Rebuild India Fund's Bi-Annual Report, December 2024

Grassroots journeys towards resilience are built on a series of investments in institution and program building. With multi-year flexible grants, a fascinating rubric for growth is emerging, and we are inspired to rethink a comprehensive approach to evidence-based impact. 

Learning from evidence built by our partners at the grassroots, the Rebuild India Fund continues its transformative journey to foster equity and resilience across India's most underserved regions. Since its inception in November 2022, Rebuild has partnered with over 200 NGOs, this report shares highlights from journeys in organizational, programmatic and financial resilience building as reported by 136 grassroots organizations that have been part of Rebuild’s portfolio for over six months to two years. 

Post joining Rebuild, these organizations have impacted over 6.3 million lives, it is significant that their efforts prioritize vulnerable communities, including marginalized caste and indigenous groups, ethnic minorities, survivors of gender-based violence, persons, youth and children with disabilities, gender and sexual minorities. Every day, we learn new ways in which Rebuild’s partners are marching towards resilient futures. 

Highlights 

Portfolio Respondents: 

• Responding grassroots organizations are addressing critical and emerging issues in livelihoods, education, gender equity, and social inclusion. 
• 60% of respondent organizations have proximate leaders that are from the communities they serve, and 35% of organizations are women-led. 

Regional and Sectoral Reach: 

• Our partners are expanding support to historically underserved and underfunded regions, including the North-East and Eastern states.  
• Top sectors with programmatic interventions include livelihoods (24%), education (23%), and gender (21%)

Organization Resilience: 

• Rebuild has enabled 70% of respondent organizations from its portfolio to improve operational efficiency and 32% to strengthen community relationships. 
• 82% organizations allocated funds to institution building and administrative costs, ensuring operational sustainability and long-term outcomes in resilience building. 
• Organizations were also able to retain program staff, invest in their capacities, and provide better salaries given the multi-year nature of the grant. This has led to incremental results in overall efficiency, program implementation, and staff well-being.

Programmatic Resilience: 

• 86% of organizations strengthened their programs, with 47% piloting new initiatives in healthcare, education, climate resilience, mental health and gender equity. 

• Programmatic innovations have also led to unlocking more funding as Rebuild’s funds were used for pilot programmes that demonstrated scalable impact for future investment. 

Financial Resilience: 

• Overall, 68 organizations have leveraged ₹53 crores in funding, achieving a 4.2x multiplier effect to their disbursed grant investment. 
• Women-led organizations secured ₹21 crores, and even though more women leaders leveraged funding, male headed NGOs leveraged 2X more grant value. 

Movement Building: 

• 72% of organizations benefited from peer networks, sharing resources, funding contacts, and sector innovations. 
•  Events like the Dasra Philanthropy Forum and participation at UNGA side events showcased the power of grassroots leadership at global platforms. 

Gender Expansive Impact: 

• Organizations working on gender focused on reducing gender inequities through initiatives for adolescent girls, survivors of GBV, and enabling financial inclusion for women. 
• New innovations in livelihoods have been enabled for transpersons using Rebuild’s flexible funds. 
• Programs have also engaged boys and men to promote gender-just communities. 

Flexible funds are strengthening organizations in diverse ways, each portfolio member utilizes flexible funding basis their unique needs, journeys and planned milestones. With a growing body of evidence around impact, we are excited to share learnings, innovations and peer collaborations as reported to us by our partners.