SAKUNTALA KASARAGADDA

Skills

1. Core Leadership & Strategy
Systems Thinking & Institutional Change
Strategic Planning & Portfolio Design
Senior Stakeholder & Board Engagement
2. Team Leadership & Capacity Building
Organizational Development
Philanthropy, Grants & Capital
3. Grantmaking Strategy & Stewardship
Donor & Foundation Engagement
Trust-Based Philanthropy
CSR & Blended Finance Models
Credit & Capital Mobilization (MSMEs, SHGs)
4. Public Policy & Government Engagement
Policy Design & Advocacy
Government Liaison & Public Systems Reform
Women-Focused MSME & Entrepreneurship Policy
Political Economy Analysis
Program & Ecosystem Development
5. Ecosystem Building for Entrepreneurship & Livelihoods
Incubation & Acceleration Program Design
Gender-Lens Programming
Rural & Inclusive Innovation Models
6. Monitoring, Learning & Impact
Theory of Change & Systems Evaluation
Impact Measurement & Learning (MEL)
Adaptive Program Management
7. Partnerships & Field Building
Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships
International Foundation & Donor Collaboration
NGO, Academic & Private Sector Partnerships
8. Context & Domain Expertise
Women’s Economic Empowerment
Livelihoods & Social Protection
Youth Entrepreneurship
Rural Development & Inclusion

About

Sakuntala Kasaragadda is a social impact/development leader who is systems-oriented and has more than 19 years of experience in the field and has worked across philanthropy, public policy, and grassroots institutions in India. Her work is based on women economic empowerment, livelihoods, entrepreneurship ecosystems and institutional reform, where she emphasizes on creating lasting, scalable solutions.
She has spearheaded and counseled multi-stakeholder projects with state governments, international foundations, CSR partners and civil society organizations and has helped in designing policy, constructing an ecosystem, and raising large-scale capital. She has a history in strategic formulation, grant and portfolio management, organizational fortification, and leadership incubation in government-related platforms, incubators, and nonprofit.
Sakuntala has a reputation of cross-community, cross-funder, and cross-policymaker translator - reinforcing incentives, establishing trust, and facilitating systems-level transformation. She has deep contextual knowledge of the development landscape in India, is comfortable in working in complicated settings, and has a collaborative leadership approach based on long-term impact.