Dare to Dream Big

Rethinking Impact in the Non-Profit World

What is your BHAG? (BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL)? One of my bosses used to ask this question. He was pushing people to dream big but was he? It was about pushing boundaries but was it really about reinventing what we were doing? This is a question I have been asking myself repeatedly over the last week while Divya Bansal and I have been working on our funder pitch. I had a BHAG when I started V-ALL, a document outlining crazy ideas.?

When I started working in the impact space 11 years ago, I was planning to radically transform the landscape through technology. I had crazy dreams about creating platforms and disrupting solutions. As I started to work on the ground, I started to unlearn and curb my dreams. I started to think of?

• What is the basic need on the ground
• What is practical or what is doable
• What will the funder pay for
• What can my staff achieve

I learnt how to curb the craziness and draw in the lines. In my mind, achieving large-scale impact meant providing necessities to communities and essential services to nonprofits. When we did research at CSIP, we did not talk about radical research because even the fundamentals in terms of data or research did not exist for the impact space in India. People were happy with whatever we created because the gap of basics was so high.?

One can say the concept of thinking big is relative and just getting these basics done would create a large-scale impact. I do not deny that but I know in this quest of thinking big, we have forgotten innovation at some level. I sit in conferences and wonder why has the dialogue not changed. Why are we continuing to talk about the same things even after 10 years? What is wrong with the approach??

I can’t talk about everyone but when I look at myself. I know I have trained my brain to think big in what is achievable instead of thinking of the unthinkable. In the for-profit world, we reimagine, we rethink and we disrupt what is happening to think big. Somewhere in my head, these words seem impractical and just words because in my world there is not?

• As much of a risk appetite
• As much money to do experiments
• As many funders who want to push for innovation
• As many people who are willing to create a BHAG

Thanks to my recent conversations with Kapil Mohan our new pro bono CTO/ Tech Advisor and Divya our Strategy and Business lead who both have stars in their eyes and whose enthusiasm and focus on crazy ideas are re-igniting my passion.

I am creating my Big Hairy Audacious Dream for V-ALL and looking for funders who are willing to disrupt the space of giving and philanthropy. I don’t know where I will find these people but I can try.?I am Rethinking how one can change the paradigm of Giving. I am Reimagining Philanthropy in India. I am daring again to Dream Big for V-ALL.?