. 

Her professional experience spans the fields of law and policy in India, Ghana and Germany. Previously, she worked at Kiron NGO in Germany, enabling refugees access higher education in Germany and at the IMANI Center for Policy and Education, a leading policy think tank in Ghana in the fields of governance, environment and social policy.

She received a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin and an integrated Bachelor's Degree in Law and Socio-Legal Studies from ILS Law College in India. Her focus areas comprise of public management, leadership and entrepreneurship. 

Rupjyoti is highly motivated to create result-oriented solutions and innovations to contribute towards a sustainable way to grow and develop future-proof alternative development models and processes with a responsibility to the most vulnerable and marginalized community. He hails from Dibrugarh, Assam, the Tea City of India. He holds a postgraduate degree in Mass Communication and Journalism. Initially, he started his journey in the development sector with UNICEF as SBCC and WASH consultant wherein he supported Government in the effective implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) in the most challenging areas of Assam.

Before Dasra, Rupjyot worked as a Communications Officer at John Snow India and led the USAID Momentum COVID-19 vaccination project for the state of Mizoram. Where he worked on COVID-19 vaccination to improve demand creation, Knowledge and behavior change communication, program implementation, research, advocacy, capacity building, social mobilization, and strategic partnership.

At Dasra, Rupjyoti will continue to provide leadership in coordinating and responding to issues related to technologies, behavior change communications, safety, and dignity of the sanitation workforce in enabling safe sanitation and water for Urban India

Sagar is passionate about the role of technology in the development sector. He believes that though working for an NGO can be challenging, is it also an equally rewarding job. We can’t solve all the problems of the world, but we can do our bit to address the issues that pose a threat to our existence.

At Dasra, Sagar helps both internal and external stakeholders with their systems and technology requirements, with the aim of enabling them to do their jobs efficiently. He is passionate about educating IT staff in the development sector about inexpensive and open source software and guiding them in implementing such solutions. Before joining Dasra, Sagar worked for several large IT firms including Wysetek Systems Technologists (IBM channel sales partner) where he served their corporate client Cox & Kings. He also worked at Ezzego1 where he maintained their servers, firewall, email systems, and Avaya IP-based intercom + call center.

In addition to a diploma in computer technology from Pune University, Sagar holds Network Associate certifications from Cisco (CCNA) and Microsoft (MCSE), with 10 years of total technology experience.

With over 7 years of experience in strategic communications, brand management and digital marketing, Sai has worked in diverse roles in leading multinational firms. Her prior experience at APCO Worldwide was her first professional engagement with multiple organisations in the development sector. A desire to drive social change and the opportunity to collaborate towards solving complex communication problems led her to formally shift to the social sector. At Dasra, she is part of the Dasra Adolescents Collaborative and aspires to apply her expertise in designing and executing a comprehensive communications strategy for the collaborative to amplify its impact, engage multi-level stakeholders and foster the larger mission of DAC.

Sai has a Masters degree in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and an MBA in Marketing from the Welingkar Institute of Management. She has also completed a Masters in Producing Film and Television from Bournemouth University, and graduated in Mass Media (Advertising) from the University of Mumbai.

Saleha is an alumnus of Jai Hind College, Mumbai and Cranfield University, UK. After completing her Masters in Clinical Research, Saleha spent five years at Multi-national Pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers-Squibbs and GlaxoSmithKline. She also did a short stint at Tata Memorial Hospital to understand both facets of healthcare delivery.

To apply her learnings and contribute towards innovation within healthcare, she joined Avegen, a digital healthcare start-up as their first employee and was involved in sales, marketing, operations, administration, recruitment and product development at the early stage. During her five and a half years at Avegen, she headed the Sales team and worked closely with healthcare providers in private and public health. She worked directly with the leadership team to ensure achievement of the company goals and building the company culture.

Saleha had volunteered at Sujaya Foundation for 5 years, early in her career, and was keen on pursuing her passion to work within the development sector. This lead to her joining the Strategic Philanthropy team at Dasra and work towards being a small part of creating impactful and scalable change within the society.

The Development sector challenges are so far the biggest, complex and wicked in nature, it requires systemic solutions. After having worked in Development sector consultancies, Sampath seeks to build his expertise in designing right solutions for the communities for better social outcomes.

As a part of Dasra, he hopes to get inspired from grass root NGOs, social entrepreneurs and government organizations. In his role with the Catalytic Philanthropy team, he will try to accelerate the social impact by finding right synergies between the funders and beneficiaries, enable synergistic operations.

