LedBy

Ruha Shadab is the Founder and CEO of the Led By Foundation, Inc. She is a doctor and a graduate from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was on a full-tuition scholarship. Shadab has worked as a doctor in low-income neighborhoods in Delhi and later moved on to work on systemic issues of healthcare, as a part of the Government of India. Having been raised in a Muslim household, she experienced, first-hand, the stereotypes and the difficulties faced by Muslims in India. However, what struck her most was the dearth of female Muslim leaders in the country. Shadab is the Founder of Led By Foundation, a social enterprise that provides professional training and mentorship to Muslim women college students, to inspire the next generation of female change-makers. She believes that for a community to be heard, it first needs to speak up.

The worst-off socio-economic indicators in India for any socio-cultural group is that of Muslims, a community of 200 Million (14.9%), which also has a lack of proximate leaders. Indian Muslims are highly under-represented in public (1.3% of high-ranking bureaucrats) and private (2.7% of top company executives) institutions, across sectors. The lack of women leaders, therein, is even more stark. While assuming that attaining admission in universities is a marker of potential success and drive for leadership opportunities, LedBy ensures its translation into proximate leadership and development of role models in a sector-agnostic fashion by providing peer-to-peer learning, a supportive ecosystem, soft skills training, financial literacy and by creating a community of socially conscious Indian Muslim women (IMW) with high aspirations. LedBy’s fellowship program and partnerships with global universities empower IMW in society and sensitize the broader community and the country as a whole to transcend socio-cultural barriers towards integrated humanity.

The literacy rate according to the 2011 Census, is lowest for Muslims (57% as compared to Hindus, 63%). Muslim women have a rate of 52% (Hindu women: 56%). The male-female literacy gap is highest among Muslims. Muslim women face double the disadvantage: for being female and for being Muslim. Similar to Hindu women they have lower levels of enrollment compared to men in Indian society because of economic and cultural factors. Like Muslim men, they face discrimination and disadvantage in schooling because of their religious affiliation. Muslim women in India total to 100 million but have only 2 representatives in Parliament. LedBy’s expanded roadmap creates a regional and then a global network of empowered Muslim women who help others to achieve professional excellence through tailored mentoring. The reach is 1 billion people! India has the second-largest Muslim population globally and although the country context is important, the common religious tenets create similar requirements for these women across the world. LedBy, in 2021, will expand into that arena. For 2020, we are operating in India.

LedBy is the first incubator, of any kind, that focuses on the neglected community of 100 million women in India. As a leadership incubator, we are working with high potential women in college with an average age of 23 years. We are providing them with three resources through a free fellowship program. First, workshops based on a Harvard developed curriculum that is tailored for the fellows. Second, speaker series with incredible women from their background they can relate to. Third, a peer network of similar, ambitious women although multidisciplinary. Two points to be noted: the fellowship is the first platform these fellows get to share space with so many high potential Muslim women in one space and get a multi-disciplinary surrounding. These two things are not available in the fellows’ alma maters. Our tailor-made curriculum and intentional pairing of fellows with mentors raises the professional competencies of our fellows, setting them on a steeper success trajectory and therefore, ballooning the role models for the rest of the community. We are using a plethora of online services to deliver the program (Qualtrics, Zoom, G Suite, YouTube, Messaging apps, Canvas, Poll Everywhere, Teachly, Social Media platforms)

Although LedBy is working with IMW, our work impacts EVERYONE. We ensure our fellows are skilled with 21st century requirements and engage with the right networks. We provide mentors a platform to “pay it forward” and raise the visibility of their work while magnifying role model status. We are heightening the tax paying ability of one of the poorest sections of the country. Lastly, we are moving the needle of empowerment for 1/80th of humanity.

We work with young IMW in final year of their college/master’s. Only 1.7% of Indian Muslim women have graduate degrees, yet not all of them are engaged economic citizens. Through our focus groups and surveys (n = 1200) we found the root causes to be:

• Lack of mentorship 

• Absence of an encouraging ecosystem.

