FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Contact: Alex Counts
Executive Director, India Philanthropy Alliance
email: alex@indiaphilanthropyalliance.org
India Philanthropy Alliance Names Neha Gupta Winner of the Inaugural Deepak Raj Rising Star Award
The Executive Director of Teach For India U.S. to be honored at the Indiaspora–IPA Philanthropy Summit in Dallas; Nikhil Jayawickrama and Karishma Navani were recognized as finalists.
HYATTSVILLE, MD — The India Philanthropy Alliance (IPA) today named Neha Gupta, Executive Director of Teach For India U.S., winner of the inaugural Deepak Raj Rising Star Award. Gupta will be honored and give the closing keynote of the Indiaspora–IPA Philanthropy Summit on September 29 in Dallas, where she will receive a $10,000 grant to direct to a nonprofit of her choice: Teach for India U.S.
Nikhil Jayawickrama and Karishma Navani, two young professionals who are active philanthropically, were recognized as finalists for the 2026 award.
The Deepak Raj Rising Star Award honors an emerging Indian American leader under 40 who embodies the evolving legacy of Deepak Raj, an investor and philanthropist who has spent decades strengthening India-U.S. ties and improving life for marginalized people and groups through supporting organizations including the India Philanthropy Alliance, Pratham USA, Indian American IMPACT, and the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University. His philanthropy has also focused on tackling important societal issues in the United States. The award looks for a sustained pattern of leadership rather than a single act of generosity: building institutions, convening communities, and inspiring others to act.
“Neha embodies the kind of leadership this award was created to recognize,” said Deepak Raj, the founding Chairman of the Alliance. “She has spent nearly two decades building organizations that scale real impact, and she’s now bringing that same rigor to closing the education gap in India.”
Gupta has served as Executive Director of Teach For India U.S. since September 2024, working to mobilize the people and resources needed to close India's education gap. She brings more than 17 years of experience across Fortune 500 companies, startups, private equity–backed businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Before joining Teach For India U.S., she spent five years as the CEO of True Office Learning (now known as Confirm), building it into a premier ethics and compliance training platform used by organizations worldwide. She still serves the company as a Board Advisor.
Across her career she has helped scale three EdTech companies into industry leaders, elevating outcomes for more than 22 million users. Gupta holds an MBA in Management & Global Business Strategy and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, both from Rutgers University. Her work on ethical leadership and digital transformation has been featured by the BBC and at forums including Women in NYC Tech and The Global Ethics Summit. She serves on the board of Targum Publishing Co., volunteers with education- and economic mobility-focused nonprofits since 2017, and is a quiet, dedicated philanthropic supporter of numerous nonprofit organizations.
Gupta, commenting on this recognition, said, “It is an honor to receive an award named after Deepak Raj. I look forward to working with current and future recipients who bring their own energy and ideas as we grow a community of award winners and finalists that can inspire the next generation to act decisively — and creatively — on the challenges facing our society.”
“What stood out to our selection committee was how deliberately Neha has taken nearly two decades of executive experience and pointed it at one of the most persistent equity gaps in the world,” said Alex Counts, the Executive Director of the India Philanthropy Alliance. “She’s exactly the kind of next-generation leader IPA wants to celebrate and that we want others to emulate.”
Nikhil Jayawickrama was one of the finalists for the award. He serves as Co-Chair of Pratham USA's New York Tri-State Young Professionals Board, where he helps mobilize the next generation of donors and volunteers behind Pratham's work expanding educational access across India.
Karishma Navani was the other finalist. She is Philanthropic Lead at the Janki Foundation, a Boston-based grantmaking foundation supporting healthcare, education, and women's empowerment initiatives in the U.S. and India, and a Product Analyst at eClinicalWorks. She was nominated by the American India Foundation.
The Award criteria and process were developed by IPA’s NextGen Task Force, a subset of whom served as the judges to decide on the winner and finalists. The Task Force members are: Eleanor Elliott-Rude, Arthi Krishna, Shannon Paz, Girish Pendse, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Jahnavi Singh, Shalina Wadhwani, and Maggie Walsh.
About the Deepak Raj Rising Star Award
Established in 2026, the Deepak Raj Rising Star Award is presented annually by the India Philanthropy Alliance to a U.S.-based Indian American under 40 who reflects Deepak Raj's legacy of institution-building, community leadership, and effective philanthropy. The award includes a $10,000 grant that the honoree directs to a nonprofit of their choice that is aligned with IPA's focus areas of education, health, livelihoods, environmental protection, civic engagement, and development in India or within the diaspora.
About the India Philanthropy Alliance
The India Philanthropy Alliance (IPA) is a coalition of leading U.S.-based philanthropic and nonprofit organizations working to grow a culture of giving among the Indian American diaspora and expand the scale and impact of philanthropy benefiting India. IPA's member organizations collectively raise more than $250 million annually, including over $125 million in the U.S., in support of evidence-based programs that have reached more than 70 million people.
Media Contact: Alex Counts, Executive Director, India Philanthropy Alliance, at 1-202-257-8739.
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