« Go Back

About Deshpande Foundation

In India, we work largely in the "Sandbox," which is a geographically defined area of Northwestern Karnataka. As a grant-making organization, the Foundation funds projects in four major areas:

Agriculture: Focus areas include crop cultivation techniques, irrigation, soil remediation, and farmer education. We seek agricultural and environmental sustainability.

Education: Our education partners work on developing experiential learning, internet connectivity and training, teacher training, education for disabled children, civic awareness, English language training, and scholarship programs.

Health: Focus areas include school lunch programs, community based rehabilitation, medical waste reduction, prosthetic limbs, health education and training, nutrition, educational entertainment, and orphan rescue programs.

Microcredit / Livelihoods: Focus areas include entrepreneurial training, women's training programs, watershed restoration programs, recycling, and jaggery production.

International Voluntary Service Activities

The Deshpande Foundation welcomes motivated individuals to apply to our 2008 Fellows Program. The Deshpande Foundation is the family foundation of Gururaj ("Desh") and Jaishree Deshpande. Founded in 1996, it is a leading philanthropic foundation in Massachusetts and India in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and international development. The Foundation takes a hands-on approach with its grant partners to help them achieve their objectives, grow their organizations and become the change agents that they strive to be. We look for the following qualities in our partners:

• An innovative idea that is simple but powerful in its potential. We develop partnerships with innovative leaders, with a new idea, product or service that can potentially benefit millions of people and change entire industries.
• An entrepreneur who is strong and passionate about the idea. We believe that in the long term, a region will thrive as long as it has a vibrant base of budding entrepreneurs. The Foundation strives to create such an environment in the places it operates.
• A scalable solution with the potential to impact millions of lives. We focus on helping the best ideas, researchers, entrepreneurs and organizations to scale up their activities to rapidly increase their reach.

The Deshpande Foundation is currently offering three unique fellowship opportunities in and around Hubli, India:

• Sandbox Fellow: This is a year-long program for young professionals or post-graduate school candidates who seek an extended experience working in on-the-ground development and/or social entrepreneurship.
• Innovation Fellow: This is a shorter term opportunity (up to six months) for an entrepreneur who would like to test a product or idea in a development lab setting.
• Junior Fellow: This short term (three to six months) opportunity is designed for mid-degree graduate students or experienced undergraduates who want to make an impact through field experience.

Volunteer for Prosperity Opportunities
Number of Opportunities
Geographic Regions	Asia
Health & Prosperity Sectors	Women & Youth Empowerment
Types of Opportunities	Other
Average Duration of Projects
Volunteer Profile Summary
An innovative idea that is simple but powerful in its potential. We develop partnerships with innovative leaders, with a new idea, product or service that can potentially benefit millions of people and change entire industries. An entrepreneur who is strong and passionate about the idea. We believe that in the long term, a region will thrive as long as it has a vibrant base of budding entrepreneurs. The Foundation strives to create such an environment in the places it operates. A scalable solution with the potential to impact millions of lives. We focus on helping the best ideas, researchers, entrepreneurs and organizations to scale up their activities to rapidly increase their reach.