Pradnya Haldipur
Our May honoree, Pradnya Haldipur, Vice President of Development at Code.org where she leads fundraising and philanthropic strategy.
Pradnya has more than 24 years of development and management experience in myriad national and international settings. Throughout her career, she has focused on uniting philanthropists, corporations, and foundations with strategic projects and priorities. She is an experienced and creative development professional who excels at building big ideas and strong relationships.
She comes to Code.org with experience from prestigious academic medical institutions such as Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, and Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as think tanks, global development organizations, and the arts. Over the course of her career, she has raised more than $145M to support research, capital projects, endowment, operations, and programmatic projects.
But above all, she values mentorship, creativity, and strategy as foundational to her work.
In Her Own Words
What is your favorite quote?
My daughter and I recently attended a national Girl Scout gathering with former First Lady Michelle Obama as part of their new Becoming Me initiative.
She shared many words of wisdom that apply to women of every age. But the one that stayed with me was, “PRACTICE COURAGE!”
Who is your favorite woman fundraiser or philanthropist of color?
There are so many philanthropists of color I could name who inspire me. What these generous people have in common is a willingness to leverage their resources locally and internationally. They intentionally represent their communities while advocating for the causes they support and, in doing so, challenging non-profit organizations to engage authentically among communities of color.
You’ve had an illustrious career in fundraising and development so far. What led you to join this sector, and to work at Code.org?
Like most development professionals of my generation, I fell into fundraising quite by accident, right after college. What has kept me at this work is two things.
Firstly, I appreciate the tangibility of philanthropy; the money holds the potential to do great things and solve problems in ways that can be measured concretely.
Secondly, I’ve had the honor over the years of working with absolutely brilliant people (artists, physicians and scientists, foreign policy and global development experts) whose passion and commitment to their respective fields made me want to contribute to their success.
The best way I know how to do that is to help find resources to support their work. This is equally true in my current role as VP of Development at Code.org. My colleagues, an unusual combination of engineering and education leaders, are dazzling in their unrelenting drive to bring computer science to every child in every school.
Ours is a noble profession but one that is not entirely understood within our own communities.
Where do you want to be in 3 years?
Where I want to be in three years is not so different from where I am right now — watching my kids grow and thrive and working for an organization that is making a transformative impact for people all over the world. I would like to be a little wiser and perhaps more patient with myself. I’m going to work on that.
Do you have any advice for other women of color (and South Asian!) fundraisers?
If I may paraphrase the indomitable Mrs. Obama again, my advice for fundraisers of color is, “Think every day about how you show up in the world and be proud of yourself.”
Ours is a noble profession but one that is not entirely understood within our own communities.
Folks tend to focus on their discomfort with the idea of “asking for money” rather than appreciating that we are “doing good.” Don’t let it get you down. You are making a difference.
