Author Archive:
Dasra
Collaborating internationally to empower Indian women
As a philanthropy advisor in the UK with a focus on India, I have had a difficult year listening to the growing opinion that we should scale back our philanthropic funding to a country with …
Support infrastructure for social enterprise – persuading the investor to be more entrepreneurial
Re-envisioning capitalism is a constant theme at the moment. As the global economy continues to reel from a financial crisis that seems to have no end in sight, people are starting to question what ‘traditional …
Developing Indian philanthropy to reduce overseas development aid
As someone who spends their working days (and the hours either side) thinking about India or directing strategic capital to high-potential social entrepreneurs in the sub-continent, I feel I have to respond, albeit a little …
Cardinal knowledge: creating a philanthropy bridge
Whether or not you believe in using cardinal points to describe developed and emerging countries, whether here in London we are in the North or the West, whether India is the South or the East, …
The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook: How to start, build and run a business that improves the world
Sitting here in Mumbai having spent a few days last week facilitating Dasra’s skills-building programme for social entrepreneurs, Dasra Social-Impact, it seems an apt time to be reviewing The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook. Rupert Scofield’s book …
Pollination and blended capital
It is maybe a telling thing that if you Google ‘blended capital’ you get reams of literature about blended ‘value’ and but very little on blended ‘capital’. It seems that we are all striving to …
Should India be receiving aid as well as giving?
In many meetings recently I have gained a lot of traction when I have explained Dasra’s strategy of building local philanthropy in India. There is a real appetite for foundations and philanthropists to support, at …
Philanthropy conferences: ‘talking shops’ or action stations?
An antagonistic ‘tweeter’ a couple of weeks ago challenged Dasra on the funding that is actually channeled to frontline work through ‘these frequent philanthropy conferences’ and singled out what were obviously her own pet states, …