Sampath is a Post Graduate in Development Leadership from Indian School of Development Management & a Graduate with Bachelors in Social Work (Hons.) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Prior to Dasra he has worked with Parliamentarians and helped them with policy research, worked as Project Lead for a pan India CSR Project at CSRBOX. Along with his friends, He co-founded Kayantar Foundation, a Social enterprise that work on a holistic model concentrated on Livelihoods, Health & Education in a specific geography.

Driven by a strong desire to do work that creates impact and benefits the society at large, Sangeeta was first introduced into the sector during her undergraduate days when she got a chance to volunteer with Teach India. Fast forward a few years, she interned with the development sector practice of a company that gave her a more nuanced understanding of the sector, the opportunities it holds and the role individuals can play in solving some of the pressing issues in and around them- should they choose to have a career in the sector. That internship made Sangeeta realize her passion for social change, and she eventually made the much awaited switch.

As part of the Capacity Building team at Dasra, Sangeeta provides hands-on capacity building, consulting and grant management services to non-profit organizations spanning areas like business planning & strategy, finance & budgeting, operations management, communications, impact assessment etc.; enabling them to scale for transformative impact.

With around four years of experience in the corporate sector, spanning across program management, marketing, and sales roles, Sangeeta has handled planning, development and timely execution of various services and projects. She completed her Bachelor's in Biotechnology and went on to pursue a Post Graduate Diploma in Management specializing in Marketing from Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur.

Shailja leads the 10to19 Dasra Adolescents Collaborative, overseeing operations, partnerships and financial management. 

She was a founding member of Aangan, which works to build safe communities that are free of child harm practices such as trafficking, hazardous work, child marriage, violence and abuse. She is a Dasra Social Impact Fellow (2012), a Ford Motor Company Fellow (2012), and an Ananta Aspen India Initiative Fellow (2013).

Her prior experience includes managing public relations for Procter and Gamble products, setting up and running Third Eye, a boutique public relations agency focused on increasing exposure and media coverage for artists and art galleries, and being part of the team that launched Time Out India magazine.

Shailja has a BA in Economics from St Xavier's College, Mumbai, and a Diploma in Social Communication Media from Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai.

Shamika has come through an astonishing backdrop of Human Resource speciality/line of work preceding to which she has completed her Masters in Labour Studies. Her intention of welfare of humans has taken her choosing Human resource studies and opted an occupation in that due to her area of interest in the same. Human Resource is a job, where we try to manage people by making them comfortable. We make sure that all employees feel pleasant about the work. The social sector holds exciting, promising opportunities that even a corporate job cannot afford - dealing with and tackling complex issues.In the last decade, India has seen the social sector emerge as an aspirational career not only for new professionals and students, but also for mid- to senior-level professionals from corporate, defence and public sector. This has been made possible due to the multiple entry points that have opened up the sector to talent from across the board. Impact can be created to social sector by just making them feel that it is in their interest, listening to them, having clear vision and message for people aware, be fearless. Have something always, which someone wants. Shamika holds a Master’s degree in Labour Studies (HR & IR) from Maharashtra institute of Labour Studies, Mumbai University. Before joining Dasra, she has spent more than a decade working with companies like Eureka Forbes Ltd. IndocoRemedies, Spectra, Maruti dealer and HiCare Services Pvt. Ltd. And made her contribution towards the HR aspects of those respective organisations she worked in as an HR Officer/Regional HR Manager. Shamika is enthusiastic of her work, in free time would like to explore tips on beauty, nature, and dance, and loves to spend time playing around with kids.

Shinjini's passion to serve within the development sector stemmed from social entrepreneurial explorations in her early college years when working with diverse marginalized communities of Maharashtra through Enactus. She started accumulating insights into the tenets of sustainability and creating social impact. She credits her source of passion to her interaction with the grassroots communities and thought-leaders whose works have inspired her to dedicate her journey to serve within the development sector. 

As part of the Rebuild Team at Dasra, Shinjini is involved in the execution of NGO portfolio related tasks including due diligence of potential grantees, capacity building of portfolio NGO leaders and teams, and thought leadership on insights generated. Through her work at Dasra she wishes to build an understanding of the systemic challenges within the development in India, understand needs of grassroots communities/organizations and support them through Dasra’s endeavours.   

Prior to Dasra, Shinjini was working with Khamir through which she immersed within rural Kachchh. By working within the handicrafts sector, she witnessed first-hand : the various grassroots challenges of ethnic artisanal communities of the region and developed invaluable insights into indigenous knowledge systems built around traditional craft practices, through the lens of sustainability.

