acknowledgements

We would like to extend our gratitude to our partners, Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation. This effort would not have been possible without their generous support and partnership. We value their commitment to advancing investment in women and girls and are grateful for their support of this work.

This report was shaped through insights and engagement from individuals and organizations working across the gender ecosystem in India. We are thankful to the NGO leaders, feminist practitioners, researchers, funders, intermediaries, and ecosystem actors who took the time to engage with us through interviews and validation discussions. Their reflections, experiences, and critical perspectives helped sharpen our understanding of the evolving realities and opportunities shaping gender-focused work today.

We are grateful to the 169 organizations that participated in the survey informing this study. Their contributions provided an important foundation for understanding sector-wide funding patterns, organizational experiences, and emerging trends across the ecosystem.

We would like to thank Neera Nundy, Deval Sanghavi, and Parnasha Banerjee for their leadership and guidance throughout the initiative. We are also grateful to colleagues across the Dasra team, including Ami Misra, Prachi Pal, Mahima Sharda, Aanshi Gupta, Taanya Kapur, and Nemat Shaikh as well as Megha Jain, Tanya Dikshit, and Suveera Venkatesh, for their thoughtful inputs, encouragement, and continued support during the course of this work.

We would also like to acknowledge the following sector experts and practitioners whose insights contributed meaningfully to this report.