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Podcast: No Cost Extension

After 21 years in the development sector, Dasra co-founder, Deval Sanghavi has met some extraordinary people who have actively shaped the sector and his thinking. Through No-Cost Extension, an interview-style podcast, you will get a first-hand glimpse of India’s development sector from key figures and explore how they have contributed to making a positive impact on India’s future. Each episode will dive into the thematic areas of the guest’s work, explore pivotal moments of success, failures, and altered trajectories.

Join him in No-Cost Extension where he’ll unpack the mechanics of social change with philanthropists, NGO, foundation and community leaders to see how we can create a future where everyone can thrive.

Subscribe to our shows through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Hejang Misao on giving the youth of Manipur a hopeful future.

Hejang Misao is the founder and CEO of Integrated Social & Institutional Development for Empowerment (InSIDE-North East), an organization that works towards the empowerment of children, youth and women in Manipur, under the Gun2Pen project.

Hejang is no stranger to conflict and grew up...

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Vishal Talreja on rebuilding oneself and one’s organization after burnout

Twenty five years ago Vishal Talreja founded Dream-a-Dream as a voluntary effort in Mumbai with eleven other individuals who were committed to working with young people.

Since then, Ðream-A-Dream has become a non-profit that works with close to 5 million children across six Indian states, w...

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As mediators for our community's rights, we remain accountable for them

Deepa Pawar is the founder and director of the Anubhuti Trust, an organization formed and self-led by women, with the intention to work with youth on developing their leadership so that there are aware and responsible youth in society who can lead change for a more just and equitable world.

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Yasmin Madan says the metrics of success have to be remeasured.

From selling horlicks in the Burdwan coalmine districts to studying filmmaking, this week’s guest on No-Cost Extension, Yasmin Madan has led a rich and varied life.

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval and Deepa sit down at the Dasra office to talk about the stigmatization of Nomadic...

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What we try to question is about dignity

What is it like to work for some of the most marginalized groups? Nandita Pradhan Bhatt is the Director of the Martha Farrell Foundation, an NGO that supports informal, migrant workers, mostly female domestic workers and adolescent children to build their leadership and collective voice against i...

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Deep Sonu Jyoti Brahma says that our relationship with nature is broken.

After a short year end break, No-Cost Extension is back. In the first episode of 2024, Deval sits down with Deep Jyoti Sonu Brahma, co-founder of Farm2Food Foundation.

Deep tells Deval about the staggering diversity of India’s North Eastern states - culturally, linguistically and agricultur...

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Revathi Radhakrishnan says "When a child dies, hope dies".

Revathi Radhakrishnan is the founder-director of the Vanavil Trust, a non-profit founded in 2004 that supports children of two Nomadic communities: Boom Boom Mattikarars and Narikuravars, in Tamil Nadu. After 17 years of working with the communities, Vanavil now has grown into an organisation tha...

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Rahima Khatun carries her father’s legacy in to the 21st century

Rahima Khatun has been associated with Nari-O-Shishu Kalyan Kendra (NOSKK) an NGO working extensively with the rights and dignity of women and children across West Bengal for over two decades.

The earliest seed for NOSKK was sown on Republic Day in 1952 when Rahima’s father started a commun...

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Season 3 Trailer

Deval Sanghavi is back with a new season of No-Cost Extension!

In this season Deval’s talking to some of the most committed social leaders from India and around the world on what it’s like to work towards the challenging goal of equity. Deval and his guests also speak about what it is like...

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Loren Cardeli is taking on the Food Industrial Complex

Loren Cardeli is Executive Director at A Growing Culture, a non profit that believes in food sovereignty for everyone everywhere and works with farmers to ensure they decide what to grow, where to grow it and who to sell it to.

Deval and Loren met at a Synergos retreat and found they had mu...

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Going Platinum: Past, Present and Future of Civil Society in India @ 75

We interrupt regular programming on No-Cost Extension with Deval Sanghavi to bring you this panel discussion from Dasra Philanthropy Week 2023.

The Going Platinum: Past, Present and Future of Civil Society in India @ 75 report was a collective effort by India’s leading non-profits that show...

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“We are all philanthropists” says Sonal Shah.

Sonal Shah has spent her career both in the private and public sector, including stints with Goldman Sachs, Google.org and The White House. She is currently the CEO of The Texas Tribune, a politics and public policy-specific news organization.

But before embarking on her illustrious career,...

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When you plan for the most vulnerable, you make the world work better for everyone

Jo McGowan and Ravi Chopra met in the 70s and fell in love through the post. They got married and moved to India in the early 80s and have since dedicated their lives to serving the communities they live in, albeit in very different ways.

From helping set up The Front for Rapid Economic Adv...

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Episode 6

How do you begin to break intergenerational cycles of poor health and violence in a megapolis? What evidence based models of urban health interventions can we look to?

Content Warning: This episode contains mentions of violence that some listeners may find disturbing and listener discretion...

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DPW Conversations: Bring The Community Voice Back

Dasra Philanthropy Week is an annual gathering of diverse stakeholders and voices from the development ecosystem to convene, converse and continue sustained action towards the quest for a billion Indians to thrive with dignity and equity.

As the 14th edition of Dasra Philanthropy Week 2023...