Graina's interest in the Social Sector began at age 16, when she travelled to a remote tribal village in Madhya Pradesh. Since then she has travelled to remote villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand to teach children and learn from them, through which she found her niche in the education sector. Through her diverse experience of close to 7 years, as Programme Manager, Communications Manager, Business Development Lead and Human Resource Manager in various NGOs and Social Enterprises, she has gained knowledge on the everyday running of the organisations in the social sector. Most recently she worked as a Consultant and managed capacity building partnerships with diverse NGOs . She is an animal lover and a travel enthusiast, so when she is not at work you can find her playing around with her furry friends and exploring new places.

Observing drastic inequalities in India growing up motivated Shreya to join the social sector, with the aim of bridging the gaps, and contributing towards poverty alleviation. At Dasra, Shreya’s work will focus on Urban Sanitation, an issue which impacts various other key thematic areas, like health, education, and livelihoods. Shreya is interested in proposing strategic solutions that improve various facets of peoples’ lives, and believes that cross sectoral collaboration is a promising way to create impact.

Shreya did a dual undergraduate program at ISME School of Management and Entrepreneurship, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Mumbai University. She then went on to do her Masters in International Development from the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), Sciences Po. During her Masters, she had the opportunity to intern with the Policy and Advocacy team at the Tata Trusts, and work on Financial Inclusion and Child Protection. She also interned with the Supply Chain and Logistics team at the World Food Programme in Dar es Salaam. These experiences helped hone her project management and analysis skills. Shreya is passionate and hardworking, and she is keen to contribute towards make a large scale impact and improving the quality of peoples’ lives.

The development sector aims to solve big problems that face the world. Big problems need inclusive solutions that are rooted in community practices. Shruti is committed to nurturing the civil society ecosystem and contributing to meaningful development practice. She believes the civil society plays an important role in providing evidence-backed solutions to strengthen service delivery systems for the underserved communities. Through her work, Shruti pursues a consistent introspection of ways to address the gaps in gender equality, diversity, and equitable representation of Southern perspectives to build more sustainable futures. She has extensive experience in gender-integrated programming and research. Prior to Dasra, Shruti worked with The Asia Foundation, an international non-profit organisation, and managed multi-country and multi-sectoral programs. She engaged a wide portfolio of stakeholders from think tanks, multinational organisations, government institutions, educational institutions, private sector, and civil society organisations to deliver successful and meaningful programs. Shruti has a master’s degree in political science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and a bachelor’s degree in political science from St.Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

Driven with the strong belief that everyone deserves equal opportunities regardless of their background, Shrutika left her corporate job in search for something more meaningful. Her journey began in 2009 as a teacher in a low-income school where she worked closely with the community for two years and witnessed the stark realities of inequity; reinforcing that her shift to the sector was, indeed, the right choice.

Over the years, Shrutika has worked directly with beneficiaries, set up operations for NGOs like Teach for India, liaised with the government and other stakeholders to drive impact. Shrutika was also instrumental in the launch of the India School Leadership Institute - the first school leadership training program in Mumbai. It is through her work that Shrutika hopes to play a small role in changing the status quo. At Dasra, Shrutika is a part of the capacity building team, working on the Adolescents Collaborative and supporting organizations in their journey to impact. In her free time, Shrutika takes a deep interest in Indian Mythology and actively supports many social causes.

Shrutika was awarded the Li Ka Shing scholarship from the National University of Singapore (NUS) to pursue her Master’s in Public Administration where she worked on multiple social projects and won the Global Public Policy Network competition at NUS for her idea in driving the Sustainable Development Goal of responsible consumption.

My name is Siddhant and I have been mostly working as a backend developer for the last 3 years. Other than this I have a lot of interest in the Data Science field, I personally think that data is a big problem for everyone, and trying to get a sense from the data is a big challenge which is why I like this field. I have joined Tech4Dev last year and my journey has become very exciting and challenging. I've worked on different problems which NGOs were facing and solving these problems through tech has become important for me. I constantly look for better technologies and learn new things to improve my skills. Also when I get time I'd like to blog about it and I share my experiences with everyone. That's it for now. Thanks

Sneha believes in the power of ideas and collaboration to promote structural changes that will help solve some of the fundamental challenges faced by the country. It is the potential of the social sector to provide everyone with a life of dignity and access to basic needs, that drives her to work in this space. Through her work in Dasra’s Adolescents team, she aims to understand and cater to the needs of young people and to enable and enhance their role in transforming a nation for the better.

