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When Megha Desai and her family started the Desai Foundation in Gujarat, India, in 1997, they aimed to help marginalized communities.
Today, the foundation is a "philanthropist giant" with programs in nine states, helping more than 500 women and girls per year, Desai tells Fast Company.
But it wasn't always that way. "During those first 15 years, we really wanted to focus on the programs and get them right," she says.
"So we kept our heads down, kept experimenting, and working with the communities we serve to get the program to a place where they would really show results.
Once we realized we had 15 solid programs (we now actually have 30 programs), we sorted out which ones were designed to scale, and which ones were not."
The transition from a family foundation to a public one was "the smartest thing we could have done," she says. "We also knew that we didn't have all the answers. As a public organization, we can work with fantastic NGOs, corporates, and people that bring their experience and knowledge to the table. I think we were a bit naive on this transition being easy."
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
Foundation: Community Foundation of Abilene
Big Country's CASA program seeks volunteers to support local foster children.Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) organization has expressed a dire need for volunteers in the Big Country.CASA...more
Green Bay's Studio 12 and the Ashwaubenon Performing Arts Center have formed the Northeast Wisconsin Theater Collaborative.NEWT will put on a production of Hadestown: Teen Edition at the Ashwubenon...more
English has spent her career working at the intersection of farming and public health.Before joining the Walton Personal Philanthropy Group as a senior program officer, she was director of the...more
The book was just one of four major voluntary commitments which will be officially registered in the UN Voluntary Ocean Commitments Database to encourage global participation.The UN Side Event...more
In South Africa, the hard-won progress of a youth-led HIV education program is threatened by international funding cuts."It provides a safe environment for us," says one youth volunteer of the...more
Galina Trush was born in 1990 in central Ukraine.The outbreak of war in Eastern Ukraine, combined with professional and financial limitations, forced Trush to make another life-changing decision:...more
Penn State's Youth Food Lab attends UN Science, Technology, Innovation forum.Penn State's youth food lab attends UN science, technology, innovation forum at UN in New York.The forum is part of the...more
The Sam Yates Community Foundation screened 38 students at Vashon High School this month.The Foundation plans to offer cardiac screenings to all freshman and junior students on a rotating two-year...more
'Safety, compassion, innovation': Beaufort Memorial honors top staff at Bemmy Awards.The Quality Services department took home the award for Department of the Year at BeaufortMemorial Hospital's...more
This ranking recognizes the leading children's hospitals in the U.S., featuring the top 50 hospitals.Cleveland Clinic Children's placed in all eight pediatric subspecialities: Cardiology and Cardiac...more
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