With a mission to elevate New Yorkers out of poverty, Robin Hood Foundation has been investing in, leading, and managing several strategic initiatives and programs for many years. One such unique strategic initiative is the Blue Ridge Labs (BRL), a social impact venture studio/innovation lab that invests in and enables founders and products to co-design technology solutions with communities.

During my summer at BRL, I primarily worked on the program management function for their flagship program, the Fellowship. BRL's Fellowship is an intensive program to create and build new technology enabled products that improve the lives of New Yorkers experiencing poverty. I onboarded 16 engineers, designers, product managers and children's health experts, and facilitated a co-design process, collaborating directly with communities experiencing poverty, community-based organizations, nonprofits, and issue area experts to build products addressing the real problems of low-income New Yorkers. I also conducted a study to document the uniqueness and opportunities for BRL's Fellowship program by interviewing its alumni and past employees. I also proposed alternative models for the future of the fellowship program.

In addition to my primary project at BRL, I also supported Robin Hood Foundation's “Grant Readiness and Insights Training” (GRIT) program. GRIT is an annual series of workshops (30 hours content, 10 sessions, around 15 groups) aimed to help operational nonprofits with promising models communicate their outcomes and costs effectively to funders to increase their philanthropic and individual revenues. I developed a study to analyze the impact of GRIT across 90+ nonprofits that it had supported between 2016 to 2023. Using quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, I presented detailed analysis of GRIT's impact in supporting the nonprofits to grow corporate and philanthropic support, increase board engagement, improve learning and measurement systems, evolve effective program interventions, and review their overall strategy and communications. I also presented a summary of potential opportunities for GRIT to better support its participants.

I applied the methodologies from qualitative and quantitative research courses at Columbia University to systematically develop studies to analyze the Fellowship and GRIT programs. I also used systems-thinking and my past entrepreneurial experiences to propose program changes to improve outcomes and sustain their uniqueness in the future.

The study project I worked on at BRL was challenging at times by its inherently independent nature. I was working alone most of the time since BRL has a small team and the staff was extremely busy due to their internal projects. I focused on building relationships with the 16 fellows I was onboarding, and this helped me learn from them, and support them better too. I also felt a lack of understanding of BRL's project history, successes, and failures due to inadequate documentation. However, I gained most of that information during my qualitative interviews with past employees and alumni. BRL's great culture that foster healthy relationships at work was very helpful in learning from colleagues from other departments. Their structured onboarding program also helped me build lasting relationships and work productively.

My experience at Blue Ridge Labs @ Robin Hood Foundation was extremely insightful and a rare opportunity to utilize my previous experiences in technology and partnerships to practice my current area of study – public health.I achieved that goal in two ways. First, in BRL's fellowship program, I was able to use the learnings from public health coursework to drive community-centered and community-driven research to enable founders to create tech-enabled products for the community. I also used my past technology experience to uniquely think of innovative solutions for low-income communities that are usually under-served when it comes to tech-products. I also able to think critically and consciously about inclusion and equity in tech-products. Second, I was able to partner with nonprofits as a part of the GRIT program, and learn the strengths and opportunities in the nonprofit sector. I was able to understand the priorities of metrics-driven giving organizations such as the Robin Hood Foundation, as well as the capabilities and the constraints that grant-seeking organizations such as the nonprofits and community-based organizations work under.

I was able to interview some incredible social entrepreneurs and learn how to improve BRL's Fellowship program to further its impact. Similarly, I was also given the opportunity to interview and learn from many successful nonprofits that have partnered with Robin Hood Foundation in the last many years.

Overall, I found this experience to be very rewarding, and it tied in well with my own personal and professional goals. After graduating from Mailman School of Public Health, I want to pursue a career in the philanthropy sector in the United States as program manager. This internship offered me the opportunity to learn and gain exposure to several programs, program officers, grant-making strategies, and learnings from a US perspective. Additionally, it allowed me to build networks and relationships that can support my journey forward. I am also excited to utilize these experiences in my future courses such as program planning and evaluation at the school of public health.