Fridays 10:00am - 11:00am (EDT)
EPISODE SUMMARY:
In this powerful episode of Philanthropy in Phocus, Tommy D, the Nonprofit Sector Connector, sits down with Kavita Mehra, Executive Director of Sakhi for South Asian Survivors of Gender-Based Violence, for an honest, vulnerable, and inspiring conversation about what it means to build a life of service and stand with survivors. From her working-class Jersey roots and 100-hour weeks in her mother’s Hallmark store, to frontline overnight shelter work, to being fired from a fundraising role and coming back stronger, Kavita shares how every step of her journey shaped the leader she is today.
Kavita opens up about being a survivor herself, the loneliness of navigating class and identity as an Indian American woman, and how those lived experiences inform her leadership at Sakhi. She and Tommy dig into the realities of direct service vs. development, the importance of professionalizing the nonprofit sector, and why fundraising is really about storytelling, connection, and aligning passion with resources. Along the way, they talk about the Imagine Awards, sector stress, and why small groups of committed people truly can change the world.
You’ll also hear how Sakhi has grown from a small organization with a modest budget into a $7M+ movement hub with a 50-person team, offering holistic, in-house support for survivors across the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean diaspora: a helpline and text line, safety planning, immigration and family law support, trauma-informed counseling, housing assistance, culturally specific food access, economic empowerment, job coaching, and more. Kavita and Tommy emphasize that survivors are the agents of change in their own lives – Sakhi’s role is to clear barriers so they can safely make their own choices. They close with a call to action to support Sakhi or your local gender-based violence organization, because this work is truly life-and-death and impacts every community.
If you or someone you know may be experiencing gender-based violence and needs support:
Sakhi for South Asian Survivors
🌐 Website: SAKHI.org
📞 Helpline: 212-868-6741
📲 Text: 305-204-1808
A trained team member will respond as quickly as possible to support with safety planning, crisis response, and next steps.
⚠️ If you are in immediate danger, please call 911 or your local emergency number first.
🎙️ Show: Philanthropy in Phocus (with a PH!)
👤 Host: Tommy DiMisa, The Nonprofit Sector Connector
🌐 TalkRadio.NYC – Uplift. Educate. Empower.
👉 Learn more, donate, or get involved: SAKHI.org
👉 Support your local gender-based violence / anti-violence organization – this is one of the most important issues of our time, and everyone is impacted.
#PhilanthropyInPhocus #Sakhi #EndGenderBasedViolence #NonprofitLeadership #SurvivorCentered #SouthAsianCommunity #DomesticViolenceAwareness
Tommy D kicks off the episode by celebrating the nonstop energy of the nonprofit world—from supporting organizations through his work at Vanguard Benefits to championing public access media and the upcoming Long Island Imagine Awards. He welcomes guest Kavita Mehra of Sakhi for South Asian Survivors, highlighting how Imagine Awards networking helped spotlight her organization’s powerful mission serving survivors of gender-based violence. Their conversation sets the stage for a deep dive into Kavita’s lifelong commitment to service, reminding nonprofits—and those who love supporting them—how leadership, lived experience, and community connection fuel real change in the sector.
Tommy D weaves his love of conscious hip-hop, neurodivergent creativity, and Imagine Awards stories into a powerful reminder that nonprofits are driven by grit, heart, and big, audacious goals—like his own dream of 5,000 episodes amplifying nonprofit voices. He and Kavita Mehra of Sakhi highlight how true leadership in the sector comes from lived experience, whether that’s surviving violence, grinding through 100-hour retail weeks, or learning to translate those skills into development, fundraising, and organizational scale. Together, they underscore that development is really about storytelling and connection—using every lived experience, every conversation, and every relationship to invite donors, allies, and community members to “watch us” as we change the world.
In this segment, Tommy D and Kavita Mehra of Sakhi for South Asian Survivors talk about scaling impact—from creating a national umbrella, South Asian SOAR, to imagining a broader footprint for survivor-centered organizations across the country. Kavita shares how Sakhi has grown from a small $800,000 nonprofit with 12 staff and one office to a $7 million organization with about 50 team members, reserves, and major national grants—showing what’s possible when vision, community trust, and smart development work come together. They also reflect on the years when Sakhi was on the brink of closing and was saved by a “small group of thoughtful, committed” supporters giving their time, talent, and treasure, reminding nonprofits and their champions that individual choices and advocacy can ripple out to change countless lives.
In this closing segment, Tommy D and Kavita Mehra spotlight Sakhi’s survivor-centered, wraparound approach—offering safety planning, legal and immigration support, mental health counseling, housing, food access, and economic empowerment so survivors of gender-based violence can make their own empowered choices. They emphasize that this is truly life-and-death work, and that economic barriers should never be the reason someone stays in a dangerous situation, especially as public funding for anti-violence services continues to shrink. Kavita invites listeners to support Sakhi’s upcoming May 1, 2026 gala at the Glass House or to back their local gender-based violence organization, while Tommy urges everyone to visit SAKHI.org to learn more, donate, and stand with the nonprofits doing this critical frontline work.
00:00:47.770 --> 00:00:48.529Tommy DiMisa: Back your boy.00:00:49.610 --> 00:00:55.809
Tommy DiMisa: Your boy is back, the one and only, the kid. I say El Nino when I say it in Spanish. The non-profit sector.
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Tommy DiMisa: connector. Not exactly coming to you from the top of my house, just below the roof in the attic. It's a bit of a roadshow, although this is my office, but we're gonna… I gotta rewrite the song, we gotta rewrite the lyrics. Uncle Brendan Levy at the Queens Chamber of Commerce, we gotta rewrite the theme song, because Tommy D's gonna not do the show from the attic so much anymore, but we are in the office.
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Tommy DiMisa: Shout out to my team over here at Vanguard Benefits. We are an employee benefits agency, do a lot of work in the nonprofit sector, supporting nonprofit organizations, both on the side of helping them attract and retain talent through benefit strategies, but also all the work we do philanthropically. My guest and I were just chatting, and we both have a bit of the raspy voice on a Friday morning, because it is,
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Tommy DiMisa: I guess it's the time of year when we are out there doing anything and everything we can
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Tommy DiMisa: to support organizations, to tell the good work, to tell the good stories, and that's, like, fortunately, what is the nonprofit sector connector, I get to do all the time, man. I get to… last night, I was at North Shore TV, where I'll be this afternoon doing a couple of shows, but it was Community Media Day, so we had a bunch of people there. We were doing a little bit of networking.
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Tommy DiMisa: Talking about the importance of public access television, and North Shore TV's been a great partner for Tommy D, and
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Tommy DiMisa: Hashtag ending the stigma Together, and Long Island Changemakers, and obviously all the other cool stuff that they helped me out with. So let's get into today's show.
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Tommy DiMisa: One thing I gotta shoot out there for everybody to know is we are, like, 48 hours away from the deadline, as this is live, you know, on Friday morning, next Monday, the deadline for the applications for the Long Island Imagine Awards. So, you know, go to ImagineAwardsLi.com if you have any programs or services as a nonprofit that serve people in Nassar and Suffolk County, or you are located in
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Tommy DiMisa: Nassau or Suffolk County, do work out here on the island, make sure you get those applications in. The deadline for those applications is midnight on next Monday. And then we, as the committee, get to read all those applications, which is
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Tommy DiMisa: Definitely a very cool part of the process, but an even cooler part of the process is once we get to the semi-final round, we get to interview the semi-finalists. We get to do these one-on-one interviews, which is how I got to learn about this important organization and my guest.
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Tommy DiMisa: Gavita Mara. I'm doing my best. I've been practicing Kavita so many times since we've worked out.
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Kavita Mehra: You're doing great.
00:03:21.970 --> 00:03:23.240Tommy DiMisa: I appreciate it.00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:43.470
Tommy DiMisa: Saki for South Asian Survivors. The name of today's show, actually, is Inheriting the Power of All Survivors. You know, your boy's always about having fun, but you know what? There are serious challenges going on on this planet, and there are serious things we need to talk about. So, today, we're going to have those discussions. Just to finish that one piece.