Sneha has completed her Master’s in Public Policy from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, along with a Bachelor’s in Mass Media (Journalism) from Mumbai University. Prior to joining Dasra, she started her journey in the social sector by working with a STEM education-based non-profit organization, Universe Simplified Foundation, where working with adolescents has helped her believe in the potential they hold to create meaningful impact.

A strong motivation to work on critical socio-economic issues and her passion for working in sustainable interventions at scale brings Sneha to Dasra. She wants to build understanding on the interconnectivity of various systems in order to address the complex social problems. At Dasra, Sneha works within the Social Compact team aimed at ensuring better lives for India’s informal workers.  

Before joining Dasra, Sneha has worked as an Associate with Pratham's Digital Innovations team, where she was responsible for handling the Computational Thinking Initiative, Youth Leadership Program, Early Years Project, Corporate Volunteering Activities and much more.  

Sneha holds a Bachelor's degree in Polymer Science. Her passion to explore social issues at a grassroots level motivated her to join Kaivalya Education Foundation, where she had helped in capacity building of block and cluster level education officials in the District Transformation Program by developing their leadership skills in data management and strategic thinking competencies.

Sneha believes that life should have a larger purpose than just earning money and has always found ways to give back to society at large. She has always been passionate about finding creative ways to solve problems that society grapples with and strives to create a society of equal opportunity. With this ethos, she made a career pivot and joined the development sector 6 years ago and has never looked back. For the last 6 years she has had the opportunity to work with different stakeholders of the development sector in India across different locations and has been inspired by the tireless and selfless work done by the non-profits and their passionate leaders. She hopes to leverage her experience and understanding to support these non-profits to achieve their goals and create positive impact in their beneficiary communities. She cares deeply about child education, mental health, gender discrimination and providing access to healthcare to the unreached and hopes to achieve some of these goals at Dasra.

Sneha graduated with a Magna Cum Laude and a Double Masters in International Business and Finance from the Brussels Business School and has a B.Pharm degree. She completed the Design Thinking program from Stanford Graduate School of Business.  She spent 3 years in the biopharmaceutical sector before making a pivot in 2016 by joining the healthcare team at an organization in the development sector. She worked on multi-stakeholder donor and government programs like  RMNCH+A, Nutrition and Tuberculosis. She also worked in the education sector focussing on program development, scale-up strategy, operations, financial modelling and stakeholder/ funder management.

Sneha is an experienced researcher and educationalist with a demonstrated history of working in the social sector.

With over six years of experience in the social sector, she has undertaken diverse roles including teaching, content development, partner engagement, research and designing large scale systems. Key highlights of her experience include her role as a Fellow at Teach for India where she taught grade 6-8 kids from a low income group and project lead at Alohomora Education Foundation to enable youth to make informed career choices using a WhatsApp Chatbot. She is excited about working with nonprofits and looking forward to doubling down on my mission of impacting people’s lives through technology interventions.

She is an avid sports person and was a national level badminton player. Also a Vipassana meditator and a mandala art lover!
She believes in understanding the world better by knowing people through their experiences. She has completed executive education from University of Pennsylvania on Social Impact Strategy.

Sonvi strongly believes that the increasing convergence of diverse stakeholders towards India’s socio-economic development, makes this one of the most promising times to work in the development sector and is excited to witness the change it will create on the ground. Sonvi has pursued this mission through her decade –long tryst in India’s development sector, and continues to do so in her current role as a Manager in Dasra’s Knowledge Creation & Dissemination team.

Her role involves strategizing for evolution and efficiency-building within the team's products, processes and people, with the objective of creating higher value for the sector at large, for Dasra and its partners, and for her team. Previously at Dasra, Sonvi worked with the team to plan and execute creation of knowledge products on a host of development issues spanning Dasra's fields on: Strategic Philanthropy, Governance, WASH and RMNCH+A.

Prior to Dasra, Sonvi worked in a research capacity with the International Center for Research on Women (India) and the Ashoka Foundation (US). Sonvi holds a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Warwick.

Sujit strongly believes in team work and is always passionate to work with people who believe in themselves and posses quality skills and knowledge. He believes that knowledge sharing is very important within the organization as well as the team to create a stronger bond amongst members, resulting in survival and success in any critical situation. He seeks to add value to Dasra with this approach.