LedBy is addressing this through 

• tailormade mentorship and 1:1 sessions with experts (top private and public executives);

• creating a unique platform that helps overcome discriminatory obstacles faced by IMW.

LedBy’s model is iterative through

• weekly surveys and feedback forms

• small group discussions on obstacles for 30 min/week

• phone-surveys of applicants who did not fill Round 2 applications to understand desired changes in application process

Our fellows are young women, less than a year away from starting their first job. The education system does not prepare them to position, present, and pitch themselves. The fellows are dreamers but because of societal pull-back and lack of a nurturing mentor, they do not set a high success benchmark. The dreamers need to become believers. By providing workshops and access to role models and mentors, we address these issues through a hybrid platform (2020 - digital; 2021 - hybrid), with a positive externality of promoting digital literacy. Our goal: Converting the momentum of education in to empowered employment

Ruha turned 30 earlier this year. She graduated from Harvard, a month and a half back, where she received the Women Leadership Award. She is a medical doctor who has had the courage to pivot as she continued to pursue her “passion”, which is elevating the floor so that everybody has a shot at their dreams while building more cohesive, heterogeneous communities. Ruha acknowledges that her career has been supported by a loving family but admits that her story is not common. She believes that the "privilege of knowing means one not having the luxury of not doing". In her final year at Harvard, she worked at Yale on a medical research project, organized US's largest India conference, and set up her social enterprise LedBy.org. As someone who credits her family and mentors as the reason for her success, she realizes the only way of paying back is paying forward. She is a hero to everyone who is around her because of the number of hats she wears and executes them brilliantly, but most importantly, she is unafraid to chase her dreams. Unafraid to make sacrifices. Unafraid to share the space. Ruha is a hero because she is fearless.

For such a populous yet immensely talented country like India, it is unjustifiable to neglect an entire community of Muslim individuals from achieving their full potential. Due to the nation’s deep and long rooted beliefs in patriarchy, this puts Muslim Women at a double disadvantage, translating in less representation of these women in C-suite and leadership roles. Furthermore, there is threat to the survivability of this community in their own land. If they are in positions of privilege and power, leading the nation, giving back to the economy and are valuable assets, they can bypass the threat to their survival. Instead of letting the societal and cultural norms dictate that their potential should remain untapped, at LedBy we want to garner and ensure this potential prospers. By providing these women with such opportunities that the community of Indian Muslim women lacks, an ecosystem of encouragement is created. This ensures that women from this community are empowered even beyond the reach of LBF in the future. LedBy founder, Ruha is an Indian Muslim woman’s success story, but many like her were not as fortunate to have made it. LedBy will engender more success stories.

Experience: Ruha is a doctor and a graduate from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was on a full-tuition scholarship. Ruha has worked as a doctor in low-income neighborhoods in Delhi and later moved on to work on systemic issues of healthcare, as a part of the Government of India. During her Master’s at Harvard, she worked at the world’s largest private donor agency: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Through her work experience, she comes with an understanding of the public sector (Government), private sector (no-loss Health Clinic), donor sector (BMGF), and NGO space (Clinton Health Access Initiative). Through her lived reality, she deeply understands the problem LedBy is addressing.

Skills: MD and Masters in Public Policy. LedBy is working on a “wicked problem”: is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Ruha’s multidisciplinary training helps with that as she is skilled in fund-raising, program management, community mobilization, and fellowship programming (She was part of the intense and rigorous Cheng Fellowship and Public Service Fellowship at Harvard). She has also built a team which is a mix of high achieving individuals from different backgrounds but motivated to work for the same cause. 

Background: Ruha started the Debate Club and Magazine Society in her medical school. Both have been running successfully for the past 7 years, helping her academically renowned school make a name for itself in the extracurricular space

I was working on developing a partnership with a government agency that would help LedBy reach out to young women who have poor access to information.  Unfortunately, the government exhibited great reluctance, due to both – political and non-political considerations.