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Tommy DiMisa: I met my guest through the process of the New York City Imagine Awards because, the organization and Cavita were finalists in the… were semi-finalists, and, Capita was a finalist in the
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Tommy DiMisa: leadership excellence category, so we got a couple minutes to hang out together at the event. So, first of all, before you get into anything, what'd you think of being involved with the New York City Imagine Awards? What'd you think of that?
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Kavita Mehra: Oh, it was great. I mean, it was such an amazing opportunity.
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Kavita Mehra: To bring together so many, leaders across the sector, and firstly, thank you for having me, Tommy D. I really appreciate being on your show and uplifting the work that we do at Sucky, but the New York City Imagine Awards clearly is doing something so different for the sector, and it's refreshing at a time in which we're seeing the sector
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Kavita Mehra: just experience such increased stress, to celebrate the work, the joy, and the progress that the sector makes for the community in New York City is pretty outstanding.
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Tommy DiMisa: Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that. It's a compliment that, really, I appreciate as a committee member. It wasn't my brainchild, it was certainly the brainchild of Ken Cerini, my buddy, my friend, my collaborator in so many different ways. I mean, we founded the Nonprofit Resource Hub together with some other partners, but the event coming up, gang, is…
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Tommy DiMisa: going to be April 28th, 2026, that's the Long Island Imagine Awards. Kapate, right here on the show. I'd love for you to be my guest that evening from 5.30 to 9.30. You have it, we got a table at 10, you're the first person I'm inviting. I would love to have you there.
00:05:13.940 --> 00:05:14.420Kavita Mehra: Excuse me.00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:32.609
Tommy DiMisa: And if there's somebody on your team you want to bring, or somebody else in your life you want to bring, welcome to do it. So we'll take that offline. But that event, gang, listen, 3 days, 13 hours, 54 minutes, now it's 53 minutes and 59 seconds. It's literally a clock ticking down, so hurry up, get your applications in. Now we get into the show.
00:05:32.870 --> 00:05:34.110Tommy DiMisa: As I say.00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:43.879
Tommy DiMisa: there are very important challenges, things going on in this world right now. We talked very slightly just before we got started, but I really want to hear about
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Tommy DiMisa: your journey into the nonprofit sector, your journey into this work that you're doing. I look back on LinkedIn, and I see you studied gender studies undergrad at NYU, gender studies and history, South Asian Studies.
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Tommy DiMisa: at Columbia University, right? On and on, in the work, right? We talk about that a lot, being in the work.
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Tommy DiMisa: this is one of those things I feel like maybe you didn't know you were going to become a nonprofit leader, but you were going to be in this work, and maybe that's how it all translated out. But guess what? I don't need to guess, because you're gonna tell me the story, and we're gonna learn about
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Tommy DiMisa: how that all happened. So please, take it away, let's talk about this. Obviously, we're going to get into Saki and what sake does for survivors, but I want to hear the story, please.
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Kavita Mehra: what led me into this work? Yeah, it's a great question. So…
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Kavita Mehra: you know, I grew up working class, Jersey.
00:06:41.440 --> 00:06:43.330Kavita Mehra: And…00:06:43.550 --> 00:06:54.149
Kavita Mehra: when I was in university, I knew that I wanted to do something sort of out of the box at that time with my life. I knew I wanted to live a life of service.
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Kavita Mehra: And I was toying with the idea of either pursuing a PhD
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Kavita Mehra: for, working in the nonprofit sector. I knew pretty, actually, early on.
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Kavita Mehra: And in 2002, I was an intern at Sucky.
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Kavita Mehra: It was my third year at NYU.
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Kavita Mehra: And I spent the fall semester here.
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Kavita Mehra: And I remember seeing our former executive director, Purvisal, speak at our gala. We used to do our gala in the fall at that time versus the spring.
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Kavita Mehra: And I turned to my then-boyfriend, now-husband.
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Kavita Mehra: And I said to him, I want to be the next Porvisha. And he said to me, no, you're going to be the next cub at the Mara.
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Kavita Mehra: And I have… wanted this job since I was… 21 years old.
00:07:38.940 --> 00:07:39.610Tommy DiMisa: Omar.00:07:39.610 --> 00:07:40.180Kavita Mehra: Ugh.00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.140
Kavita Mehra: And I had applied for it twice.
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Kavita Mehra: The first time, I didn't even get an interview.
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Kavita Mehra: the second time I did, and they were… I don't know how, but they hired me, in 2017. After my internship at Sucky, I went to work at an organization that's called now Womankind, but I was previously called New York Asian Women's Center.
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Kavita Mehra: I was on… I was an intern at their development team, but then, right after college, for about two and a half years, I worked on the program side.
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Kavita Mehra: And I had a caseload, and I worked overnight in its residential facility from 7pm to 7am.
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Kavita Mehra: And I did that shift 3-4 nights a week, so it was a full-time job, and then during the day, I would go to graduate school.
00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:26.860Kavita Mehra: at Columbia.00:08:27.330 --> 00:08:32.530
Kavita Mehra: Because, again, I grew up working class, and so I didn't have mommy and daddy paying for my…
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Kavita Mehra: Graduate school education.
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Kavita Mehra: And I was still thinking, do I want to get a PhD, do I not? And then I remember the distinct moment where I was like, there is no way I'm going to pursue a PhD, and that was at Columbia.
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Kavita Mehra: And that's when I knew… it crystallized for me that I wanted to be only in the nonprofit sector. I've spent the last nearly 25 years of my life in the sector, which is… I had a really bad intake.
00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:56.369Kavita Mehra: The night before.00:08:57.020 --> 00:09:05.620
Kavita Mehra: And this woman had come in from a really horrific, and I'll spare you all the details, case, and she came in with her children, and it was a very public case, it was actually in the media.
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Kavita Mehra: And I did her intake, and it was so clear the brutality that she had experienced, the violence that she… and the trauma that her and her family had endured.
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Kavita Mehra: I got them settled in, went the night, left the shelter at 7am, got to class around 10 or 11, I can't remember, but it was early in the morning.
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Kavita Mehra: And I just remember how disconnected
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Kavita Mehra: that classroom experience was, from the reality I had seen the night before.
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Kavita Mehra: And I could not imagine my life being in that ivory tower. Now, no shade to anyone who is in academia, because it informs a lot of my political consciousness now, in how I think about the work.
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Kavita Mehra: But who I am, and how I grew up, and the fact that I just know I like to get my hands really dirty, and I like to be in it.
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Kavita Mehra: And service is super important to me.
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Kavita Mehra: that was the moment I was like, no, this is gonna be my career, this is gonna be my life's work, and so it literally has been.
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Tommy DiMisa: fork in the road, right? Two paths, and that was it. It was no… there was no going back, yeah?
00:10:07.910 --> 00:10:09.230Kavita Mehra: Yep, that was it.00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:26.859
Tommy DiMisa: Wow. So, take us through… so you're doing all this work while you're in school, right? You're impacted and connected to the service work. Obviously, that was a theme that you always had about service. I jotted that down, too. Live a life of service, you said, and that's critically important, and that's the people
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Tommy DiMisa: Folks, listen, not everybody's gonna be that way, and I'm not here to change the entire world. I'm here to spend time with the people who want to be the world changers, and who, you know, like, some folks are just gonna be about capitalism, and about the money, and not care about people, and I'm not trying to throw shade either. However, there are folks that are all about service, and those are the people that I like to highlight. I want to talk about, you know, so you had the internship at Saki
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Tommy DiMisa: There's other steps in your journey at other organizations, so let's kind of go down that path that you took as you moved through your career before you got this role that you wanted.
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Kavita Mehra: 20-some-odd years prior to taking it on.
00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:11.899Kavita Mehra: Yeah, so I.00:11:12.340 --> 00:11:15.080
Tommy DiMisa: You know, after my time at New York Asian Women's Center.
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Kavita Mehra: I… I… again, like, I… my working class experience really shapes who I am, and it's…
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Kavita Mehra: Just to put this in context.
