Case Study: Quest Alliance

© Quest Alliance

Regional and Philanthropic Context

The policy landscape in India in recent years has shaped Quest Alliance’s work. The 2020 National Education Policy accelerated the shift toward holistic, future-ready learning within government education systems. This aligned closely with our focus on 21st-century skills and enabled deeper engagement in curriculum design, policy development, and systemic reform.

In parallel, India’s growing emphasis on becoming a global manufacturing hub increased focus on vocational training and youth workforce development. This has expanded our role to include technical advisory support to government and contributions to policy shifts at scale.

At the same time, the philanthropic landscape in India and globally has also been volatile. COVID-19 spurred abundant giving to nonprofits, recognizing them as first responders. However, amendments to India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act restricted the use of foreign funds for sub-granting, cutting off support for many organizations and forcing them to seek local funding.

Looking ahead, Corporate Social Responsibility budgets continue to grow, though proximity requirements and reporting constraints remain. Meanwhile, high-net-worth individuals are increasingly philanthropic, creating new opportunities, but many organizations still face challenges accessing this emerging pool of support.

Navigating Change: The Role of the Scott Grant

The MacKenzie Scott grant arrived at a moment when we were shaping our next five-year strategy. With major shifts underway in India’s education and skilling landscape, and in our own evolution, we had identified several areas where flexible, catalytic capital was essential but often difficult to secure. These included investing in innovation, experimenting and learning through pilots, building long-term fixed assets, strengthening our digital platforms, and building a strong second and third line of leadership as we crossed the 15-year mark.

The Scott grant enabled us to make these foundational investments, including supporting core costs, nurturing leadership, strengthening teams, and accelerating our ability to build platforms and approaches for the future. It provided us with the breathing room and flexibility to prepare us for our next phase of impact.

Strategies for Maximizing Impact & Insights for the Field

As we began shaping our next five-year strategy, the Scott grant provided crucial support. It enabled long-term, transformative investments rather than incremental growth. The funding supported our leadership development and strengthened our organizational systems. It also helped establish the Quest Learning Observatory, a community space built on principles of regeneration with a 10–15-year vision to reimagine thinking and shape discourse, practice, and systems of change.

Our experience demonstrates the true power of transformative philanthropy—enabling organizations to think in decades, not quarters; to build infrastructure for the future and cultivate the conditions for deep, lasting change.

Across the Global South, uncertainty and crisis are increasingly the norms. Meaningful responses require civil society to have flexibility, imagination, and trust. Trust-based philanthropy provides the room to experiment, try new approaches, build dialogue, and pivot based on community needs.

To funders and peers seeking to strengthen trust-based philanthropic practices in your region, we would say this: it is natural to wonder whether trust-based philanthropy “really works”—where the money goes, what exactly it enables, and what outcomes follow. But if you look at the journeys of organizations supported through the Scott grants, a clear pattern emerges: stronger institutions, deeper impact, and accelerated progress over time.

Ultimately, the true value lies not in whether a single line item produced a specific result, but in whether the organization and its mission grew stronger. Strong organizations will create a strong impact. Trust-based philanthropy needs to look at the non-linear, long arc of change. That is its power—and the message we hope our peers take forward.

© Quest Alliance