2008 NetSAP Initiatives - Mentor Xchange & Community Consulting Programs

NetSAP Boston continues on its innovative initiatives in 2008. We are happy to announce that we are planning on launching 2 new programs next year.

Mentor Xchange Program:

The dinner circle series in 2007 was an overwhelming success. We hosted 3 events which connected over 60 professionals from diverse fields such as health-care, finance, technology, and social entrepreneurship with 9 mentors. We intend to expand and continue this initiative in 2008. However, as a group of successful professionals ourselves, it becomes our responsibility that in addition to getting mentored, we should in-turn go back into our community to mentor our younger generation.



Keeping this in mind, we are glad to announce a partnership with TiE-Boston which has been a great source of mentors for our dinner circle events. TiE also has a younger group within their organization called "TiE Young Entrepreneurs" or TYE. TiE-Boston is mentoring these kids between the ages of 14yrs - 18yrs to become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. While some kids will undoubtedly launch their own ventures, there are many other kids who are looking for advise on career options and strategy. They need a "big brother" or "big sister" if you will... someone who can relate to them, talk to them and provide them the inspiration they are looking for. This is clearly an area where NetSAP Boston members can come in as mentors and share their experiences and advise.

Therefore, on one hand as mentoring moves down the hierarchy, we also hope that the membership will move up the hierarchy. Young members of TiE will become NetSAP members who will then go on to become members of TiE again.

Please contact our Professional Chair, Jigar Patel, at professional@netsapboston.org to learn more about this initiative and participate actively .

NetSAP Boston Community Consulting Program:

In 2007, NetSAP Boston focused a lot on the community. Through more than 4 fundraisers, we were able to donate over $3000 to different charities working on initiatives in India. We also brought teams of NetSAP volunteers together to serve local causes. All in all, we contributed over 800 man-hours of labor, through 6 volunteering events which involved farming, sorting/preparing food, working with the blind and so on... While these activities provide much value to local non-profit organizations, we at NetSAP Boston think that there is much more value in providing help in areas where core strengths of our members lie.



With the Community Consulting program in 2008, NetSAP Boston will move beyond just fundraising and providing physical help. Our goal is to build a platform where South Asian non-profit entities and our members can come together to share ideas on growth/fundraising strategy, core domains (healthcare, finance etc), streamlining administrative tasks and more. We also hope that leaders from different non-profits will join us and use this platform to share their best practices with each other.

This new initiative will not only allow our members to contribute their expertise to those who need it, but on the other hand it will allow them to learn how corporate theories can or cannot be applied in the non-profit world. More importantly, the joy in giving back to the community will supersede everything else.

The "NetSAP community consulting" program is still in the formative stages. We would like to invite members to join us in shaping this program. Please contact Siddharth Pandit at Siddharth.Pandit@netsapboston.org for more information.

There is a different kind of joy and a feeling of satisfaction, and accomplishment when you make a difference in someone's life. We are hoping that you share our sentiments and will join us in these endeavors.

Tushneem Dharmagadda
President, NetSAP Boston