Back to resources

Skills vs. Passion: The Challenges for Corporate Professionals Who Move into the Social Sector

Civil Society | May 19, 2011

Professionals “are very impatient to scale, and don’t realize that in the social sector, what to scale is more critical than how to scale,” says Rohini Nilekani, philanthropist and founder of Arghyam, a Bangalore-based NGO. Corporate professionals, Nilekani adds, tend to have a strong and mistaken belief in the power of the markets to solve social problems. “But both the market and the state have failed, and that is why the philanthropic and the social sectors are there in the ?rst place,” she points out.

View PDF

More like this

Active Citizenship  |  Civil Society

Report | Hum Log: Active Citizenship and Civic Engagement in India

Key Questions What is active citizenship and how do members of society participate in civic issues in big and small ways?  How do different stakeholders interact one another and what are some positive outcomes of such civic expressions?  How can it be catalysed in the Indian context? What can the state, philanthropies, and civil society […]
Dec 14, 2022 |

Civil Society  |  Societal Thinking  |  COVID-19

Closing Address | Beyond #Charcha2020: India's Priorities

This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Ashish Dhawan and Sanjay Pugalia about the next steps for India’s resurgence from the current crisis. The session was part of #Charcha2020, which brought together 100+ hours of insights and knowledge shared across events by leading businessmen, policymakers, academicians, philanthropists, community leaders, and changemakers. [A […]
May 16, 2020 |

Climate & Biodiversity  |  Civil Society  |  Others

The World This Week - Children's Magazine

Rohini Nilekani is the Founder-Chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation she set up for sustainable water and sanitation, which funds initiatives all across India. From 2004 to 2014, she was Founder-Chairperson and chief funder of Pratham Books, a non-profit children’s publisher that reached millions of children during her tenure. She has written several books for young children, published […]
Jul 6, 2021 |

Others  |  Civil Society  |  Strategic Philanthropy

The Next Big Thing - Quadrum Presents QED

This is an edited version of Rohini and Nandan Nilekani’s talk, The Next Big Thing — Quadrum Presents QED.   As Nandan and I travel, we try to watch out for new trends around the world. Even now, the world is divided into countries like ours, where half the population is still in the 19th […]
Oct 1, 2014 | Conversation