As the lead on this work, I arranged the challenges in a hierarchy – from those posed by the bureaucrats to those by the political decision-makers – and began chipping away at the base. To present a strong analytical case, I used my networking skills to gather disaggregated data of the State’s population, and gender-disaggregated socio-educational information. I followed this by creating a value proposition model to show the impact of targeting different regions and percentages of population. Satisfied with the initiative’s analysis, the bureaucrats passed the buck to their political bosses. To address the contention of the political class, I pro-actively designed and oversaw the conduct of a survey which measured willingness of the entire population (through a representative sample) to support LedBy’s efforts. After months of educating the decision-makers, a formal agreement was signed between us helping LedBy reach out to 10,000 young girls in Q2 of 2020.  

17 year-old Fatima Begum was rushed into the emergency room. Earlier in the day, she had given birth to her third child, and had been bleeding since. Her semi-conscious body was reeled into the operation theatre, where I was posted as a medical student. We tried to stop the bleeding, but Fatima died, leaving two orphaned children, and an unanswered question – who was responsible for her death? Fatima’s fate is shared by 50,000 mothers in India. The women in the country are disadvantaged from birth, and within that, the subset of Indian Muslim women is even worse-off. My mother’s story is not unlike Fatima’s. Mother never finished high school and had her first child at 17. The invisible chains on my mother have fueled me. As the only Muslim women in almost every class or conference room I have ever sat in, I made sure I shot for the stars. Setting up the College magazine was the first major challenge with no interest shown by the Admin, but I persevered. The President of India acknowledged my cold email, and wrote my college magazine’s foreword (the Society I set up); eventually changing the game entirely.

LedBy Foundation is one of a kind leadership incubator working with a section of the population that is too often disregarded. Our fellows and their advancement is what makes our foundation unique. Indian Muslim females are very rarely selected as a group to focus on. We are disrupting the idea that Indian Muslim women are not successful in India. We recognize that the problem is inherent and hence taking the initiative to correct the existing structural gaps. We are the first foundation to specifically target this group of females and recognize the potential for success within this community. We will not allow these females to be afraid or not reach their full potential any longer.  

LedBy is the first leadership incubator in India, which focuses on elevating young Indian Muslim women to leadership positions by addressing the issues that limit them from reaching their highest potential. Fellows are provided with various career coaching sessions which not only increase their soft skills but also inspire, motivate and empower them through rigorous and structured mentorship, training in career related skills, peer-to-peer learning and speaker sessions. LedBy uses a myriad of digital technologies and partnerships to facilitate this. LedBy also gives financial aid to these young women to help them reach their highest potential without holding back because of financial hurdles. The women who are part of the program ultimately represent our eco-system network of high skilled Indian Muslim women who will be the beacon of hope for the whole community.

LedBy’s theory of change focusses on wholesome factors which contribute towards the upliftment and empowerment of Indian Muslim Women. Below are LedBy’s activities(A) and their respective outputs(O), outcomes(OC) and evidence (E).

1) Mentorship 

A: LedBy Her fellowship offers IMW access to 50+ IMW mentors. One-to-one mentoring sessions, coaching sessions, career counselling and goal setting workshops.

O: Motivated fellows witness real life success stories, leading to elevation of their professional aspirations and goals.

OC: Highly driven fellows undertaking executive positions in corporate and public capacity. Current fellows become mentors to future fellows in 10-15 years.

E: Women who find mentors through formal programs receive more promotions than women who find mentors on their own—by a ratio of almost 3 to 2. (Catalys’10)

2) Financial Assistance:

A: LedBy Fellows receive $10,000 Financial Assistance per annum for educational expenses.

O: Continued education for IMW, disallowing able students from pursuing their education due to lack of funds.

OC: Reversing of the falling literacy rate amongst IMW through primary to graduate level education.

