Varun Behani

My interest and heart lie with organizations and movements where the “actual work” is happening.

I trained as a strategy consultant and facilitator with Bridgespan before working more directly with nonprofits. I spent the majority of my career with Jan Sahas, an ambitious, grassroots nonprofit based in India. For ~6 years, I played the role of in-house strategist and chief facilitator in a transformative time for the organization as we scaled from working with tens of thousands of informal workers to millions annually.

This involved developing my areas of expertise such as:

• Initiative building: played the role of primary organizer from concept to strategy to execution for the Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC), an initiative that scaled Jan Sahas’s work to 100 districts across India as well as other parts of Asia
• Facilitation: organized leadership, cross-functional teams, boards and advisors around our big systems change goals
• Operating model: designed and implemented team structures, managed multiple leadership transitions, and designed policies in line with the evolving needs and cultural consensus required to build MRC within a grassroots nonprofit
• Strategic fundraising: end-to-end responsibility for large systems change funders, including Co-impact and TED Audacious, from proposal development to key pre- and post-funding engagement

I enjoy working in environments where there is a clear vision, agency is high / the “truth always wins”, and people have a flexible “do whatever is needed” approach to solving social issues. My approach – aligned with my personal preference for going deep and having clear context – is to understand how the work happens and how the organization works. And I pride myself on working more as an in-house team member rather than an outside consultant.

I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria to Indian parents. This made me pretty good at converting currencies, time zones, and playing cricket which I was lucky enough to do for Nigeria. Recently, I have been indulging in the architecture and cultural history of Bangalore, India – where I live – as well as other places I travel to.