Sushma Raman

Sushma Raman

107 Subscribers

Philanthropic & Social Change Strategist

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Sushma Raman will help you transform your strategy & leadership

Sushma Raman is a social change strategist with three decades of experience at the intersection of philanthropy, human rights, and nonprofit leadership. She is currently the Waldemar A. Nielsen Fellow in Philanthropy at Georgetown University's Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership, and founder of Sitara LLC, a strategic advisory practice. She served as Executive Director of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School, Program Officer at the Ford and Open Society Foundations, and President of a family foundation and philanthropic association. Sushma is the co-author of two books — The Coming Good Society (Harvard University Press, 2020) and Holding Together (New Press, 2022) — and has taught at Harvard, Tufts, UCLA, and USC.

Previously at
Harvard University
Ford Foundation
Open Society Foundations
UCLA
USC

Alumni reviews

Genuinely useful. Walked away with a sharper read on the fundraising landscape and a few real things to put into practice.

Selim

June 2026
Director of Communications and Development · CAIDP
This was an excellent overview of some of the major trends in social justice philanthropy today by a leading expert with very significant experience in the field.
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Louie

June 2026
Co-founder and Co-convenor of the ARCS Roundtable · ARCS Roundtable
Fantastic workshop that gave me a great overview of the current trends. Thank you!
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Tamaryn

June 2026
Legal Advisor · Amnesty International
Sushma was very knowledgeable and gave good feedback. I would take another class taught by her.
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Karen

Cohort 1
President/CEO/RN/LSW · Another Perspective of Life Inc
I learned so much in this course from Sushma that I will take with me—more confidently now—into future endeavors. Sushma is incredibly knowledgeable about the nonprofit world and knows how to successfully build an organization's strategy from the ground up. I appreciated her teaching style in the course, where lecture videos were provided beforehand, and classroom time was spent on valuable discussions between all members of the course, collaborations and feedback on fellow students' strategies that they have built with Sushma's guidance, and question-and-answer sessions with Sushma to answer any and all questions about the nonprofit space and developing a strategy that will bring both meaning and attention to your organization. This course was useful for someone who is at any stage of their nonprofit work, from those who are starting a nonprofit from scratch and seeking help with the initial basics, to those who have entered leadership roles at established nonprofits and are looking to build or reframe the organization's strategy. I learned so much from this course and would certainly return for other courses provided by Sushma in the future.
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Ali

Cohort 1
Director of Communications · Harvard University