3) Access to Educational Institutions: 

A: LedBy partnership with universities will allow our fellows direct exposure to university resources which may range from admission, research opportunity to library access.

O: access to greater body of knowledge

OC: Development of long-term professional skills

E: Muslim women had 87.97% of primary education enrollment which dropped to 9.53% and 3.85% respectively for secondary and senior secondary.

4) Leadership training:

A: LedBy hosts leadership development simulation exercises for decision-making and management scenarios.

O: Acquire interpersonal skills to navigate organizational challenges.

OC: Fellows become leaders of consequence capable of leading global organizations and taking office. 

E: 71% organizations lack a clearly defined strategy and philosophy to develop their women for leadership (Mercer’10).

5) Network:

A: LedBy creates 3-tier membership (Golf/Silver/Bronze) with varied access to resources.

O: Annual growth of LedBy network, creating a support environment for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

OC: Self-sustainable global network of mentorship and learning with minimal organizational oversight.

LedBy will generate in-group social capital and an encouraging ecosystem for Indian Muslim women to have magnifying effect on the country's cohesiveness and economic growth.  

LedBy Foundation, as a part of its 2020 fellowship, serves 24 young muslim women from different parts of the country who are either in the final year of their college or very early in their careers. LedBy currently has 39 high achieving Indian Muslim women as in house advisors. As a part of its social outreach program, LedBy is organising workshops for more than 300 students in partnership with the Ministry of Minority affairs, State government of Telangana. The current social outreach of the fellowship program is 100000 people. 

In 2021, the LedBy Her fellowship will welcome 50 fellows and 50 mentors to maintain the 1:1 fellow-mentor ratio. LBF will also initiate a series of conferences for members of our subscription network where non-selected applicants can also hear from our established speakers. Our events would host 200+ participants who can interact with speakers and seek guidance through Fireside chats, impacting over 250 direct beneficiaries.

In five years, our annual fellow and mentor count would increase to 100. Subscription network would advance to 10000 members. At this stage, we would have established our Impact Investing arm to encourage fellows to explore entrepreneurial ventures backed by LedBy investors. Our capstone program will invite over 25 Indian Muslim run small  / medium sized businesses to gain from experiential learning projects executed by fellows. At this time, the overall DIRECT impact would have reached a total of 3049 people (24 →  250 →  350 →  550 →  750 → 1125).

 Fellowship Outreach:

LedBy aims for over 30% representation from non-metropolitan cities. LBF aims to launch a tech platform which enables the fellows and mentors to reach out to each other and schedule mentorship sessions which will be first of its kind launched specifically for Indian Muslim Women students.

By 2025, we will expand globally with 20 of our 100 fellows pursuing careers internationally. We plan to reach the target of 224 fellows, create a mentor base of more than 200 with experts from different industries with mentors spending a minimum of 4700 hours in mentoring by the end of 5 years. 

Investment / Fundraising:

To support the costs of fellowship, conferences, and speaker series, LedBy will raise over $750K in funding within next year through partnerships and corporate funding.

LBF aims to create a $2M PE fund in the next 5 years to invest in over 10 entrepreneurial ventures founded by fellows. 

Membership Subscription:

Launching the body of knowledge subscription model, LBF aims for 85% conversion rate from fellowship applicants to subscribed members. Creating a brand equity for LBF would help in retaining interest amongst applicants to continue assisting them in their leadership journey.

Partnerships:

Partner with 5 Muslim Universities in India and 10 US Universities within a year. Partner with 5 state governments to increase the reach and Partner with 50 businesses by 2025 to allow all fellows to apply acquired skills in a real-world environment and prove to be confident leaders of the future.

Financial Barriers:

To support the cost of our fellowship program, financial assistance for fellows, skill development workshops, and conferences, LBF needs to raise funds for expansion after a successful 2020 virtual pilot. Due to the global economic downturn due to the COVID-19, we foresee challenges in raising funds. While corporate funding would be an effective avenue to raise funds, it is unlikely to contribute to our financial goals.