Sujit started his career in the banking sector and went on to working with CAPITA, a well-known MNC, in Mumbai. He spent 6 valuable years in the finance vertical of the organization. 4 years ago, he moved to Dasra not knowing what to expect and slowly became familiar with the challenges of the development landscape. 

Hailing from a small town, Suveera personally experienced the transformative steep curve of self-development that the right opportunities can bring. This belief was spurred on by her valuable experiences gained as a theatre artist in college, where she worked towards educating and mobilizing the general public on pressing social issues and Government schemes. 

Her belief in the potential of the vulnerable communities and in her ability to create impact made her choose her role as a Teach for India fellow in Dharavi, Mumbai. 

She operates with a firm belief that it is empowerment and not help that shall uplift the minority communities. These communities have the ability, but not the opportunity, to capitalize on their potential. At Dasra, Suveera envisions bridging this opportunity gap by strengthening and scaling NGOs and enabling India to capitalize on its abundant human capital.

A graduate from Hindu College and a post-graduate from the Indian School of Public Policy, Suveera has more than 3 years of experience in the development and education sector. Over the years, she has gained rich exposure in management, capacity building, and start-up scaling.

Suveera’s interest in the development sector stemmed from her early-on voluntary work with The Door Step School and Oscar Foundation. Seeing the tangible changes being brought in the learning abilities of children fuelled her passion to continue working within the non-profit sector. She is passionate about driving social change to improve the life chances of adolescents and women. Her interests include addressing issues related to their education, health, labour and capacity building, with a focus on feminist research and advocacy. Suveera is fascinated by the complex nature of socio-cultural problems and is excited at the wide range of possibilities to address them in a collaborative, innovative and sustainable manner, grounded in stance in the genuineness of heart and happiness of others.
Prior to her work at Dasra, Suveera worked as a Project Coordinator in Area Networking and Development Initiatives (ANANDI), Gujarat, in the area of strengthening local governance structures, especially, through increasing engagement with elected Women Representatives. She has also worked as a knowledge consultant for the adolescent program at UNICEF, India.
Suveera was awarded the Sociology Academic Scholarship at St. Xaviers College, Mumbai for her BA (Hons) in Sociology. Subsequently she graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai with the Institute’s Silver Medal and topped her class in Master of Arts in Social Work (Women-Centred Practices).

Tiyasha believes in the immense potential of 'collective effort' that can influence and effect systemic shifts in the society. People are what a civilization is made up of and creating social impact that is sustainable, inclusive and community-owned is crucial to propel action to scale.

As part of the Catalytic Philanthropy team at Dasra, Tiyasha works towards channelizing philanthropic funding driven by data and informed decision-making, to the most underserved pockets of the country and bringing together cause and intent. 

Prior to Dasra, Tiyasha has worked in managing capacity building programs for 300+ non profits in India, has led skilled volunteering for corporate companies like JP Morgan, Edelweiss and Credit Suisse. She also brings with her hands on experience in managing CSR and Foundation grants for various companies like HDFC Bank, Linde India, HT Parekh Foundation.

She holds a Masters degree in International Relations from The University of Manchester and a Bachelors in Sociology from Mumbai University.

She enjoys reading up on global politics, feminist narratives, aviation and loves to discover new music

Toshal joined the social sector first when she heard about her dance teacher’s experiences of teaching in a school of deaf and hard of hearing students. Working in corporate digital learning at that time, she realised there are multiple programs and inclusive spaces that can be designed for people with disabilities. She went on to work in the areas of Tech for Good and Education with a few start-ups for the next few years. Having a formal education in Indian Classical Dance, Toshal also started her own Non-profit and an arts-based social enterprise to design and facilitate arts-based education program for children, create more conversations around social change with performing arts as a tool.

With an ever-curious mind, Toshal has always tried to work in multiple capacities with many organisations in the social sector. This curiosity to know more about the sector and its scale, and the zest to contribute in professional capacity to multiple areas is what drew Toshal to Dasra. Toshal works as a Team Lead in the Philanthropy Labs team at Dasra.

Toshal’s graduation is in Production/Industrial Engineering and post-graduation in Development Management from SPJIMR. She is also a trained Kathak dancer. Toshal has over 8 years of experience in the private and social sector in areas of Instructional Design, Social Marketing, Content Management, Program Design and Project Management.

Tushaar has worked in the social sector from the start of his career, spanning across various aspects including policy and advocacy for sea-bound refugees under the UN International Maritime Organisation. He has also worked with reputed consulting  organisations on how to strategically invest their corporate social responsibility resources. As part of Dasra, Tushaar works closely with new and upcoming philanthropists to structure their philanthropic activities towards a more impact driven approach, helping them achieve the social impact they set out to create.

