Ajay Dahiya of The Pollination Project on funding grassroots animal advocacy and inner transformation

“Why inner transformation, why these practices are also built into model: unless we root out the root cause of the issue, which is disconnection, which is a lack of understanding that we are interrelated, and therefore I have an inherent responsibility to show up in the world with kindness and compassion and to reduce the harm and the suffering that I cause in the world. Unless we’re able to do that, these problems are still going to exist. The issues of race relations still exist. How many years have people been fighting for this? The issue of homophobia, of racism, whatever it is, they still exist; why do they still exist after so much work, after so much money has been poured into it, after so many lives have been lost, so many people have been beaten and spilled their blood? They’ve shed their tears for these issues. Because unless we address the underlying schisms within human consciousness, within us as individuals, it’s still going to exist; it’s still going to be there. Direct impact, indirect impact, I just want to see impact and if you’re someone who wants to make an impact, I want to hear from you.Ajay DahiyaAnimals are harmed in all continents in the world. But how can we support the advocates seeking to help them? And what sort of support is most needed?Ajay Dahiya is the executive director of The Pollination Project, an organisation which funds and supports grassroots advocates and organizations working towards positive social change, such as to help animals.Topics discussed in the episode:How the Pollination Project helps grassroots animal advocates (1:20)How we can support grassroots animal advocacy in India and build a robust movement (12:48)How the grants and support offered concretely benefit the grantees (19:22)The application and review process for The Pollination Project’s grant-making (24:00)What makes good grantees? And how does The Pollination Project evaluate them? (27:34)How does The Pollination Project identify and evaluate grantees? (35:14)How important is the non-financial support that the Pollination Project offers relative to the financial support? (44:54)What similarities and differences does The Pollination Project have to other grant-makers that support effective animal advocacy? (55:23)What are the difficulties of making grants in lots of different countries? (1:02:00)To what extent are grassroots animal advocates constrained by a lack of funding? (1:06:26)Why doesn’t The Pollination Project’s prioritize some of the work that it does over others? Isn’t this kind of prioritization necessary in order to maximize positive impact? (1:10:00)What are the main challenges that The Pollination Project faces, preventing it having further impact? (1:29:05)What makes good grant-makers? (1:31:58)How Ajay’s experience as a monk came about and how it affects his work as a grant-maker (1:34:37)Resources discussed in the episode are available at https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/podcastSupport the show