Sonal Shah is the Associate Director for Economic and Foreign Policy at the Center for American Progress, where she works on developing policy recommendations for Congress and Executive branches on trade, outsourcing, and other domestic and international policy issues.

In addition, Sonal is co-founder of a non-profit organization called Indicorps, a US-based non-profit organization that offers one-year service fellowship for Americans of Indian origin to work on specific development projects in India. Indicorps develops projects with entrepreneurial and innovative non-governmental organizations in India with the aim of fostering an exchange of ideas and expertise and cultivating Indian-American leaders in the United States to have a better understanding of India and the challenges of development.

Sonal Shah participated in the session on Social Entrepreneurship at TiECON 2004. I wanted to use the lessons that had/had not worked from the past to develop a program for people of Indian origin who wanted to go back to India, live in the communities they serve, immerse themselves in the local culture, and do things, said Sonal Shah as she described the motivation for creating Indicorps. This organization is similar to the Peace Corps. The organization was born after extended discussions with Indian NGOs to identify their needs. Indicorps has fellowship opportunities for people of Indian origin. For the past 3 years, Indicorps is operating on a budget of $50K per year and provides opportunity for 15 fellows per year. The goal of the program is to instill leadership qualities without compromising on values or ethics.

Not only it is important to have an idea, but it is also important to think about the model. For example, it is important to distinguish between building schools and training teachers or building hospitals and training doctors. For organizations with limited resources, it is important not to duplicate effort of the government and other organizations said Sonal Shah as she spoke about creating non-profits.

In order to be successful, One should not mind taking the road less traveled and following your heart,said Sonal. Social entrepreneurship, like any other like any other business has to address management issues. One needs to have measurable targets. One must have the ability to continue to innovate, the ability to say no and the ability to attract money if one has to succeed.

Venture capitals have a role to play in this too. They need to start investing smaller amounts in the range of $100K in these activities and expecting 5-7% returns rather than the 15-20% or more they usually expect to make before investing in a business. It must be noted, that in the recent past the private sector is doing more and more. For example, private sector has invested nearly $25B compared to $2B by the public sector. In Ecuador, nearly $40B has been invested primarily from the Ecuadorians in the US. In addition, one must remember to document success and what is being done at the local level,said Shah.

Sonal shared some of her other thoughts in an exclusive interview with Lokvani.

Lokvani: What advice do you have for people who want to enter the field of social entrepreneurship?
Sonal: There are lots of things one needs to consider.

1. Think about what sector you would like to be involved in. For example, do you want to be in the area of health or education, or something else?
2. Decide if you want to operate in a village or a city.
3. Think about the problems you want to solve. Find out why other organizations are not solving this problem. Is it that they have tried and failed, or is it the lack of capital. Is there a need for it?
4. Sending money is not the only solution. You have to find someone who shares your vision. The transaction must be transparent and there must be a trust between the two of you.
5. Start small. Take the lessons learned and scale it. For example, if you want to implement music in schools – identify the issues (e.g. teachers, musical instruments, other.)
6. Think about who and how will you handle expansion.

Lokvani: How can one apply to be an Indicorps fellow?
Sonal: The process starts with a 20-page application process. This acts as a deterrent for a lot of people and only the motivated ones will fill it. The emphasis of this one-year fellowship is to understand India and what its heritage and culture means to you. As it helps develop a stronger sense of identity and challenges one to make a difference, the application goes into depth to get a sense of ones interests in reconnecting with India and their commitment.

Lokvani: What kinds of people have participated in your program?
Sonal: Most of the current and past participants are young professionals, typically between 22-30 years old.

Lokvani: How can people help Indicorps?
Sonal: They can help us in a number of ways including marketing of the program, development of website, etc.

Sonal shared some of her other thoughts in an exclusive interview with Lokvani.

Lokvani: What advice do you have for people who want to enter the field of social entrepreneurship?
Sonal: There are lots of things one needs to consider.

1. Think about what sector you would like to be involved in. For example, do you want to be in the area of health or education, or something else?
2. Decide if you want to operate in a village or a city.
3. Think about the problems you want to solve. Find out why other organizations are not solving this problem. Is it that they have tried and failed, or is it the lack of capital. Is there a need for it?
4. Sending money is not the only solution. You have to find someone who shares your vision. The transaction must be transparent and there must be a trust between the two of you.
5. Start small. Take the lessons learned and scale it. For example, if you want to implement music in schools – identify the issues (e.g. teachers, musical instruments, other.)
6. Think about who and how will you handle expansion.

Lokvani: How can one apply to be an Indicorps fellow?
Sonal: The process starts with a 20-page application process. This acts as a deterrent for a lot of people and only the motivated ones will fill it. The emphasis of this one-year fellowship is to understand India and what its heritage and culture means to you. As it helps develop a stronger sense of identity and challenges one to make a difference, the application goes into depth to get a sense of ones interests in reconnecting with India and their commitment.

Lokvani: What kinds of people have participated in your program?
Sonal: Most of the current and past participants are young professionals, typically between 22-30 years old.

Lokvani: How can people help Indicorps?
Sonal: They can help us in a number of ways including marketing of the program, development of website, etc.

Lokvani: What are some of the other projects the fellows’ works on?
Sonal: A number of projects involve help market the products in local communities and show them ways, which will make their business better. For more details, please log on to www.indicorps.org.

Lokvani: Thank you for taking the time to talk to Lokvani.
Sonal: Thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk about Indicorps...

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