Tushaar holds a Master’s in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he specialised on researching the political, social and economic challenges faced by vulnerable communities such as climate refugees, and informal workers. Prior to LSE, Tushaar has also earned a Master’s in Economics and Psychology from the University of St. Andrews.

After working on pro-bono projects with non-profits, Ustati realised the need and the potential of bridging the talent gap in the social sector. To this end, she decided to move into the development sector permanently.

Through her work at Dasra, Ustati wishes to contribute towards the larger movement of bringing corporate sector skills to the non-profit world to create impact at scale. As a part of the ReBuild team, she hopes to gain a nuanced understanding of how to approach organisation level problems to create meaningful and long lasting impact in society.

Prior to Dasra, Ustati worked as a Senior Analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions department at a corporate Consulting firm. Additionally, she volunteers at Consult for Humanity, a pro-bono consultancy platform, as the Co-Lead for Outreach and Partnerships where she works with non-profits and social enterprises to understand their pain points in order to curate projects with tailor made strategies

Vinod works in the Tech4Dev team to deliver impact to NGOs using technology as an enabler and force multiplier. Coming from the corporate world, being one of the first cohort of fractional CxOs in Tech4Dev has been a learning experience bridging technology and strategy at NGOs. Vinod is interested in leveraging the power of data for impactful story telling and increasing program efficiencies. His work on the Development Data Platform is directed towards helping non-profits derive actionable insights from their data with an easy to use platform for streamlining organizational data. Prior to Dasra, Vinod worked in the technology sector with social sector experience mostly limited to volunteering. The decision to pivot to working in the social sector has been a long time coming and was mostly influenced by hearing social impact stories from his partner and how he could better use his technology experience towards social impact.

Despite growing-up in India, it was the magic of a liberal arts undergraduate education in the United States that fueled Vishal’s interest in India’s development and a desire to come back and give back. After four years in economic consulting at Charles River Associates, Boston, Vishal returned to discover India and experienced firsthand India’s resurgent social sector.

Vishal spent six amazing years with Dasra in India, operationalizing the Dasra Giving Circle – India’s largest collaborative giving platform – and co-leading Portfolio Services – one of India’s most intensive diligence and capacity building support programs for non-profit organizations. Vishal co-managed a portfolio of over 35 organizations spanning several sectors: livelihoods, maternal & newborn child health, adolescent girl empowerment, technology for health, sports for development, domestic violence, and anti-sex trafficking. He had the opportunity to work closely with pioneering organizations like Mann Deshi, SNEHA, Sarathi, Naz, Aangan Trust and ARMMAN in the areas of business planning & strategy, organization structure & HR, fundraising, financial planning, and impact assessment.

Vishal relocated to the California Bay Area in Jun 2016 to lead Dasra’s West Coast operations, and to use his on-the-ground knowledge to cultivate more and smarter giving towards India. In Oct 2018, he returned to India and is currently part of Dasra’s strategic philanthropy team in India.

Vishal holds a BA in Economics with Honors from Trinity College, Hartford, CT, where he also co-captained the Squash Team (US inter-collegiate national champions).

Vrinda works in the Strategic Philanthropy team to create and deliver education programs for philanthropists, corporates and foundations. She has been involved in the designing, launch and ongoing delivery of one of Dasra’s premium offerings - the Philanthropy Education Program for donors in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Vrinda is interested in curating formal learning platforms which inspire a community of philanthropists to come together to make a catalytic impact.

She brings with her consulting experience, having previously worked with EY in the People Advisory Services team. She has graduated from Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration.

Yashi believes that effective communication and SBCC is key in the mediatized world that we live in and wants to explore the intersection of media, public and private sector to create an impact and catalyze a change in the youth of the country, her efforts at Dasra are directed towards the same. Within the 10to19 Dasra Adolescents Collaborative, she works on strategy development, on-ground programming & building a robust Monitoring and Evaluation framework as well as developing innovative mechanisms for meaningful engagement with young people to build their capacities to break down power dynamics between young people and decision-makers.

Yashi has always been a follower of the doctrine of the middle path and believes that sustainability is key to the growth of the development sector. She believes that an amalgamation of the top-down and bottom’s up approach in development would bring about real policy-driven, grassroots level change.

Prior to Dasra, Yashi graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc in Media, Communication and Development and also has a degree in Journalism.