Accepting that you can only do so much | Nisha Subramaniam

How much is too much? Reflecting on this question is Nisha Subramaniam, one of the four co-founders of Kanavu, an education nonprofit working in rural Tamil Nadu. On today’s episode, Nisha talks about an online initiative they launched to meet the needs of the community during COVID-19. She shares how their failure to think through the feasibility of the project ended up stretching the team too thin and almost jeopardised the future of their organisation.

Nisha Subramaniam is the co-founder of Kanavu, a nonprofit that leads efforts in education and community development in rural Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu. She also runs a social enterprise, Sura, which trains and recruits rural women to stitch affordable lifestyle products for a global audience. Deeply passionate about elementary education, gender, and leadership, she believes that challenging the current status quo lies at the intersection of these themes.

Read more:

1. Read Nisha Subramaniam’s story on Failure Files.
2. Read more failure stories on Failure Files.
3. Check out some ideas and tools from Fail Forward to help your organisation take risks, learn, adapt, and fail intelligently.
4. Understand why the social sector must recognise and talk about failure.
5. Learn why talking about failure is crucial for growth.

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The Failure Files podcast is produced by India Development Review (IDR), an online journal focused on the development sector. IDR publishes cutting-edge ideas, lessons, and insights, written by and for the people working on some of India’s toughest problems. To learn more, visit www.idronline.org