India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS) runs the ILSS Fundraising Program. With 8 editions so far, ILSS has worked with 250+ social sector leaders helping them develop the right skills for fundraising. Through successive cohorts of the ILSS Fundraising Program, we have found that a large number of organisations struggle with building long term financial resilience. This is often attributed to their lack of access to non-programmatic funding, particularly funding for organisational development. An organisation’s ability to access such funding is shaped by an understanding of this need and perspective across the spectrum of stakeholders, ability to articulate these funding needs and the quality of relationships they build with their funders.
Relevance: In this session, Amita Puri, Faculty Member at the ILSS fundraising program will outline the most effective ways nonprofit organisations can raise unrestricted funding or funding not explicitly tied to program delivery towards building financial capacity and resilience in the organisations.

Key Themes:

• Understanding and Prioritising Unrestricted Funding: Defining unrestricted funding for the organisation, identifying its value and sharpening organisational focus towards flexible funding.
• Evaluating the Donor Portfolio: Mapping current donors, identifying potential unrestricted funding sources, and targeting high-value partners.
• Making the Case for Unrestricted Support: Understanding challenges and barriers to unrestricted funding, building the case basis evidence from across the world; Crafting narratives, building trust, and creating tailored asks for different donor segments.

About the Facilitator:

Amita, India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS)
Amita has over two decades of experience in the Indian development space, and has been exposed to, and worked in the areas of child rights, gender, livelihoods, and business and human rights. Her roles have included developing organizational sustainability strategies and being involved in the raising of funds from individual, corporate and institutional donors, both in India and overseas; as well as promoting and influencing philanthropy for social justice issues and supporting the development of an ecosystem for it. Amita has led organizations and has had programme oversight for the entire organization. Her last few full time roles included being Executive Director, Fundraising, Marketing and Communications at CARE India. Previously, she worked as Executive Director, All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association-AIACA; CEO, Charities Aid Foundation, India.
Amita has also worked directly with communities as well as with grantees to facilitate change and been involved in capacity building and institution strengthening work; and on collaborative models. She currently works as an independent consultant. and partners with diverse stakeholders, both within and outside the country