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The importance of Listening in Philanthropy with Alberto Lidji

How can we engage with policymakers in a timely and effective way? What can we do to address the power imbalance between the Global North and the Global South? Why does global philanthropy set aside only 2% of funding for the climate?

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval Sanghavi has...

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Episode 5

How can we challenge the top-down approach to solving social problems? Can we build bridges between powerful sectors and community organisations? What role does sustained inner work play in serving with love?

Deval sits down with Peggy Dulany, Founder & Chair of Synergos, a global organ...

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Episode 4

How should funders be rethinking philanthropy in the wake of the pandemic? How can they take their egos out of the equation? How can they operate with a greater sense of urgency, transparency, and trust with grantee-centric mechanisms?

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, Deval Sanghavi si...

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The Rebuild Conversations - 2

The Rebuild India Fund will support 1000 small community based organizations in the next decade through flexible funding and capacity building, enabling them to survive and thrive.

How do committees select organizations for funding? What is it like to be on a selection committee? What can w...

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The Rebuild Conversations - 1

When COVID-19 hit, it made clear the undeniable fact of just how vulnerable our poorest communities are. It was a setback of huge proportions, creating a crisis that extended well beyond health to impact on work and livelihoods, education, access to food and nutrition. It exposed how a shock in a...

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Episode 3

How can community philanthropy grow organically in a way that serves the community, unlocking its potential? Why do we use the word risk so much in philanthropy? How can family philanthropies involve the next gen meaningfully in their work?

Deval Sanghavi, host of No-Cost Extension Pod sits...

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Episode 2

Can urban discard be used as a tool to alleviate poverty? How can the poor be involved in evolving their own solutions with dignity? Why must we focus on the receiver’s dignity instead of the donor’s pride?

In this episode of No-Cost Extension, host Deval Sanghavi speaks to Anshu and Meenak...

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Episode 1

How can loving a sport lead someone to found an NGO? How can we empower young people to make their own life decisions, rather than giving them solutions? What is the secret to scaling such social initiatives across the world and what changes can one hope to see from the Indian social sector fundi...

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Trailer

Deval Sanghavi is back with another season of No-Cost Extension, ready to engage more deeply with the theme of rebuilding. Through conversations with social leaders, small NGOs and voices from philanthropies, Season 2 will focus on rebuilding communities, rebuilding India, and rebuilding the fabr...

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Episode 8 | Whether it's COVID or environmental issues, our children will always pay the biggest price says Safeena Husain

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Safeena Husain, the founder of Educate Girls, an NGO that works to support girls’ education across India. Educate Girls has just completed 14 years, and during this period they have grown from working with fifty schools to working in over 18,000 villages across India and...

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Episode 7 | Often we get stuck in taking these sides of are you a rights-based organization or are you a service delivery organization, the beauty is in looking at both sides, says Aakash Sethi

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Aakash Sethi, the CEO of Quest Alliance, a non-profit organization that equips young people with 21st-century skills. Aakash shares what it was like to grow up in a family dedicated to development work, what it means to him to build for a world where young people feel emp...

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Episode 6 | Unless idealism meets reality somewhere, it will always be two parallels running and never meeting, say Anu Aga and Meher Pudumjee

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Anu Aga and Meher Pudumjee, a mother and daughter philanthropic team who are deeply committed to equity and inclusion. While many families grapple with intergenerational philanthropy, Anu and Meher are examples of how different perspectives can come together to shape a lo...

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Episode 5 | Hansal Mehta asks Deval Sanghavi, What's Bad Philanthropy?

This special episode is a conversation between Deval and Hansal Mehta that took place earlier this year at Dasra Philanthropy Week. Listen in as Hansal speaks to Deval about his perspectives on philanthropy, what he believes is real impact, and his lockdown beard.

Hansal Mehta is a well-kno...

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Episode 4 | Your intent is to make impact, there is no machine that can actually test that, says Vineet Rai

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Vineet Rai, the Founder and Chairman of Aavishkaar Group, a leading impact investment platform in the world. Although they have very different perspectives when it comes to development and social change, they share a long friendship that goes back to their early years in...

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Episode 3 | What would happen to those lives if I closed the shelter down? Sharda Nirmal and Karen Doff from the Sharanam Centre

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Sharda Nirmal, the force behind the Sharanam Centre, a home for girls in Dharavi, Mumbai, and Karen Doff, the founder of the Aasha Foundation and a longtime collaborator of the centre. The Sharanam Centre is not an institution - it is a home. Sharda talks about how she es...

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Episode 2 | If you're doing something for the public good, why don't you give the public ownership of it? Asks Donald Lobo

Deval Sanghavi speaks to Donald Lobo, one of India's most unassuming philanthropists. Listen in as Lobo deftly steers the conversation away from the Rolling Stones article he was featured in, and as he talks about his giving philosophy and why he trusts organizations that are truly embedded in co...

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Episode 1 | Do you really want them to be sitting in front of an excel sheet? Asks Suparna Gupta

In the first episode of No Cost Extension, Deval sits down to talk to Suparna Gupta, the founder of Aangan Trust, a Mumbai-based foundation that works with vulnerable children. Listen in as they discuss what a no-cost extension really means, Suparna’s early years working with children and how Aan...

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