Third Sector Partners launched Katalyst, a community program designed to empower girls from marginalized communities in India. Katalyst provides girls access to professional higher education and skills training to increase their employment opportunities. It aims to enhance the leadership potential and talent of girls to create future leaders and increase the management capabilities of organizations. Currently, Katalyst has directly supported 150 girls in Maharashtra and Karnataka through partnerships with local NGOs, providing training, counseling, and personality development. Many of the girls are now pursuing careers in medicine, engineering, and the corporate sector thanks to the opportunities provided by Katalyst.

1. Third Sector Partners is a leading boutique CxO and Board search firm in the not-for-
profit domains. Four years ago, we launched Katalyst, a community programme,
specifically designed to achieve holistic and realistic empowerment of the girl child.
Katalyst reflects Third Sector Partner's visionary zeal to create leaders par excellence.
While our CxO and Board searches fulfills this vision at an organisational level through
our work with clients, Katalyst extends the philosophy to map talent and create leadership
potential among girls in grasroots communities.
Katalyst achieves economic emancipation for talented girls from marginalised
communities with a view to increase the management bandwith of India Inc. We started
with a clear objective of providing access to professional higher education for deserving
girl students thus enhancing their opportunities for mainstream employability.
Katalyst’s unique approach applies our core competence in talent management and
executive search to create leaders amongst girls, giving them the same platform and
opportunity which are a norm for girls from economically well off families. We believe
that the solution to bettering the odds for our country lies in providing equality of
opportunity to its bottom-of-pyramid citizens, especially girls.
Education without a doubt is the most powerful tool for empowerment. This is more so
for disadvantaged girls whose historic and social realities in low income communities
make them prone to living a life of uncertainty and exploitation. Today, Katalyst has
directly reached out to 150 girls across Maharashtra and Karnataka, through active
partnerships with a large number of dedicated local NGOs and individuals.
Through a mediated process of skills training, counseling and overall personality and
psycho-social development, Katalyst girls are well on their way to achieving their
dreams, providing future leadership. To give few examples, six students are training to be
doctors, eighty girls are pursuing engineering, while ten others are working in the
mainstream of the corporate world.
While the seeds of a movement have been sown, we are aware that we are making a small
beginning of a long and challenging journey. Katalyst is now poised to grow and scale
new heights. We promise to make every effort to ensure scale, consistency and quality so
that the social and economic deprivation of girls becomes a matter of past
If you would like to receive further details on successful cases and collaborating through
a shared vision, do write to Anjali Hari anjali@thirdsectorpartners.com
for Maharashtra and Mahalakshmi Parthasarthy mahalakshmi@katalystindia.org for
Karnataka