GROW+ | Climate. Communities. Capacity

[Nafisa]

Hello, this is our very first update on Grove and we look forward to engaging with the Grove community!

About Us:
We are GROW+, a climate-intelligent, community-first, capacity-strengthening initiative rooted in the realities of the Global South.

GROW+ channels flexible, unrestricted funding to local actors, bridging grassroots realities with funder ecosystems and helps embed bioregional thinking into mainstream philanthropy.

Here’s a short film on how GROW+ came to life—and where it’s headed.

GROW+: The next layer in the architecture of resilience

The Beginning

In 2021, as grassroots organizations fought hard to stay afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemic, EdelGive Foundation, along with a coalition of other funders and sector leaders, recognised a hard truth: philanthropy needs to evolve from funding only programmes to investing in organisational resilience.

That year, GROW (Grassroots Resilience Ownership and Wellness) was launched to support 100 nonprofits across India, helping them rebuild institutional capacity. GROW provided flexible funding to strengthen core systems like financial resilience, human resource strengthening, and technology adoption as critical areas for capacity building.

The program demonstrated that when nonprofits are empowered to invest in core organizational needs, they build the skills and resources necessary to address complex challenges.

GROW to GROW+

GROW proved that trust, flexibility, and institutional investment build resilient organisations. Launched in 2025, GROW+ retains this foundation while expanding it with climate intelligence and networked, place-based approaches. The result is a progression from organisational strength to collective, climate-responsive effectiveness.

GROW+ does this through a landscape approach.

Landscape Approach

India’s vast ecological diversity means climate challenges manifest differently across regions and demand differentiated responses. Organisations must adopt context-specific approaches while learning from peers across landscapes.

To address this, GROW+ works through six distinct landscapes:

The Himalayan Mountains. 2. The Northern Plains. 3. Indian Desert. 4. Peninsular Plateau. 5. Coastal Plains. 6. Islands.

Each landscape has smart pyramids.

Each identified landscape has cohorts of grassroots 10+ NGOs supported by experienced Anchor organizations who facilitate capacity building through knowledge-sharing, collaborative learning, and climate-focused strategic discourse. The design allows replication across geographies and channels resources directly to grassroots organizations.

EdelGive Foundation, together with Rainmatter Foundation and other funders, is building GROW+ to strengthen a robust ecosystem of grassroots organisations responding to the climate crisis. Rainmatter’s engagement—dating back to GROW—enables organisations to build resilient, adaptive institutions and translate local climate realities into community-led action.

[Nafisa]

The place-first approach of GROW+ is realised through smart pyramids, where anchor NGOs work with cohorts of partner non-profits within the same landscape. Anchors bring wider reach and varied experience, while partners contribute deep local connections and understanding of in-place challenges — together building knowledge networks that strengthen climate prediction, preparedness, and response.

In the peninsular plateau region, Partnering Hope into Action (PHIA) Foundation is anchoring a network comprising 18 grassroots partners across 5 states (Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). For nearly two decades, PHIA has championed the rights of marginalized communities, fuelling their quest for resilience, and sustainable futures.

Johnson Topno, Executive Director, speaking on trust and humanity as the foundation of PHIA.

PHIA’s work spans access to essential services, reducing inequality and bridging gender gaps, strengthening sustainable livelihoods, and advancing humanitarian response and climate resilience through community-led development across rural and underserved regions.

The organization’s work in strengthening local self-governance systems like gram sabhas (village council) so that communities become the drivers of their own development, has helped them build connections across government systems, funder and community ecosystems. PHIA has helped strengthen implementation of Forest Rights Act, working closely with the Tribal Welfare Commissioner’s Office, CSOs and communities, securing individual as well as community forest rights. Till now, 22.10 million acres of Individual Forest Claims and 222.7 million acres of Community Forest Claims have been secured across Jharkhand.

