What will it take to solve the world’s most difficult challenges? The demands of fundraising often hamstring social entrepreneurs poised to dismantle unjust systems. Most grants are too small, too short, and too restrictive to achieve the kind of change funders actually hope to see. What happens when funders, large and small, combine funds—and forces—to advance systems change initiatives? Can alliances of the wealthy avoid reinforcing existing power structures while effectively addressing large-scale injustice?
Rukmini Banerji is Chief Executive Officer of Pratham Education Foundation. She
has extensive field experience working directly with rural and urban communities as well as in designing and implementing large scale partnerships with governments for improving children’s learning in India. From 2005 to 2014, she led Pratham’s research and assessment efforts including the well-known ASER initiative (Annual Status of Education Report). Rukmini is the 2021 recipient of the Yidan Prize for education development. Originally from Bihar, she is now based between New Delhi and Pune. Rukmini writes frequently on education in both Hindi and English and enjoys creating and telling stories to children.
Rebecca Onie is Co-Founder of The Health Initiative (THI), a campaign catalyzing new conversation about and increased investments in health, including access to healthy food, safe and affordable housing, and well-paying jobs. Previously, Onie co-founded Health Leads - arming thousands of healthcare institutions and providers with tools, technology, analytics, and best practices to address their patients’ resource needs. Health Leads ultimately served as a model for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid’s first federal pilot to screen and navigate patients to basic resources. Onie is a MacArthur “Genius” awardee, National Academy of Medicine member, and Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow. She’s received the APHA Avedis Donabedian Quality Award; Network for Excellence in Health Innovation “Innovator in Health” Award; Robert Wood Johnson Young Leader Award; and Forbes’ Impact 30 Award for leading social entrepreneurs. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Heather Grady is a Vice President at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. She oversees more than 40 collaborative funds in areas including environment, climate change, migration, democracy & gender equality. She advises individual philanthropists and foundations, and co-founded and leads the Shifting Systems initiative that encourages funders to place longer-term, more adaptive funding with grantee partners to support them to foster systemic impact. Her practice has been influenced by two decades living and working in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She has worked with the Rockefeller Foundation, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, and Oxfam Great Britain. Heather has co-authored two books and numerous publications focusing primarily on topics in philanthropy and assessment. She has degrees from Smith College and Harvard University. She serves on the boards of Doc Society, Business and Human Rights Centre, Dropbox Foundation, Wildlife Justice Commission and WINGS.
Olivia Leland is the Founder and CEO of Co-Impact, a global philanthropic collaborative that brings together local changemakers and funders to strengthen health, education, and economic systems and advance gender equality and women’s leadership. With over two decades of experience in philanthropy, government, and the nonprofit sector, she launched Co-Impact in 2017. Today, it supports partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America who are creating lasting impact to benefit more than 600 million people.
Previously, Olivia was the founding director of the Giving Pledge, with a career spanning microfinance, financial inclusion, multi-sector collaboration, strategy development, and gender equality.
Neera Nundy is the Co-founder and Partner at Dasra, a leading non-profit systems orchestrator driving collaborative action for social change in India. Since co-founding Dasra in 1999, she has played a key leadership role in its transformation from a venture philanthropy fund to foundation for non-profits, mobilizing $330M+, supporting 1,500+ NGOs, advising 750+ funders, and impacting 170M+ lives. Neera drives Dasra’s strategic vision and its commitment to equity, proximate leadership, systems thinking, and collaborative platforms through programs like GivingPi, Dasra Social Impact, ClimateRISE and the Adolescent Girls Collaborative. She has experiences in gender, climate, WSH, family philanthropy and NGO capacity building. Currently she also pursuing a PhD in Philanthropy at Indiana University and is on the global boards of The Hunger Project, LGT Venture Philanthropy and The John Hopkins University India. Prior to Dasra she worked at Morgan Stanley and UBS Warburg; holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BSc in Statistical Sciences from University of Western Ontario and is an India Fellow of the Global Aspen Institute. She is Canadian and based in Mumbai for the last 23 years.