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Kavita Mehra: Indian Americans, not the overall demographic of South Asians, but Indian Americans are actually the wealthiest immigrant demographic in the United States. So, there is a loneliness that I have navigated through as a result of just being working class. My family came to the United States in 1977.
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Kavita Mehra: My parents still live in the house that I grew up in, in Central Jersey.
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Kavita Mehra: I wanted to be and learn from an organization where class political consciousness was, like, at the ethos of its work.
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Kavita Mehra: So, from… from my time at what's now called Womankind, I moved to…
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Kavita Mehra: Taxi Workers Alliance, where I was there for nearly 3 years, and I was… I was the benefits coordinator and… and was engaged in a lot of political organizing. I was part of the 2008 strikes, and people might know the work of TWA now because of, Mayor-elect Mamdani.
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Kavita Mehra: Who, was standing in solidarity during the hunger strikes with TWA, and I think the leader of Taxi Workers Alliance, Beiravid Desai, is a brilliant visionary who believes in bringing together people to enact change.
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Kavita Mehra: And I learned a lot there. It was a tremendous experience. But I did not have the language back then to name what I can name now, which is…
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Kavita Mehra: I had been doing direct service work up until that point for about 7 years, and I was also healing from a tremendous… and I was in the thick of a lot of family trauma.
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Kavita Mehra: I'm a survivor of violence, and…
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Kavita Mehra: it was extremely complicated for me, and I realized that I wanted to be in the nonprofit sector, but being in direct service work was not the right place for me. And it still isn't, so I transitioned to fundraising and development, and it was a hard transition.
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Kavita Mehra: Because I had… there's no… there's no playbook for it. And unless I went to a school like Wagner, which, you know, I sometimes kick myself for not doing that, I did not have the professional chops to say, okay, I can easily transition into fundraising.
00:13:38.470 --> 00:13:39.010Kavita Mehra: Absolutely.00:13:39.010 --> 00:13:50.210
Tommy DiMisa: Stay there a second. I want to interrupt you just to stay there a second, so let's reference… that reference of Wagner, why would Wagner be somewhere that would be important to kind of inform the work on the development side or the fundraising side?
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Kavita Mehra: Well, I think it supports the professionalization of the sector, right? And we don't often talk enough about that, right? We talk about how social workers go to school for their professionalizations. Lawyers do.
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Kavita Mehra: doctors do, right? But we don't credit the work that nonprofit professionals have, and the background and the skill set, and also the refinement that can happen through a leading institution like that.
00:14:17.520 --> 00:14:18.750Kavita Mehra: That's perfect.00:14:18.940 --> 00:14:20.710
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Kavita Mehra: So, from… from there, I transitioned to development, and that was… it was tricky,
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Kavita Mehra: And I learned a lot. I know that we probably need to break soon. We're good?
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Tommy DiMisa: We're good, we're good, we're good. Keep going. We'll go, we'll do that when we're ready. Keep going.
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Kavita Mehra: Oh, good, okay, great.
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Kavita Mehra: I went to Easterseals, New York, which is a statewide organization, and actually has a presence in Long Island. And I was on the marketing and communications side. I had never worked on a development team.
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Kavita Mehra: I'd never worked for something so large in terms of a statewide entity. But I got to understand how a strong development shop works. Everything from special events, major gifts, GR, and, marketing comms.
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Kavita Mehra: That was helpful framework for me to then…
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Kavita Mehra: trying to lead a development department at an organization called SAIA. They work with South Asian youth in New York. Serving the Asian American community has been a huge piece of my work, and it's been always super important to me.
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Kavita Mehra: And so there's something that's always just a gravitational pull that's just…
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Kavita Mehra: brought me back, whether it's immigrants, Asian Americans, or something feminist-leaning.
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Kavita Mehra: At SAIA, I was there for a brief period of time. I did not do well. I was… I'm gonna say this publicly, I haven't really shared it publicly, I was fired.
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Kavita Mehra: I was fired for not being able to fundraise, and I did not succeed at that job. I talk about it now all the time because it's…
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Kavita Mehra: It's kind of funny, and it was deeply painful, and we don't talk about our failures enough.
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Tommy DiMisa: It is… so, I've been in the sales profession my entire career, right? And it's very,
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Tommy DiMisa: it's very, like, cut and dry. Like, you bring in the number, you don't bring in the number. It's a pretty… it's a pretty… it's a profession that's just real, right? Like, either you're doing it or you're not. And I've definitely been sacked from several companies over the years in my career, and it's… it is a bitter pill to swallow, but…
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Tommy DiMisa: you know, we grow from that. So, I love that you're… I'll use the word, we're both being a little vulnerable, that that is a real thing. People get fired, and it burns, even if it wasn't the right place to be. Like, even if it's, like, now, when you look back, and you go, oh, I get it, I learned from that, but in it? Oh, man, it's brutal. It's brutal.
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Kavita Mehra: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was angry. And the one thing my husband will tell you, though, is that what I'm,
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Kavita Mehra: I think this probably stems from my early part of life, but, like, when I get really angry, I channel that anger to actually say, listen.
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Kavita Mehra: am a listen person, I realize that we probably can't curse. I'm gonna prove you wrong.
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Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, yeah, watch me.
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Kavita Mehra: Watch me. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Like, just, you think I can't do it, watch me.
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Tommy DiMisa: about that. Yeah, yeah.
00:17:15.940 --> 00:17:16.319Kavita Mehra: Yeah.00:17:16.329 --> 00:17:38.919
Tommy DiMisa: come back. I might tell you a story about that. I am going to tell the story, I'm not going to say who it is, but I'll tell the story. We are going to take a quick break, but I want to dive back into this whole development thing, because as the top officer, as the executive director, the CEO, man, we are… not me personally, I'm a board member in a lot of organizations, but that top officer is, like, I don't want to necessarily say chief development officer, but, like.
00:17:38.919 --> 00:17:46.459
Tommy DiMisa: That's actually front of the story, right? Out there. Big part of the development team. So, the fact that you are programmatic.
00:17:46.459 --> 00:18:09.889
Tommy DiMisa: and development. Had some wins, had some losses, right? Is all the stuff that informs us as we go through these careers. I mean, like you talked about, it's fundraising season. We're out there getting… getting the money. We're out there getting the money, we're out there getting the money so we can fund our programs. We're gonna take a quick break. We come back, we'll dive back into development. I will tell a personal story that is not my story to tell, but I will never tell you who I'm talking about, because
00:18:09.889 --> 00:18:16.929
Tommy DiMisa: You know, it's not my story to tell. We will be right back. The show is Philanthropy and Focus, the nonprofit sector connected. That's your boy, Tommy D. We'll be right back.
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:12.509
Tommy DiMisa: I grew up a hip-hop head, man, but I listened to all types of music, but I feel like we just need to scratch the record there where it says attic, because I'm not in the attic anymore, but I'm not sure what we gotta do. But that is why the show is called Philanthropy in Focus, and Focus is spelled with a PH, because we used to say fat back in the day.
00:20:12.510 --> 00:20:37.180
Tommy DiMisa: And, I've been listening to a lot of Tribe Called Quest lately, and that's really… that's what I grew up on, that music, man, and De La Soul, and I used to love Cypress Hill a lot, too. But Tribe, just that… that conscious hip-hop music. Shout out to Fee Fam and Building Beats, because they were one of the winners at the Imagine Awards. I got the opportunity to interview Fee Fam on this show, and the whole beginning of the show was me just joking with him about his name being
00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:39.240Tommy DiMisa: E-Fam, P-H-I,00:20:39.240 --> 00:21:04.219
Tommy DiMisa: second name, P-H-A-M, and I was like, oh my god, dude, this shows philanthropy and focus. There used to be a guy on the Mets called Tommy Pham. I was, like, collecting all his business cards. My son and I had a joke about it, just because I thought it was so funny and so cool. So this is the type of stuff that goes on in my head. So shout out to all my neurodivergent people, because your boy definitely has got a little bit of the extra on the ADHD side. Thanks, Jesse, for pointing that out, by the way, in the chat. All right, let's get into what I was going to tell. I was going to tell this really
00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:06.759
Tommy DiMisa: quick story about somebody who I'll never tell you who it is.
