Governance

Governance - Rebuild India Fund

INVESTMENT COMMITTEE (IC)

To ensure Rebuild India Fund selects NGOs most suited to our mission and values, an Investment Committee has been formed to review shortlisted NGOs. The IC reserves final decision-making powers with respect to portfolio selection and NGO engagement strategies. The Investment Committee increases participation in the grantmaking process by leveraging peer knowledge, experience and credibility of a fellow representative NGO leader group.

Anita Patil

MEMBER, GOONJ

Anita is a member of Goonj where she leads a network of 700+ grassroots NGOs working with the most marginalized communities across India. At Goonj, her role involves building partnerships, managing field operations and data management.
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During the Covid-19 pandemic, Anita contributed to Goonj’s livelihood initiative that focused on creating and upgrading livelihoods across India.
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She has over 12 years of experience in managing field
implementation with a thorough understanding of rural as well as urban contexts.

Deepa Pawar

Founder and Trustee, Anubhuti Trust

Deepa is a Nomadic and De-notified Tribes (NT-DNT) activist belonging from the Ghisadi (Gadiya Lohar) nomadic tribe. By leading her organization- Anubhuti Trust, she endeavors to mainstream historically ‘criminalized’ communities by decolonizing the administrative and political system through collective, informed youth-led action.

Deepa has over 22 years of experience in facilitating community-led programs and working with state and local governments on themes of youth-leadership, advocacy, mental justice, sanitation and sexual and reproductive health.

Nandita Pradhan Bhatt

Director, Martha Farrell Foundation

Nandita Bhatt is the Director of Martha Farrell Foundation, leading programs to support informal, migrant workers, mostly female domestic workers and adolescent children to build their leadership and collective voice against injustice.
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She has nearly 30 years of experience in promoting gender inclusion in governance, management and leadership of grassroots, governments and international organizations.

She specializes in mentoring institutions to create gender equal workplaces, compliant with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

DeepJyoti Sonu Brahma

Co-Founder & Director, Farm2Food Foundation

Deep is an advocate of mainstreaming agriculture as an aspirational livelihood,especially for vulnerable youth in Assam through his leadership in Farm2Food Foundation. Deep has over 20 years of experience with adolescents, youth, teachers, minority and vulnerable communities.

He has supported several interventions in themes of youth mentorship, educational initiatives, coalition building and organization development across various non-government organizations like Pravah and America India Foundation as well as several government and private institutions.

Rameez Alam

Co-founder & Chief Curator, Catalyst 2030 – NAISE

Rameez is the Founder and Chief Curator at Catalyst 2030 NAISE, leading a collaboration of social entrepreneurs & NGOs for collective local action. His expertise lies in running collaborations and capacity building for vulnerable communities to chart solutions to India’s most complex development challenges.

Prior to Catalyst 2030, Rameez spent over 10 years at Pravah- supporting an ecosystem for youth centric development issues & led the Ashoka Fellowship program in South Asia.

Joint Steering Committee (JSC)

The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) is the highest-level decision-making body for strategy and operations across key areas of the Rebuild India Fund, including grantee selection and capacity building, finance & fundraising, compliance and impact.

Maya Patel

Executive Chair, Tarsadia Foundation

Maya Patel is the Executive Chair of the Tarsadia Foundation, leading the development of its vision, programs & partnerships in the philanthropy community. Maya is actively engaged with local and international partners in steering and guiding change to create impact.

Maya serves on the board of several organizations including Cal State Fullerton Foundation and Sage Hill School. Previously, she held multiple leadership positions at Tarsadia Hotels, a privately-owned hotel investment, development,and management company.

Shirish Dayal

Executive Vice President, Tarsadia Foundation

Shirish has over 25 years of leadership experience in arts, humanities, and nonprofits supporting and building community-based programs. Before Tarsadia Foundation, Shirish studied Business Administration at Cal State University Dominguez Hills and spent many years in the hospitality and travel industry.

As Executive Vice President of the Tarsadia Foundation, Shirish has led the Foundation’s vision to invest in local and global organizations that champion economic development, education, and healthcare.

Deval Sanghavi

Co-founder & Partner, Dasra

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 and initiated the Dasra Giving Circle, India’s largest collaborative giving platform.

Boris Siperstein

Board Member, Dasra

For nearly three decades, Boris has held roles as fiduciary or executive on behalf of HNIs, sovereign wealth funds, large non-profits, and strategic divisions of corporate enterprises. He has worked across numerous geographies and organizational sizes ranging from 5 to 120K+.

Notably, Boris spent the years between 2004 to 2015 helping build Lighthouse Funds, whose presence in the lower-middle private equity market in India has grown to over $500M in AUM. Most recently, Boris has served as CFOO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, a non-profit organization with consolidated assets of $300M, and also which helped his family emigrate from the Soviet Union to the U.S. in 1980.

Advisor

Advisors provide guidance and strategic insights to the Rebuild India Fund team, supporting fundraising efforts and high-level decision-making.

Farida Kathawalla

Farida Kathawalla has dedicated her life to empowering women and girls, particularly in regions where they endure the most complex vulnerabilities. Throughout her journey, she has served as an advisor to diverse organizations. A philanthropist at heart, she is an esteemed board member of several nonprofits and the co-founder of a women’s giving circle, the ‘Circle of Hope’.

She believes that women must support one another to develop the skills necessary for economic independence and social confidence, while also helping to cultivate the next generation of female leaders and trailblazers. Currently, she serves on the board of the United Nations Association of Greater Boston. Most recently, she co-chaired the “Community Development in India” Giving Circle, a collaboration between Dasra and the Network of Engaged International Donors (NEID).