Pro Bono Consultant Profile

Shivani Ganguly

Human Resources Strategist in San Francisco Bay Area

Background

Shivani is a Principle at Friday Consulting, where she helps start-ups and small companies create effective, sustainable business models and infrastructure. She has also served as a Sr. Director of HR and Business Operations at OQO, Inc.

Pro Bono Client & Project

Two projects completed including: Reading Partners, Human Resources Capacity Build

What was your Taproot Foundation project?

Reading Partners is dedicated to empowering students through literacy and investing community members in underserved public schools through one-on -one reading support. They needed professional consultation to guide them through a period of growth and establish a firm foundation of HR procedures for the future.

What was your team experience?

Our team communicated well, and got along personally as well as professionally. Our Account Director did great job of choosing people who had different areas of expertise, which was really helpful in completing the project. I learned a lot from the team and I’m still in touch with a number of them.

What was your Taproot Foundation project experience?

The Human Resources Capacity Build project was more fulfilling than other types of volunteer work I’ve done because it used skills that are unique to me. I also enjoyed the flexibility of the project structure, since I could work on the project whenever I had time to do so.

What were the biggest challenges?

Setting expectations both on the team and between the client and the team was tricky. There was definitely some work that needed to be done around making sure that everything being undertaken was in scope and that we were prioritizing the right things for the organization.

How can the business community and nonprofit sector strengthen one another?

As a pro bono consultant on this project, it ended up strengthening my company as well as the nonprofit because I got more experience in areas that I otherwise might not have.

How have you grown from your pro bono work?

I was able to develop a number of great relationships and strong contacts to build my personal network. Professionally, I found a way to utilize skills that I might not have in any other avenues of my life.

What do you do when you’re not doing pro bono?

I’m a student and a consultant, so I don’t have a lot of free time. I like to cook, read, travel, and swim when I have some.