00:21:06.760 --> 00:21:10.909
Tommy DiMisa: But, this particular person, I got into a program.
00:21:10.910 --> 00:21:34.560
Tommy DiMisa: or was trying to get into a doctorate program and was told by, let's say, the head of the department that, listen, you do not belong here, you cannot hack it here, you will not make it here. This person doubled and tripled down, and when they were asked to do an internship, they didn't do an internship, they did two with an externship on top of it. They traveled around the country, doing work in,
00:21:34.560 --> 00:21:37.420
Tommy DiMisa: I'm gonna be careful about the work. I'll just say in, in,
00:21:37.570 --> 00:21:49.459
Tommy DiMisa: In psychology. So this person just doubled and tripled down, and is a doctor now. And that is because somebody said, like to you, no, you can't do it. And the answer was.
00:21:49.460 --> 00:22:12.459
Tommy DiMisa: Sure, watch me. And I guarantee the words were not just sure, watch me, similar to the words, Kavitza, that you almost used before we went to a break. I say pissed on this show, and that's, like, as far as I go on cursing, but when you know me in real life, I sit… I tend to use some colorful language, right? But, like, on this show, I try to keep it clean, so I appreciate you doing the same. The organization is Saki.
00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:21.130
Tommy DiMisa: The work is all up… it's a nonprofit organization to eradicate gender-based violence in the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean diaspora.
00:22:21.130 --> 00:22:44.409
Tommy DiMisa: Led by and centering on survivors. They provide trauma-informed direct services, actively push for change, and stand as a go-to resource for both allies and advocates. We're gonna get into the work more of the organization shortly, but back to your story. Development, man. Development is critically important, because we can't run organizations without
00:22:44.410 --> 00:22:49.520
Tommy DiMisa: funds, right? Just doesn't work. So, as a leader.
00:22:49.520 --> 00:23:05.110
Tommy DiMisa: and you have programmatic, and you have development experience, doesn't that help you, I've walked in your shoes, I can, you know, not that I have all the answers, but I've done what you're doing, like, when you speak to your team. Can you just speak to that generally, and then maybe even at Saki?
00:23:06.060 --> 00:23:11.840
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, I, I, I think the…
00:23:11.940 --> 00:23:17.450
Kavita Mehra: the experience of having failed in development, and then I actually…
00:23:17.600 --> 00:23:26.910
Kavita Mehra: I worked for an organization called Glamour Gals, which is actually founded in Long Island, back in 2010 to 2013.
00:23:27.390 --> 00:23:33.539
Kavita Mehra: And it was a… it had an entrepreneurial sort of energy to it.
00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:45.359
Kavita Mehra: the CEO at that time, and I don't know if she still does, but she lives in Paris, so I had a lot of creative license to help build out both the fundraising as well as the programmatic components of it.
00:23:45.670 --> 00:23:56.439
Kavita Mehra: And I, and I loved it. I loved the work, and I loved being able to build something, and then I found my niche.
00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:00.129
Tommy DiMisa: I found, like, oh, this is what I like to do.
00:24:00.170 --> 00:24:06.030
Kavita Mehra: And so I helped, sort of scale our work at Glamour Gals.
00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:11.170
Kavita Mehra: And then I moved to the Boys and Girls Club of Newark, where I learned a lot about community.
00:24:11.370 --> 00:24:16.680
Kavita Mehra: I learned a lot about scale. Scale was also an area where I focused on, and that's been…
00:24:16.840 --> 00:24:21.300
Kavita Mehra: sort of part of my trajectory also at Sucky. But I… I…
00:24:22.320 --> 00:24:27.009
Kavita Mehra: I tap into, in my current work, to answer your question more directly.
00:24:27.610 --> 00:24:35.969
Kavita Mehra: I tap into my programmatic experience, my development experience, of course, and that informs a lot of my consciousness, but it's my lived experience, really, what I lean into more than anything else.
00:24:36.470 --> 00:24:44.629
Kavita Mehra: As somebody who is a survivor of violence, who grew up with domestic violence, who didn't have a lot of financial means,
00:24:45.730 --> 00:25:04.679
Kavita Mehra: I can understand the intersection of what it means to have multiple lived experiences at once, whether that's, like, navigating through economic barriers, whether it's navigating through being a brown person in America, whether it's navigating through being a woman in a brown person in America.
00:25:05.110 --> 00:25:06.020Kavita Mehra: And…00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:17.710
Kavita Mehra: being a survivor. That informs a lot of how I think about the work, and my fundraising background only strengthened
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:25.380
Kavita Mehra: When I tapped into… so a lot of folks might not know this about me, but my mom owned a Hallmark store for 27 years.
00:25:25.560 --> 00:25:35.569
Kavita Mehra: She… she got it in 1983, is the year after I was born, and she had it until 2010. November 18, 2010 is when she lost the store.
00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:38.249
Kavita Mehra: For financial reasons.
00:25:38.870 --> 00:25:41.639
Kavita Mehra: And I started working at that store when I was 14 years old.
00:25:42.280 --> 00:25:45.660
Kavita Mehra: I worked my first 100-hour week by the time I was 14.
00:25:45.850 --> 00:25:52.280
Kavita Mehra: on my feet, it was Christmas season, I'll never forget it. I'd never done physical labor like that for my entire life.
00:25:53.140 --> 00:25:56.150
Kavita Mehra: But that taught me everything about running a business.
00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:03.420
Kavita Mehra: Retail taught me how to deal with difficult people, how to deal with angry people, how to sell.
00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:11.239
Kavita Mehra: If I could sell wrapping paper to a 25-year-old guy and tell him to buy a bow on top of it.
00:26:12.520 --> 00:26:14.920
Tommy DiMisa: Always be closing. Always be closing, man.
00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:16.540Kavita Mehra: ABC, ABC.00:26:16.540 --> 00:26:17.220Tommy DiMisa: I love that.00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:25.629
Kavita Mehra: It is that same skill set that's able to translate to say, I love this work, you should love it too, we're gonna change the world together, right?
00:26:25.630 --> 00:26:48.769
Tommy DiMisa: Thank you, yeah, thank you for saying that. Hold that thought, because I don't want you to lose where you're going, but I just thank you for saying that, because listen, I'm a sales guy. At the end of the day, yes, I'm a business owner, we have a great agency, we do great work for our clients. At the end of the day, we tell stories, we solve problems for people, that's sales, right? So, and that's what development is, and any… shout out to all my development people. I was at the AFPLI,
00:26:48.770 --> 00:27:11.060
Tommy DiMisa: event last week, or two weeks ago, maybe. Yeah, two weeks ago, because we did not do a show that Friday morning. And my friend Prashant Gupta was the MC. Last year, I was the MC at the AFPLI event, and Prashant, shout out to Prashant Gupta, my buddy, works over at Mental Health Association, Nascara County, by the way. I got the hoodie, right? Gone, but not forgotten. I emced the walk at Jones Beach.
00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:33.969
Tommy DiMisa: Too many folks losing their lives from overdose, and it's tragic. We can't talk about all that right now, but it is a trauma situation, and it is traumatic… excuse me, it is tragic. But shout out to Prashant, and shout out to AFPLI. Shout out to all my development people. I love my development people, man. Sure, I'm friends with CEOs and EDs, but development, man, that's the front lines, man. That's where it all happens, is those conversations.
00:27:33.970 --> 00:27:40.420
Tommy DiMisa: And it is a sales job, it is a storytelling job, because once you can connect the heart
00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:42.010
Tommy DiMisa: To the… and the mission
00:27:42.010 --> 00:28:04.079
Tommy DiMisa: to, for these individual donors, or these corporate donors, or these other, you know, just anybody who wants to support, whether it be time, treasure, or talent, it's all about those stories. That's what development is. So, maybe I took you totally off track, I'm not sure, but let's keep it going where you want it to go, because we're just… I gotta go with what happens in my brain sometimes, you know?
00:28:04.080 --> 00:28:12.519
Kavita Mehra: No, no, I love that. I think… I think it's so… it's so refreshing to have just a conversation, too. It makes it so much easier.
