Shruti Garg, NLA Board Treasurer (she/her)
Shruti Garg’s passions and purpose were tied to philanthropy before she even knew it: “My first internship was at a local foundation supporting immigrant communities here in LA. I didn’t know what philanthropy was, and I didn’t understand that the work that I enjoyed doing was through philanthropy.”
Even still, that formative experience brought her values into sharp focus. The daughter of immigrants herself, she always searched for what she calls “points of connection” between her experience and the people she was volunteering to serve. It was a connection that only intensified as she came of age in a post-9/11 world.
After college, she found more points of connection when she landed an internship in India with an organization called Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action. A six-month internship turned into a two-and-a-half-year work experience working with women and youth to develop the leadership skills needed to achieve social change.
By the time she returned to the United States, she was ready to learn more about how to make a nonprofit run efficiently and make an impact. She gained nonprofit management skills working as a program associate at Open Society Foundations, a membership engagement director at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and eventually senior associate at the Nonprofit Finance Fund. The experience she now leverages as a consultant in nonprofit finance, organizational development, and change management was seeded in these foundational roles.
Now, Shruti works as a program officer at the James Irvine Foundation, in addition to her independent consulting practice focused on capacity building and nonprofit management. As a board member, what excites her most about working with NLA is its coordinated approach to helping organizations build progressive power. “I’m passionate about supporting organizations to strengthen their systems and infrastructure to do their best work authentically and to be recognized for it.”
Shruti graduated from Smith College and received her Master of Public Policy from the University of Southern California.