Technical:

Due to the current lockdown situation in India, uncertainty around university reopening restricts us from initiating meetings for joint scholarship programs and partnerships. The red-tape bureaucracy of India may also delay the establishment of scholarship programs at government universities in India. Non-Muslim majority of private universities may be hesitant in establishing partnerships.

Furthermore, since small / medium businesses are currently struggling to stay afloat in the current situation, our capstone project discussions may be stalled.

As we aim to organize conferences and workshops for a wider audience, keeping a track of the mentorship sessions and connecting the fellows to the right mentors might be less efficient without a digital interactive platform. The pandemic may also restrict our movement in the organization and limit it to online sessions only. Due to this, the personalized attention desired by our fellows and attendees may be jeopardized.

Cultural:

The vision of our Foundation may be misconstrued in the political climate of India as discriminative or anti-national. Additionally, the reluctance of students and their families to invest their money, time, and effort in our program.

Financial:

LedBy is working with US universities to raise funds and build research partnerships. We also have crowdfunding campaigns on social media platforms with the help of our renowned and celebrity mentors with expansive outreach. In the long run, we will be self-sustainable through our impact investing arm.

Technical:

While universities in India are closed, LedBy will leverage its team’s network to reach their alma mater universities for the initiation of partnership discussions. Our mentors working in public services have catalyzed discussions with government universities with their lobbying efforts.

While small/medium businesses in India are coping with the pandemic, LedBy can reach out to companies in UAE and surrounding areas with a wide Indian Muslim population as well as low economic impact due to COVID.

Creating innovative virtual interactive platforms with breakout sessions has been put to test during our 2020 virtual pilot program and can be enhanced further through Microsoft Teams and other software platforms. LBF team, using their internal technical expertise and external partnerships will launch an online mentorship platform that will address the growing numbers of fellows, subscribers, and mentors. 

Cultural:

Good Public Relations and Communication, with focus on the quality of mentoring and training at LedBy will ensure clear messaging of our professional, progressive vision and objectives to avoid backlash from politically motivated organizations.

The fellows become our ambassadors to disseminate information about our Foundation and their experience with us. The fellows are our best proponent as well as our testament to our mission and work.

LedBy is currently partnering with a range of organizations and educational institutes. 

• Harvard Kennedy School

  • Harvard Kennedy School’s Negotiation Project: Providing the foundation with tailor made case studies for the fellowship program

  • Center for Public Leadership, Women and Public Policy Program

  • Social Innovation + Change Initiative

• SayItForward.org 

• HubDot 

• LeanIn Circles

We have amongst our supporters Harvard Law School’s Transactional Law Clinics as well. LedBy is collaborating with Rising Beyond the Ceiling, an initiative to bring representation for the Indian Muslim women who have done exceptionally and inspiringly well at a national and international level. Currently, LedBy’s Outreach Team is working closely with RBTC (a project by United Nation’s staff) to put together a database of Inspiring NRI (Non Resident Indian) Muslim Women.

Our business model stands on 4 key stakeholders and is a hybrid of ‘Entrepreneur Support’, ‘Market Intermediary’, and “Free-for-service” models.

Fellows

Impact – Our fellows representing IMW receive annual fellowship benefits including one-to-one mentorship sessions, leadership workshops, speaker series access, monthly weekend retreats, and soft-skill training. Fellows also receive $10,000 in financial aid. Fellows will benefit from LedBy fellowship through developmental and financial assistance to propel their careers.

Revenue – Agree to an income-sharing contract for a limited period, wherein they share a portion of their future monthly income with LedBy.

University Partners

Impact – Get intellectual research capital in the form of our fellows and leverage our network for yearly surveys and whitepaper publications. Institute scholarships at top Indian universities to attract top talent.

Revenue – Donate funds to LedBy in the form of research stipend and help us develop curriculum, host panel series/workshops, run sensitization sessions for international students to impart knowledge on Muslim culture.