00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:15.770
Kavita Mehra: But yeah, no, I lean into my retail skills.
00:28:15.850 --> 00:28:34.570
Kavita Mehra: And my time in retail, and watching my mom operate. You know, my mom, is 83 now, knock on wood. She stopped working this year at 82. And that's not necessarily by choice, either way, but I saw that woman operate in the worst of circumstances.
00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:38.549
Kavita Mehra: And she just held her head high. I remember how…
00:28:38.820 --> 00:28:42.400
Kavita Mehra: Her team used to have a tremendous amount of respect for her.
00:28:43.250 --> 00:28:46.090
Kavita Mehra: And she used to just keep going.
00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:49.229
Tommy DiMisa: Even when she didn't want to, she just kept going.
00:28:49.820 --> 00:28:55.130
Kavita Mehra: So I think that informs how I think about
00:28:55.560 --> 00:28:58.420
Kavita Mehra: Or what I lean into in my hardest of moments.
00:28:58.800 --> 00:29:01.859
Kavita Mehra: Because nothing was worse than that for me.
00:29:02.150 --> 00:29:02.480Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:12.430
Kavita Mehra: Like, you hear that in my voice today, you know, I've worked at another, like, 80-hour week. I've got a full day today, and I've got events tomorrow night.
00:29:13.250 --> 00:29:16.190
Kavita Mehra: But nothing was worse than, you know, retail.
00:29:16.190 --> 00:29:17.510Tommy DiMisa: in the 90s.00:29:17.860 --> 00:29:19.120Kavita Mehra: on your feet.00:29:19.340 --> 00:29:23.950
Kavita Mehra: When the malls open at 9am and they close at 11pm.
00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:26.899
Kavita Mehra: right before Christmas, and there was no break.
00:29:27.390 --> 00:29:28.570Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.00:29:28.610 --> 00:29:32.339
Kavita Mehra: You know, you're lucky to go to the bathroom 2 or 3 times a day.
00:29:32.340 --> 00:29:32.780Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.00:29:32.930 --> 00:29:36.380
Kavita Mehra: Because it's so busy. This is before Amazon, right?
00:29:36.380 --> 00:29:36.720Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:37.440Kavita Mehra: This is… Yeah.00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:37.960
Tommy DiMisa: Don't let you just…
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:39.260
Kavita Mehra: I just went to the mall.
00:29:39.260 --> 00:29:56.079
Tommy DiMisa: grinding it out. It's funny, man, the thing… not funny, like, to laugh at, it's just, like, when you think about the… like, I was in a mall the other day, and stores are shuttered. I mean, listen, we're… I'm a few years ahead of you in age and stuff like that, so, you know, but I… not that far ahead. We grew up going to these places, that's how…
00:29:56.160 --> 00:30:08.469
Tommy DiMisa: Listen, I'm not gonna do a whole thing about Amazon, but, you know, they do come to my house often. There was a thing on… I was driving in, I was listening to 1010 Winds or Bloomberg this morning, I think it was 1010 Winds.
00:30:08.580 --> 00:30:20.840
Tommy DiMisa: And, they were talking about porch pirates, and they actually said, Porch Pirates gang, for those of you who don't know, if you don't know, we're talking about folks who go to your house and steal your Amazon or other delivered packages.
00:30:20.840 --> 00:30:43.619
Tommy DiMisa: People were, like, being interviewed. You know, they always get, like, the man or woman on the street, and people are like, yeah, I can't even leave my house anymore. Like, they can't even go to work, because they're worried somebody's gonna clip the stuff off the front. I'm like, dude, go to work, alright? What are we talking about here? But we used to go to malls, gang. We used to go there. Remember the movie Mall Rats and the whole thing? It was a place we would go to hang out. Like, my kids now, I drop them off at the mall, whatever.
00:30:43.620 --> 00:30:45.660
Tommy DiMisa: When they walk around, and… but, like.
00:30:45.660 --> 00:31:10.469
Tommy DiMisa: I… stores are shuttered. Stores are closed, they just don't even exist anymore. So, and I know… trust me, I know the Hallmark store. Great spot to go to when you need gifts, like, last minute, because you got all, like, different stuff, and you got knickknacks, and all the kind of cool stuff. I will tell you this, since this isn't going to affect your mom, because she doesn't have the business anymore, I buy all my greeting cards at the dollar store, because I'm cheap, and to spend 7 bucks on a card is
00:31:10.470 --> 00:31:19.449
Tommy DiMisa: crazy when I can spend a buck and a quarter. So, anyway, shout out to Dollar Tree if you wanna… if you wanna… if you wanna sponsor the show, Tommy D at philanthropyandfocus.com.
00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:21.090Kavita Mehra: But.00:31:24.120 --> 00:31:44.769
Tommy DiMisa: So, I get retail, I grew up in a restaurant business, I know restaurant hospitality, I know putting in a lot of hours on your feet, I know it, the grind, the hustle, we used to say, hey man, we're in the weeds, we're in the weeds, and I get that from the retail thing. But, like, what a great blessing for you to have that… for some reason, I just gotta say this name, because it was coming up for me while you were talking, and it could be…
00:31:44.770 --> 00:31:48.470
Tommy DiMisa: Just how ubiquitous he is.
00:31:48.470 --> 00:32:00.670
Tommy DiMisa: And the immigrant mentality, and the grind, and the swag, but also with the love and compassion. Shout out to GaryVee, Gary Vaynerchuk, and, you know, one of the stories, like, listening to GaryVee many years ago.
00:32:00.670 --> 00:32:09.979
Tommy DiMisa: And Ken Cerini, with the Imagine Awards, is really where philanthropy and focus came from. You know, it came from me listening to GaryVee, and GaryVee saying, hey, listen, if you…
00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:34.679
Tommy DiMisa: if there's something you're passionate about, you feel strongly about, you want to build content around that, that's what you do. And Ken Serini with the Imagine Awards, and that's why I'm approaching 240 episodes of an idea, of something that was just like, I don't want to have a show where I… and I have plenty of friends who are consultants in the sector, but I was like, I don't want to have a show highlighting those people. I want to have a show highlighting organizations and the incredible work they're doing, and now we're
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:58.789
Tommy DiMisa: approaching 240 episodes on a plan, talk about sales, right? Sales quota, on a plan of 5,000. I will do 5,000 episodes of this show before I disappear. So that's incredible to even think about, but that means in a lot of days, I'm gonna do 3 or 4 episodes when we get to that point. But the point of all that is, who knows what the point of all that is? No, the point of all that is it's drive, it's ambition, and you take that
00:32:59.500 --> 00:33:18.120
Tommy DiMisa: that mentality of 100-hour weeks, and then you drive that into this work, Kavatsai, that is what it's about, and these are the folks that I like to hang out with, or people who are doing that work. Tick, talk, tick, talk, Tommy needs to take a break. All right, we'll take a break, we will be right back
00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:19.550
Tommy DiMisa: Philanthropy and focus.
00:34:58.290 --> 00:35:13.369
Tommy DiMisa: I don't know if it's the caffeine is finally hitting me after this fourth cup of coffee, or if I'm just fired up because this work is so important, but I gotta just put this out there. I do not have a sake hoodie. Are there Saki hoodies? Do they exist, or what's the story there?
00:35:13.370 --> 00:35:22.350
Kavita Mehra: But I need a sucky hoodie. We're trying to make them… I have a U2 hoodie on right now, because I'm a huge… I love U-2s. You love U2?
00:35:23.020 --> 00:35:24.580
Tommy DiMisa: at the sphere, you saw him.
00:35:24.580 --> 00:35:24.910Kavita Mehra: Yes.00:35:24.910 --> 00:35:25.680Tommy DiMisa: here.00:35:25.680 --> 00:35:26.689
Kavita Mehra: And I saw them at the chair.
00:35:26.690 --> 00:35:29.440
Tommy DiMisa: Come on, tell me about that. Crazy, right?