Shanti, a member of the local women’s self-help group and the gram sabha in Jharkhand, India, speaks at a community gathering.

For example, in Upper Dumri, a deeply forested village in Jharkhand, PHIA supported the local Adivasi community in their seven-year journey to secure Community Forest Resource (CFR). Illegal timber trade had ravaged the local forests. After the community was recognised as the official custodians of the forest they have lived in for generations in 2024, the village gram sabha planned protection and utilization of resources mindfully.

Stewarded by the Gram Sabha, the community now sustainably manages resources, protects native biodiversity, and bolsters livelihoods grounded in traditional ecological knowledge. Women have risen as key leaders, defending forests and resisting exploitation of vital tree species like char, amla, and kendu.

PHIA has fuelled this triumph by building local leadership, streamlining CFR documentation, liaising with authorities, and equipping communities to assert their rights confidently.

Their journey — from empowering communities to pioneering forest rights — fuels our shared mission of resilient ecosystems, empowered communities, and grassroots climate action, making them a natural anchor for GROW+.

In our next post, we move from the Peninsular Plateau to the Indian Desert, where GROW+ Anchor Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS) demonstrates how smart pyramids foster resilience, self-reliance, and community-led climate action across the fragile ecosystems of the Thar.

Leena Chauhan from GRAVIS and Archana Toppo from PHIA lead the capacity building initiatives for their Pyramids.

[Nafisa]

As a part of GROW+, Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS) is anchoring a network of 16 grassroots partners in the Indian Desert Landscape. Presently, GRAVIS and its 16 GROW+ network partners are working towards climate actions across four states — Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. For over four decades, GRAVIS has worked alongside rural communities in the Thar Desert, equipping them to respond to water scarcity, food insecurity, and climate vulnerability, and to build sustainable futures.

GRAVIS, PHIA, grassroots partners and EdelGive Foundation teams at a partners’ convening.

Founded in 1983 by a group of Gandhian development activists, GRAVIS is guided by the philosophy of Sarvodaya — “all rising, but the last person first.” The organization focuses on strengthening self-reliance through community participation, sustainable resource management, and inclusive development across more than 2,000 villages, supporting nearly 2.7 million people.

Rajendra Kumar, Program Coordinator, GRAVIS at a partners’ convening earlier this year.

One of the clearest expressions of this work is the revival of traditional water harvesting systems across the desert landscape. For generations, communities in the Thar have relied on indigenous structures — taankas, naadis, khadins, and beris — to capture and store water from scarce rainfall. Recognising the value of these time-tested practices, GRAVIS has worked with communities to restore and strengthen them, blending traditional knowledge with modern approaches to water conservation.

Through these efforts, GRAVIS has facilitated the construction of more than 12000 taankas, nearly 8,000 khadins, more than 800 village ponds, and 700 percolation wells, benefiting over 2,50,000 households with water, agriculture, horticulture and livestock rearing activities These interventions have not only improved access to water but have also strengthened food security, supported livelihoods, and increased communities’ ability to withstand droughts and climate shocks.

A ‘beri’, a shallow percolation well used for rain-water harvesting, built with support from GRAVIS in Rajasthan

Beyond environmental resilience, GRAVIS has invested deeply in community well-being — through medical camps, healthcare programmes, leadership development, and the establishment of more than - 4000 Community Based Organizations. Among these, currently GRAVIS is working with 1100 Village Development Committees and over 2,000 women’s Self-Help Groups, 460 Village Older People Associations, and over 200 Intergenerational Learning Groups. These platforms have created lasting structures for collective action and local decision-making, rooted in community ownership and inclusive participation across age, gender, and social background.

Their journey — from reviving traditional water systems and strengthening local institutions to empowering communities across one of India’s most climate-vulnerable landscapes — makes them a natural anchor for GROW+.

In our next post, we return to the beginning of the story — to Jodhpur in August 2025, where a shared commitment to resilience, collaboration, and community-led climate action took its first steps.