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In the tribal villages of rural Maharashtra, the arrival of the monsoon once meant baskets of freshly harvested millets in every home. These hardy, nutrient-rich grains sustained families for generations, keeping them fed and healthy. But today, shifting rainfall patterns and the loss of native seeds are threatening not just the harvest, but a way of life.

‘Pragati Abhiyan’, a Nasik-based nonprofit, is working to bring these grains — and the nutrition they carry — back into local diets. “Any solution or resilience-building effort must be tailored to meet the specific needs of these communities,” says Pranay Karuna, Associate Director at Dasra, a Mumbai-based philanthropic foundation.

“This means protecting indigenous knowledge, native seeds, and natural resources. From planning to execution, the work must consider all the different challenges these communities face. By focusing on farming and building local resilience, Pragati Abhiyan connects the effects of climate change with social inequalities and shows why solutions must be tailored to local needs.”

For Dasra, this approach is not new. Over the past 25 years, the foundation — co-founded by Neera Nundy and Deval Sanghavi — has directed more than $330 million toward social causes, supported over 1,500 nonprofits, and positively impacted approximately 170 million lives. One of its most effective strategies has been to build alliances with like-minded organisations.

From the 10to19 Alliance, which empowers adolescents, especially girls, to make positive life choices, to the National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (NFSSM) Alliance, which works with governments and municipalities to address liquid waste, collaboration has often been at the heart of Dasra’s work.

It was while working within the NFSSM Alliance that Dasra began to notice significant intersections with climate action. “Our work on faecal sludge and septic management also meant tackling problems like methane emissions and building urban resilience,” Pranay recalls. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, and poorly managed faecal sludge releases a large amount of it. “This made our partner organisations suggest creating a collaborative effort to address the bigger issue of climate action.”

To explore this, Dasra spoke with 40–50 organisations in its network that were working in climate-adjacent areas, seeking to understand what a dedicated climate alliance could look like. They already knew how to build alliances, but they wanted to hear directly from partners about priorities within the climate space.

What emerged from these conversations was the ‘ClimateRISE Alliance’ (CRA), launched in early 2023. Bringing together civil society organisations, think tanks, intermediary groups, and funders, the CRA aims to shape “an India view” on intersectional climate action, create a common vocabulary, and enable multi-stakeholder engagement for the most vulnerable communities. A design grant from the Rainmatter Foundation supported its establishment. Today, about 70 organisations are part of the CRA, with Dasra serving as its secretariat.

From solo efforts to a common table

One of the first organisations to join the CRA was ‘Janaagraha’, a Bengaluru-based nonprofit that has spent the last two decades working to improve the quality of life in Indian cities by collaborating with residents, governments, and urban local bodies.

“Our organisation has been part of the CRA since its........

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