Business Partners

Impact – Gain access to human capital for their small/medium business needs in the form of consulting and freelancing services

Revenue – Reward LedBy for consulting services on a fixed fee basis depending on the Statement of Work.

Impact Investing

Impact – Empower our fellows and IMW associated businesses to gain financial capital from LedBy to realize their business needs and generate high repayment on investment RoI.

Revenue – Offer voting rights on board and share percentage equity with LBF in terms of RoI with a lower interest than bank offerings.

Currently, LBF is dependent on grants and donations from Harvard Kennedy School and High Net Worth Individuals. In the next 2 years, LBF will go for a mix of donations, grants, and raising investment capital for its sustainability in the short term. For our longer term plans we are exploring the following avenues for generating revenues for the foundation:

• Grants and Aids: Innovation challenges such as MIT Elevate, Grant from educational institutions such as Harvard, donations from High Networth Individuals and Organisations with shared interests

• Equity: Sharing percentage equity in LBF with the investors for their financial support to the organization

• Impact investment arm: Raising investment funds to invest in eligible ventures/start-ups of Indian Muslim Women with an Income sharing agreement with LBF and the investor.

• Research Projects: Taking up paid research projects which will impact the Indian Muslim community and will align with the vision of the foundation

• Charging other NGOs and private entities which would like to use our curriculum/program  for their beneficiaries

• Monetising the mentorship digital platform for the usage of NGOs or educational institutions for their mentorship programs

 $30,000 from Harvard University as part of the Cheng Fellowship

 LedBy has a strong self motivated team who are passionate about the vision, working pro-bono for the first half of the financial year 2020. The estimated expenses for the year 2020 is USD 30000. The cumulative budget for the next two years is USD 450K which will include the operational expenses and the financial aid to the fellows.

 In India, while the number of women graduating from colleges is increasing every year, sadly, their participation in the workforce is on a declining trend. LedBy believes that education does not necessarily convert to employment especially for socially disadvantaged women in a deep-rooted patriarchal culture. LedBy’s goal is to bridge the gap between graduating and getting into a career that suits the abilities of the individual and translates it to a higher representation of Indian Muslim Women in boardrooms and positions of power in organizations. 

The MIT Solve - ‘The Elevate Prize’ will help LedBy in 4 major aspects. First, increasing the global visibility of the foundation,  allows connecting with like-minded organizations. This aligns with our plan to go global in the next two years and to partner with international educational institutions. 

Second, access to world-class mentors, advisors, and powerful network facilitating interaction with other innovative solutions and organizations working for a similar cause in other regions of the world not just with the Muslim community but also with other disadvantaged communities. 

Third, strengthening our brand which will help in tackling the religious label and anti-national sentiments that might develop given the communally tense atmosphere of the country. It will establish the image of LedBy for its vision alone, which is to provide opportunities to disadvantaged young Muslim women of the country. 

Fourth, the access to funding, to continue our journey of catering to IMW by giving the best possible mentorship and training and financial aid.

The primary goal of our foundation is to cultivate and encourage the success of Indian Muslim females. To achieve this, we would like to primarily partner with Indian Universities, as well as Indian Ministries. 

We are also planning on partnering with different programs within American Universities. Some examples of institutions we are looking to partner with are: Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi University, Indian Ministry of Education, Indian Ministry of Minority Affairs, Indian Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, and Duke Islamic study center. Our partnership with Indian Universities will advance our project by allowing us to create a joint scholarship program to help us identify top talent and reward them. Additionally, contacting these Indian Universities and Ministries will allow us to host events and conferences to wider audiences, including our fellows and any other interested Indian Muslim female. This allows our chosen cohort to interact with and learn from celebrated speakers. Our partnerships with Islamic centers of top U.S universities will help advance our project by helping us gain financial and intellectual capital, such as additional resources and opportunities for our fellows.