Source ForPressRelease.com

Two years years of COVID has affected India at scale, posing long-term challenges for millions of vulnerable communities and the grassroots NGOs that serve them. A few key areas that have been impacted are:-



•Disruption in education - 286 million children affected by 1.5 million schools closing down due to the pandemic



•Unemployment & poverty - 230 million people fallen below the national minimum wage poverty line (>$5/day)



•Overburdened health systems - 500,000 deaths across other health challenges due to a shift in the focus of public health services towards COVID



•Chronically underfunded grassroots NGOs - 60% of NGOs led by marginalized community members had under three months of financial reserves to continue operations after COVID



Grassroots organizations have worked tirelessly on the frontlines to provide immediate COVID relief and to sustain existing programs preventing further digression on India’s overall development. Today, there is an urgent need for the philanthropic community to support the resilience of India’s grassroots NGOs through long-term, flexible funding so that they can continue to support India’s most marginalized and vulnerable communities.



Dasra and Tarsadia Foundation are stepping up to meet this need and are launching the Rebuild India Fund – an INR 500 Cr. long term resilience fund that will commit 5 years of flexible funding and capacity-building support to 100 new grassroots NGOs each year. The fund will be supported by a cohort of global philanthropic partners committed to trust-based giving, and providing long-term, flexible funding to NGO-strategies based in local knowledge and systems.



The fund aims to:



•Support 100 new grassroots organizations every year over 5 years across India with a GEDI (Gender, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) lens, to ensure smaller, lesser-known NGOs that are not typically part of global funder networks circles receive support



•Commit 5-year, flexible funding of minimum INR 10 lakh annually to each NGO, providing them with funding that can enable them to cover organizational expenses and adapt to their communities’ needs effectively



•Build institutional capacity of NGOs in core areas such as leadership development, strategy & communications, digital enablement, and financial & program resilience



•Create a platform for funders to discover and engage with grassroots NGO leaders, as well as to learn and adopt giving practices suited to a COVID impacted India



The Rebuild India Fund builds off of Dasra and Tarsadia Foundation’s #BackTheFrontline rapid relief campaign, which was launched in April 2021 at the height of India’s devastating 2nd wave of COVID. #BackTheFrontline raised INR 76 Cr. and supported 152 NGOs across 31 states and Union Territories in India, helping them receive timely and flexible funding and impacting 450+ communities.



The Rebuild India Fund was launched during Dasra Philanthropy Week - Dasra’s annual flagship event that convenes nonprofit leaders, philanthropists, foundations, policymakers and other key stakeholders to discuss the way forward for India’s development, in partnership with Bain & Company, Tata Trusts, The Nudge Forum, The Bridgespan Group, Janaagraha, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and more.