00:35:30.140 --> 00:35:42.329
Kavita Mehra: It's insane. I've been to, I think… listen, my sisters have been to much more. Between the both of them, I think they've been to about 30 or 40 concerts. I've only been to maybe 8 or 10.
00:35:42.440 --> 00:35:47.670
Kavita Mehra: But… I love you too, and it was…
00:35:47.670 --> 00:35:51.680
Tommy DiMisa: Have you seen them either 10 times? Is that… are you saying you've seen U2 almost 10 times?
00:35:52.050 --> 00:35:52.590Kavita Mehra: Yeah.00:35:52.590 --> 00:35:54.000
Tommy DiMisa: They used to be 30?
00:35:54.830 --> 00:35:58.649
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they've been following him since the early 80s.
00:35:58.650 --> 00:35:59.670Tommy DiMisa: But I…00:35:59.670 --> 00:36:02.180
Kavita Mehra: Cannot believe I heard…
00:36:02.330 --> 00:36:08.530
Kavita Mehra: All I Want Is You live. Like, I've never heard it live, and that gave me chills.
00:36:08.530 --> 00:36:09.520
Tommy DiMisa: I knew that, yeah.
00:36:09.770 --> 00:36:17.600
Kavita Mehra: And so that was incredible for me. It was probably one of the best YouTube concerts, but I will say.
00:36:17.720 --> 00:36:22.340
Kavita Mehra: The difference at this sphere was most of the people were seated.
00:36:22.340 --> 00:36:26.190
Tommy DiMisa: And I remember 10 years ago, when I used to go to a concert.
00:36:26.190 --> 00:36:28.289
Kavita Mehra: Everybody was on their feet the whole time.
00:36:28.290 --> 00:36:29.460Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.00:36:29.790 --> 00:36:31.460Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, exactly.00:36:31.460 --> 00:36:32.620Kavita Mehra: the venue.00:36:32.620 --> 00:36:39.829
Tommy DiMisa: Do you think that's the venue? Everybody see the cause of the venue, or… because they're not really fans, maybe? It's, like, more of that?
00:36:40.300 --> 00:36:52.410
Kavita Mehra: I have no idea. That's a good question. But, I'm waiting for them to go back on tour, hopefully sometime, you know, but huge YouTube fan, I… but we do need a sucky hoodie.
00:36:52.410 --> 00:37:16.970
Tommy DiMisa: We'll talk about that. We need swag. I'm all about the swag. I mean, like, you… I probably have 50 or 60 hoodies right now from organizations, because I like to rep everybody, so I love that. So we all worked that out. Again, when I do the show Long Island Changemakers in the studio, it's not a requirement that people bring me gifts, but it has become a thing where people show up with, like, stuff for me to wear, and I'm all about it. So anyway, gang, if you,
00:37:16.970 --> 00:37:24.150
Tommy DiMisa: you know, let me give you my home address. No, I'm not giving you all my home address so you can send me hoodies, don't be silly. But I would…
00:37:24.430 --> 00:37:26.400
Kavita Mehra: We're gonna send you Amazon packages.
00:37:26.600 --> 00:37:37.989
Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, exactly. Watch out for the porch pirates, everybody. Hashtag no porch pirates. Alright, I want to get into… there was another organization before we get to Saki. Tell me about SOAR, if we could, and then we get into Saki.
00:37:38.240 --> 00:37:42.460
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, yeah, so back in 2020…
00:37:42.980 --> 00:37:50.500
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, 2020, right around the pandemic, right, we started to form a national organization called South Asian SOAR,
00:37:50.560 --> 00:38:03.720
Kavita Mehra: Which serves as the umbrella to all of the South Asian survival organizations, and I think the national work is really critical work. There are versions of Saki that are sprinkled across the country.
00:38:03.970 --> 00:38:15.840
Kavita Mehra: as I'm thinking about, you know, what are the next steps for Secchi 2, I'm also thinking about what is our national footprint, potentially, or like, what it… how can we think about
00:38:16.130 --> 00:38:17.300Kavita Mehra: leveraging00:38:17.820 --> 00:38:30.880
Kavita Mehra: our influence across the country in some capacity, and that's, like, very much on my mind. So, just to give you a sense of, like, what's been happening at Saki, because I, you know, it's kind of timely.
00:38:31.110 --> 00:38:38.920
Kavita Mehra: We… when I started eight and a half years ago, our operating budget was $800,000. We had about 12 team members total.
00:38:39.060 --> 00:38:42.200
Kavita Mehra: One small office in Lower Manhattan.
00:38:42.740 --> 00:38:52.199
Kavita Mehra: And now, we're at about 50 people, between full-time and part-time, mostly full-time, with a $7 million operating budget.
00:38:52.310 --> 00:38:52.980Tommy DiMisa: Wow.00:38:53.080 --> 00:38:55.820
Kavita Mehra: And then we also have…
00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:02.870
Kavita Mehra: A reserve, which, is helpful, just to have that runway.
00:39:03.650 --> 00:39:20.260
Kavita Mehra: We, applied for the open call process, managed through Lever for Change with Mackenzie Scott. The application was submitted in 2023, and we, were awarded $2 million in 2024 through that.
00:39:20.450 --> 00:39:22.320
Tommy DiMisa: I just saw that post.
00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:25.130
Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, I saw that post on LinkedIn last week, right?
00:39:25.430 --> 00:39:29.710
Kavita Mehra: No, no, so that's the second part for what I'm gonna share with you. So the second thing is.
00:39:29.820 --> 00:39:31.530Kavita Mehra: Earlier this year.00:39:31.830 --> 00:39:43.300
Kavita Mehra: Lever for Change did a second open call process, which was mana… which was through… for, Pivotal Ventures, which is obviously funded for Melinda French Gates.
00:39:43.490 --> 00:39:50.599
Kavita Mehra: And there were 4,000 applications globally across 119 countries.
00:39:50.840 --> 00:39:55.840
Kavita Mehra: 80-plus organizations received anywhere from 1 to 5 million.
00:39:56.040 --> 00:39:59.940
Kavita Mehra: Sucky was one of those 80 organizations.
00:40:00.100 --> 00:40:06.740
Kavita Mehra: So, we are one of two organizations globally, knock on wood, that received the open call through
00:40:07.040 --> 00:40:16.510
Kavita Mehra: Action for Women's Health, funded by Pivotal Ventures, and the open call process for Mackenzie Scott, which was in 2024.
00:40:16.970 --> 00:40:23.829
Kavita Mehra: The open call for action for women's health is focused on scalability, so that's been really on my mind.
00:40:24.770 --> 00:40:36.819
Tommy DiMisa: Let me… first of all, congrats on those dollars. These are, if I don't mind, just get technicals. Are they unrestricted? Are they restricted? What's the story on how do you have to allocate certain ways about spending the dollars?
00:40:36.820 --> 00:40:56.319
Kavita Mehra: The Mackenzie Scott money is a recognition of prior work, right? So it's a recognition of the work that Suckey has done, and the legacy of its work, which there have been moments where this organization was on the brink of folding, but not for the good graces, the leadership, and the vision of some really remarkable
00:40:56.630 --> 00:40:58.650
Kavita Mehra: People in the community.
00:40:58.650 --> 00:40:59.220Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.00:40:59.220 --> 00:41:05.600
Kavita Mehra: That Sucky's still standing today. And right before it was announced.
00:41:06.070 --> 00:41:14.209
Kavita Mehra: the Action for Women's Health grant last week before it was announced. I actually took a few people… I had a few calls, and I took some folks out for dinner.
00:41:14.750 --> 00:41:17.989
Kavita Mehra: I told him what was about to be announced, and I said, look at what you built.
00:41:18.130 --> 00:41:20.160
Kavita Mehra: Like, look at what you made happen.
00:41:20.300 --> 00:41:25.409
Kavita Mehra: Because it… sucky was so close to folding at certain points in its history.
00:41:25.640 --> 00:41:39.840
Tommy DiMisa: So when you say that, look at what you did, meaning this thing wasn't gonna be here if you folks didn't get involved. And when you say that, let's just call it what it is, support. They were bringing in dollars to help an organization, or bringing in time or energy. Tell us about that.
