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Moving from Grants to an Ecosystem Approach with Nalini Tarakeshwar

2026-09-02 · By Nalini Tarakeshwar, Global Head of Standard Chartered Foundation

Nalini Tarakeshwar, Global Head of Standard Chartered Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy, shares how the Foundation is moving from traditional grant-making towards an ecosystem approach. She explores sustainable livelihoods for underserved young people, innovative finance, stronger partnerships and NGO capacity-building, while highlighting how corporate foundations can become catalysts for inclusive, long-term systems change.

Meet Social Impact Pioneer, Nalini Tarakeshwar. Nalini is the Global Head, Standard Chartered Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy. In this article she shares what she is working on, insights into moving the Foundation from grants to an ecosystem approach and the emerging trends she is thinking about.

With Government and bilateral funding for development declining just as social and environmental challenges are becoming more complex and interconnected, foundations and their partners, are not just looking to fill a widening funding gap. It calls for a deeper rethink of how to combine capital, capabilities, relationships and influence to create lasting impact.

As Nalini reveals, at the Standard Chartered Foundation, this means exploring how to move from a predominantly grant-making model towards a more ecosystem-led approach, while maintaining a clear focus on sustainable livelihoods for underserved young people. The transition raises practical questions that will be familiar to many social impact practitioners: What new capabilities are required? How can boards, colleagues and partners be brought on the journey? How can innovative finance be used without leaving community-based organisations behind? And how can individual impact be communicated in ways that illuminate the wider systems the Foundation seeks to change?

Here are Nalini’s thoughts:

1. What are the three most important priorities you’re working on at the moment, and why do they matter to you, your organisation and society?

My three current priorities are: first, operationalising the Foundation’s shift from grant-making to an ecosystem approach; second, sharpening our focus on sustainable livelihoods for underserved young people through employability, entrepreneurship and inclusion; and third, using partnerships, innovative finance and learning to increase impact beyond what grants alone can achieve. They matter because they help the Foundation move from funding activity to enabling long-term systems change, using our capital, convening power, market presence, and Bank networks to create more durable pathways to opportunity for young people and communities.

2. Where would additional support be most valuable, whether through insights, partnerships, ideas or connections?

Additional support would be most valuable in helping us learn from others who have made a similar journey, particularly corporate foundations that have moved from traditional grant-making towards a more ecosystem-led, catalytic role. We would value practical insights into how they managed the transition: what capabilities they had to build, how they brought boards, internal stakeholders and partners with them, and how they balanced ambition with clarity and focus. It would also be helpful to understand the risks they encountered, such as over-complexity, diluted accountability, or moving too far ahead of organisational readiness, as well as the opportunities they unlocked through stronger partnerships, greater leverage of corporate assets, and more systemic impact. Connections to peers who have navigated this shift would be especially useful, not as a blueprint to copy, but to learn from their experience and avoid predictable pitfalls.

3. What trends or opportunities are you seeing that others may not yet be paying enough attention to?

One trend I do not think the sector is paying sufficient attention to is the speed and scale of the decline in government and bilateral donor funding for development. This is not simply a funding gap for programmes; for many NGOs it is becoming an organisational survival question. Too many organisations are still built around assumptions of relatively stable grant funding and may not be sufficiently prepared for what sustained reductions in public development finance will mean for their operating models, reserves, talent, partnerships, and long-term relevance. This creates risk, but also an opportunity to help organisations become more resilient, diversified, and strategic in how they finance impact.

A second under-recognised opportunity is to respond to development challenges as interconnected systems rather than as separate sectors. Health, education, climate resilience, social protection, livelihoods and financial inclusion are deeply linked in people’s lives, yet funding and programming often remain siloed. If we want more durable outcomes, we need to design in ways that reflect these connections, for example, recognising that climate shocks affect health, education and jobs, and that social protection and livelihoods are essential to resilience.

A third area that deserves more attention is the capacity-building required for NGOs, social enterprises, and local partners to engage with a wider array of financial instruments beyond grants. There is growing interest in blended finance, outcomes-based funding, catalytic capital, guarantees and repayable finance, but many organisations do not yet have the financial literacy, governance, risk management, or investment readiness to use these tools well. Without that capacity, innovative finance risks remaining inaccessible to the very organisations closest to communities. Building this capability could help unlock new pools of capital while ensuring that financing remains mission-led and appropriate to context.

4. What’s one lesson or insight you’ve learned recently that you think would benefit other business and social impact professionals?

One insight I have learned recently is the importance of strategic communications around impact, not simply telling good stories but using stories to build a wider narrative about why the work matters. A powerful story should do more than describe an individual beneficiary or programme outcome; it should help people understand why the Foundation is engaged in its mission, why that mission makes sense for a Bank, and how the work is influencing the wider system around it. In that sense, storytelling becomes a way to connect human impact with institutional purpose and systems change.

For example, instead of only telling the story of a young entrepreneur who received training or finance, we can use that story to explain the barriers young people face in accessing decent work or enterprise opportunities; why a Bank-linked Foundation is well placed to respond through financial inclusion, networks, enterprise support and market knowledge; and how the intervention is helping to strengthen the broader ecosystem of NGOs, social enterprises, employers, investors and policymakers. The individual story creates the emotional connection, but the wider narrative shows why the work is strategic, credible, and capable of contributing to systemic impact.

In conclusion:

Moving from grant-making towards an ecosystem approach is neither quick nor straightforward. Foundations need to balance ambition with organisational readiness, experimentation with accountability, and new financial approaches with the continued importance of flexible grant funding. Above all, they need to avoid treating “systems change” as an abstract ambition disconnected from the experiences of people and communities.

For practitioners considering a similar transition, three actions stand out. First, learn openly from peers, not to import a blueprint, but to understand the capabilities, risks and internal conversations involved. Second, invest in the readiness of NGOs, social enterprises and local partners so they can engage confidently with a broader range of financial instruments. Third, build narratives that connect human stories to institutional purpose and the wider barriers that must change.

No foundation, business, NGO or government can address today’s interconnected challenges alone. The opportunity is to combine their distinct strengths: using grants to build capacity and reduce risk, business assets and networks to expand opportunity, and partnerships to achieve change at greater scale. As Nalini infers: if we approach this transition with humility, clarity and a commitment to shared learning, corporate foundations can become more effective catalysts for durable and inclusive impact.

A massive thank you to Nalini for sharing her insights with us. Nalini is part of the Business Fights Poverty community. Together we learn and share good practice on delivering business and social impact.

If you have feedback on this article or you too would like to be a part of the Social Impact Pioneers series, please do get in touch: editor@businessfightspoverty.org – we would love to hear from you.