00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:42.040
Kavita Mehra: Exactly. It was their time, talent, and treasure.
00:41:42.040 --> 00:41:42.640Tommy DiMisa: Yep.00:41:42.640 --> 00:41:47.600
Kavita Mehra: There's one person in particular I'm thinking about, she has 3… 3 boys.
00:41:47.820 --> 00:41:57.349
Kavita Mehra: She served as our acting ED when the organization was on the brink of folding. We had no money in the bank. This was back in the financial crisis of 09.
00:41:57.520 --> 00:41:57.840Tommy DiMisa: Huh.00:41:57.840 --> 00:42:06.310
Kavita Mehra: And, literally, just… Kept the organization running through her service.
00:42:07.040 --> 00:42:22.189
Kavita Mehra: And then brought on my predecessor, Teloma, back in 2010, 2011, who then started rebuilding the organization, and then Shalini was our next ED after Teloma, and then… and then me.
00:42:22.660 --> 00:42:28.599
Kavita Mehra: But it hadn't… had it not been for these incredible leaders who were like, actually, I'm gonna sacrifice
00:42:29.510 --> 00:42:37.309
Kavita Mehra: something of myself to ensure the continuity of this organization. It's… we would not be standing where we are today.
00:42:37.580 --> 00:42:44.560
Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, I gotta just jump in with this one. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed.
00:42:45.180 --> 00:42:58.280
Tommy DiMisa: It is the only thing that ever has, gang. It is the only thing that's Margaret Mead. It's the only thing that ever has. Don't doubt that your vote is important. Don't doubt that your voice is important. You know, later this afternoon…
00:42:58.280 --> 00:42:59.070Kavita Mehra: noon, I'm…00:42:59.210 --> 00:43:05.510
Tommy DiMisa: Oh, I'm interviewing somebody on, on my show, Long Island Changemakers, a gentleman named Kevin Christman.
00:43:05.530 --> 00:43:21.400
Tommy DiMisa: Who is a self-advocate in the disability space, and he's gonna be… we're just meeting because he spoke at a legislative breakfast a couple weeks ago, and I met him through Cerebral palsy in Nassau County out here on Long Island, which is a client of ours here at the agency, and also a very close friend of ours.
00:43:21.620 --> 00:43:40.939
Tommy DiMisa: And I actually, when he spoke at the legislative breakfast, I actually canceled the show on a Friday morning. I said, I will not do a show on October 7th, because I will be witnessing Kevin speaking, and I said, I gotta have Kevin in there. The advocacy work, gang, it's all about… you have all the power and all the control. Man, just use our voices, use your energy.
00:43:41.030 --> 00:44:05.230
Tommy DiMisa: Gaveta, what do you have to say about that? I mean, I think it feeds right into what you… the work you're doing, but I just felt like, you know, a small group, you talk about these people, what if they went left instead of went right, not politically, gang, in a decision? What if they just decided, I can't do that, I can't prop up this organization, I can't invest the time? Maybe the organization doesn't exist, and how many hundreds of thousands of people aren't served? Like, it's that real, right?
00:44:06.130 --> 00:44:18.440
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, I mean, because we have such strong ties to the community, I think about that constantly. Like, what if they said, you know what, I'm gonna focus on my family, and not this organization, and work for nothing?
00:44:19.180 --> 00:44:27.430
Kavita Mehra: I would not have this job, but there are survivors across our community who would not have the critical resources in order to leave a violent situation.
00:44:27.430 --> 00:44:50.180
Tommy DiMisa: It's that… it's that real. Like, it's that basic. Like, I make a… I go this way instead of that way, or I can't, you know, because I have to do this. Those choices that individual people make affect… the ripple effect is infinite. I really, truly believe the decisions we make is potentially infinite in its ripple, because, you know, the people that will be served by this organization 15 years from now
00:44:50.180 --> 00:45:03.239
Tommy DiMisa: are all impacted because of the decisions your predecessors had made. Game-changing stuff. Shout out to all those people, we're not gonna name them now, but thank you for… I don't even know you folks, I hope to meet you at a gala one day, because
00:45:03.360 --> 00:45:18.110
Tommy DiMisa: as a society, we need to be grateful for the type of work that's being done. Final break, we will fly out to a break, we'll fly right back. I want to know programmatically what's going on, how we can help, how somebody plugs into the organization if they need support. That's what we're going to do when we come back. How's that sound?
00:45:19.710 --> 00:45:20.710Tommy DiMisa: Good, right?00:45:20.710 --> 00:45:22.350
Kavita Mehra: Sounds good. Sorry, yeah, that's.
00:45:22.350 --> 00:45:25.049
Tommy DiMisa: Oh, you're good, we're good. We will be right back.
00:46:54.100 --> 00:47:01.829
Tommy DiMisa: I would tell you, if somebody needs support right now, if they found this show somewhere and they need support to get out of a situation right now, what's the best course of action?
00:47:02.430 --> 00:47:17.079
Kavita Mehra: Call our helpline, and if you are not, able to call our helpline, you can text us, or you can email us, and within the next… before the end of the calendar year, we're actually going to have an AI chat box as well.
00:47:17.080 --> 00:47:23.349
Tommy DiMisa: just call it out, because some folks aren't watching the video. I'm sharing the website, SAKHI.org.
00:47:23.770 --> 00:47:35.809
Kavita Mehra: Right, sucky.org, and then it has all of our resources available. You can call our helpline, which is 212-868-6741. Again, it's 212-868-6741.
00:47:35.940 --> 00:47:41.800
Kavita Mehra: Or you can text us at 305-204-1808.
00:47:42.020 --> 00:47:48.270
Kavita Mehra: And that's, that's, that's the… and you'll get a response fairly quickly.
00:47:48.380 --> 00:47:51.220
Kavita Mehra: From… from a member of our team.
00:47:52.270 --> 00:47:57.109
Kavita Mehra: And then they will do an immediate safety planning, assessment, next steps, all of that.
00:47:57.320 --> 00:47:59.129Kavita Mehra: To ensure that…00:47:59.680 --> 00:48:08.489
Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, just… and again, if you're in an emergency situation, getting 911 is always the way to go, right? So you just… if you're in… you need support in the moment, obviously.
00:48:08.690 --> 00:48:15.349
Tommy DiMisa: You know, I want to get into… this is often when somebody gets to a point where they're… they're able to get
00:48:15.690 --> 00:48:34.620
Tommy DiMisa: reach out for help. They're in the most challenging situation they're ever going to be in, right? It's a scary situation. There's anxiety and fear and all that wrapped into one. They connect with your organization. What does that look like? What programs are offered? How does Saki help them in a situation of a moment's notice or going forward?
00:48:35.060 --> 00:48:42.299
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, so, I mean, through the course of the last, I would say, like, 9 or so years, our work has shifted from
00:48:42.820 --> 00:48:51.059
Kavita Mehra: relying on external partners to bring all of it in-house. So we work with survivors starting at the age of 6 until the sunset of their life.
00:48:51.610 --> 00:49:07.399
Kavita Mehra: And we have an emerging area of young folks reaching out to us as clients outside of their caregivers, because they're often experiencing violence from their caregivers. But when a survivor reaches out to us, we will do an immediate assessment
00:49:07.520 --> 00:49:09.239Kavita Mehra: On their safety.00:49:09.540 --> 00:49:14.489
Kavita Mehra: And then they are paired with an advocate, who will then do a long
00:49:14.600 --> 00:49:23.130
Kavita Mehra: Long, personalized intake process, everything from safety planning, to goal setting, to crisis management.
00:49:23.130 --> 00:49:36.299
Kavita Mehra: To then assessing, like, what that person needs, and it's a really personalized, bespoke experience. That intake can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending upon what the person is experiencing and their level of activation.
00:49:36.990 --> 00:49:54.479
Kavita Mehra: And then, that advocate will work with that community member to say, okay, do you need legal support? If you do, we have now immigration services in-house, or if you need family law support, like, we will work with one of our partners. Do you need mental health counseling?
00:49:54.480 --> 00:49:57.730
Kavita Mehra: We have counselors on staff, who…
00:49:58.060 --> 00:50:07.219
Kavita Mehra: work with survivors, and meet with them weekly. Do you need housing? We have a housing program that underwrites housing for up to 2 years for a survivor.
00:50:07.220 --> 00:50:20.949
Kavita Mehra: Do you need access to food? Okay, great, we have 3 different food locations where you can get food in-house at Saki that's culturally specific, and if you can't pick up the food, then we will have food delivered to you.
00:50:22.280 --> 00:50:39.189
Kavita Mehra: Do you need access to public benefits, or job coaching, or access to scholarships, or any form of professional development, or job coach? Great! Our economic empowerment team will work with you. So we essentially imagine any barrier in a survivor's life
00:50:39.600 --> 00:50:48.450
Kavita Mehra: And we say, what is our opportunity to eradicate those barriers so that person can make choices? Because at the end of the day, a survivor
00:50:48.970 --> 00:50:58.010
Kavita Mehra: They just need a clear pathway to figure out what their choices are and options. They are the agent of change in their life. Our responsibility?
00:50:58.200 --> 00:51:06.209
Kavita Mehra: is to help clear the path, right? And so that's how we approach the work. It's like, what do you need? We're gonna… we're gonna provide you with whatever you need.
00:51:06.350 --> 00:51:22.480
Kavita Mehra: And then you determine what your next steps are. We will never tell a survivor, you have to leave a situation, we never tell a survivor what their choices are, or what they should do, I should say. And a survivor makes the determination, because fundamentally, if you are a survivor of violence.
00:51:23.840 --> 00:51:25.589
Kavita Mehra: You're the strongest person I know.
00:51:26.130 --> 00:51:30.879
Kavita Mehra: Anybody who has experienced violence, anyone who's experienced severe trauma.
00:51:31.850 --> 00:51:36.819
Kavita Mehra: You have a resilience in you that no one could ever fully appreciate.
00:51:39.490 --> 00:51:49.400
Tommy DiMisa: So… they become that agent of change. Your organization gives them the support and rounds off where they need.
00:51:49.450 --> 00:52:02.520
Tommy DiMisa: access to, whether, like you say, housing, food, professional development, scholarships for school, right? Because that's what many folks need, is they need a leg up. If I'm leaving a situation, I need these things that I'm leaving, which is…
00:52:02.520 --> 00:52:18.840
Tommy DiMisa: correct me if I'm wrong, and I… I think, obviously, the word used, bespoke, I think is right on, but customized, it's all a personal situation. Everybody's situation is that person's situation. We don't lot people together, right? This is the… everybody's situation is their own, so…
00:52:18.980 --> 00:52:28.500
Tommy DiMisa: many people I understand stay in situations because they don't have the support that you're talking about, right? Because if someone leaves.
00:52:28.830 --> 00:52:34.720
Tommy DiMisa: I need… I need, quote-unquote, these things, right? So that's, I think, a big part. Can you speak to that a moment?
00:52:35.580 --> 00:52:39.819
Kavita Mehra: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, like, if you think about it, right? Like, if you're a survivor of violence.
00:52:40.050 --> 00:52:44.979
Kavita Mehra: And, you're looking to leave, particularly intimate partner violence, right?
00:52:45.650 --> 00:52:48.690
Kavita Mehra: You have to hire a private attorney. That costs money.
00:52:48.820 --> 00:52:53.240
Kavita Mehra: I have to sign a lease. That costs money. You have to find a job.
00:52:53.460 --> 00:53:01.149
Kavita Mehra: That costs resources. And you have to think about, like, okay, what's my mental health? Therapy, in itself.
00:53:01.440 --> 00:53:09.330
Kavita Mehra: is expensive, right? All of those things to heal from the trauma and to move away from trauma are incredibly costly.
00:53:10.050 --> 00:53:19.619
Kavita Mehra: what we say to survivors is, like, we know that this… these should not be economic barriers for someone, right? Like, living with safety should be a fundamental human right.
00:53:20.650 --> 00:53:22.459
Kavita Mehra: Like, that's just basic.
00:53:22.680 --> 00:53:23.230Tommy DiMisa: Yep.00:53:23.230 --> 00:53:33.809
Kavita Mehra: And so that's why everything we do at Sucky is, like, in-house, and we do it at Sucky, because we realize, like, otherwise people would be living in violence. And at the end of the day, we are doing life and death work.
00:53:34.730 --> 00:53:36.320Tommy DiMisa: Literally. Literally.00:53:36.320 --> 00:53:43.490
Kavita Mehra: Literally doing life and death work, so someone should not have to think about their life and staying alive.
00:53:43.920 --> 00:53:48.289
Kavita Mehra: And economics being the barrier to a healthy life.
00:53:48.290 --> 00:53:50.850
Tommy DiMisa: I totally agree. You know, it's…
00:53:51.000 --> 00:54:08.320
Tommy DiMisa: in a time when the work is more necessary than ever, just because of the climate in the world and things like that, it's organizations like yours that I just am so grateful that they exist and the work is important. And to hear that you went from an $800,000 organization with 12 team members.
00:54:08.320 --> 00:54:22.100
Tommy DiMisa: to a $7 million organization with 50 team members, and bringing all the resources and programs in-house, that is a dynamic shift. It's a sea change, and it just goes to show why, excuse me.
00:54:22.500 --> 00:54:38.509
Tommy DiMisa: why organizations like yours, from leadership down, are critically important to society. I'm grateful that your organization exists. What's upcoming? There was a gala that happened. I'm sure there'll be more galas and events. How can we support? What do you need? Who do you want to meet? Tell me about that.
00:54:39.010 --> 00:54:42.909
Kavita Mehra: I mean, well, we are,
00:54:43.910 --> 00:54:53.240
Kavita Mehra: We have our gala happening on May 1st, 2026, at the Glass House, if folks want to come by. It's a great event.
00:54:53.360 --> 00:54:58.009
Kavita Mehra: And, it really… one of the things about our gala is that
00:54:58.260 --> 00:55:06.640
Kavita Mehra: We center the work, we center the movement, we center survivor voices, and that is super important to me as we are curating that event.
00:55:07.180 --> 00:55:15.829
Kavita Mehra: But overall, I mean, listen, I think the work that's happening in the gender-based violence movement right now, more broadly, is shrinking.
00:55:16.180 --> 00:55:21.400
Kavita Mehra: So if it's not sucky, Support your local gender-based violence organization.
00:55:21.670 --> 00:55:27.210
Kavita Mehra: Support the work that's happening in the anti-violence movement, because resources are drying up.
00:55:27.430 --> 00:55:38.659
Kavita Mehra: Federal resources are drying up, state and city resources are drying up. So yes, we are grateful for anyone who wants to support the work we do, but if not.
00:55:39.030 --> 00:55:50.740
Kavita Mehra: This is the most important issue of our time. There is not one person in your local community across the state or in this country who is not impacted by gender-based violence.
00:55:53.040 --> 00:56:18.009
Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, you know, in all the fun and games that Tommy D likes to have in the world, a big part of this show is telling the important messages and telling the important stories. Kavita, thank you so much for being here with me. Thank you for telling the stories, thank you for the work you do, and it's not just you, I know that. Thank you for the 49 team members, aside from yourself, that are doing the work on the front lines with these survivors, whether it be mental health services or food services or
00:56:18.010 --> 00:56:42.349
Tommy DiMisa: access to other different resources. I send gratitude to all the folks. I send gratitude to the whole sector. I love nonprofits. Why else would I call myself the nonprofit sector connector? My buddy Mick Collins from Pay It Forward just gave me a compliment on YouTube, says, hey Tommy D, nice fancy cap, and he spells fancy with a PH. Thanks, I like this lid, too. The old, flat cap look, for sure. We are at time. I will see you all next week.
00:56:42.560 --> 00:56:56.839
Tommy DiMisa: just go to S-A-K-H-I dot org, S-A-K-H-I dot org, to check out the organization, to donate, to support. This has been another In Focus production. Make it a great day, gang. I'll see you later. See you next week. Bye.
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