Your Visibility Is an Asset: Shilpa Alva on Leading Out Loud

Shilpa Alva is on a mission to fix one of the world’s most fundamental problems: the fact that hundreds of millions of people don’t have access to safe, clean water.

Surge for Water is a women-led nonprofit that went from a nights-and-weekends passion project into a global organization delivering clean water, sanitation, hygiene, and women’s health solutions. And after operating across 12 countries and reaching hundreds of thousands of people, Shilpa shares why the organization has shifted its focus from chasing the biggest numbers to demonstrating deeper, community-owned impact.

We talk about the business principles Shilpa carried from chemical engineering and corporate leadership into the nonprofit sector, why her board encouraged her to become a more visible speaker and advocate, how media appearances build credibility even when the ROI is difficult to isolate, and why nonprofit leaders should begin telling their stories long before they feel fully ready.

Resources & Links

Connect with Shilpa on LinkedIn and learn more about Surge for Water on their website.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Water Matters

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Shopa Alva is on a mission to fix one of the world's most fundamental problems, the fact that hundreds of millions of people don't have access to safe clean water. 15 years later, she built Surge for Water into a women-led nonprofit operating across 12 countries, reaching hundreds of thousands of people with sustainable clean water, sanitation, hygiene, menstrual health solutions. And she hasn't just built the programs. She has also been building up her voice, showing up as a speaker, a storyteller, and a public advocate for global water equity in ways that have really directly expanded what Surge can do. So today in this discussion, we are going to talk a little bit about the business principles that she carried out of her prior corporate world and into the nonprofit sector, what it looks like to scale this organization through some real crisis and the inflection points along the way, and how to be a leader and tell your story in all different stages. So please welcome Shilpa to Missions to Movements.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

I didn't know about this whole brand, marketing, like invest in fundraising, right? Like I just came into it very naively because I didn't have the nonprofit experience. So knowing what I know now, right, if we did that up front, I think that that would have brought some of that growth early on. In the early days, from a program perspective, like we were chasing the numbers, right? Like we wanted to reach like hundreds of thousands of people because we thought that's what donors would want to hear. And we worked in 12 countries, and now we are truer to who we are, right? We're we're not after those numbers. We're after death and like true impact. And the story is very different, and we're we can stand up to that story.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Okay, so your background is really interesting, and I think we need to start there. You started in chemical engineering, and you were also in the corporate business world before founding Surge for Water. And I'm always curious for those that do make the shift into a nonprofit leadership role, and there's always this conversation around like nonprofits are businesses. Like, A, do you agree with that? And B, like, have there been principles or things that you've intentionally brought with you from your prior like career experience into now leading Surge for Water?

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yes. Thank you for that question. So I do agree to a certain extent, right? That nonprofits are like businesses because there's definitely aspects of it that need to be run the same way. I think there's different ways of running businesses. So if you're running it compassionately and with humanitarian agendas, then sure there are similarities. I'd say for me, the experience I had in chemical engineering, the business world, there were definitely several elements or experiences that carried over.

From Corporate Career To Nonprofit

SPEAKER_02 4:13

So from the engineering side, that was more my education, a little less the sort of the work experience. But in like the chemical engineering space, it's all about like processes and you know, process controls and everything is so structured, right? And what goes in must come out, and all of these kinds of like technical things, you know, things I cannot remember anymore. But the the training, the training was with me, right? Before intense undergrad years. And that structure, like till today, like with Surge, we're dealing with the global water and sanitation crisis, right? Billions of people don't have access to these basic needs. And the issues are very complex, and it's easy to get overwhelmed and just feel like

Engineering Discipline And Financial Basics

SPEAKER_02 4:56

that it's so daunting to address it. But the chemical engineering training like helps me break it down into small, bite-sized pieces that you can treat, like with a simple process, right? And you break it down into like a simple mass balance or something like that. And it's helped, right? That engineering like discipline has helped take really complex things and like look at it into smaller pieces and fix that, right? Or address that, even if you can't fix it. So I'd say that's the engineering side. The business side, I think that's really I'm fortunate that I had that experience because my business experience allowed me at a young age to have a global department that I managed, right? And help me with global like cultural exchange and like learning. And I also owned my own P ⁇ L, right? So I had to create budgets and balance books and right and do all of those financial pieces. So it was really easy for those pieces of it to come into running my own organization and understanding, right, that books need to balance, that you're you need the money to spend the money and you need to have like money to invest in future months. And the cash flow statement is still the statement I look at the most, right? That's right. And I grew up that way because I was looking at it because I managed apartment, I managed salaries and staff and expenses. And the difference was in the business well, I didn't have to raise that money because I just I wasn't I had an expense account, you know, like a like was raised by the sales department. So now yes, adding the additional complication of right now the sales and the marketing, which I didn't have in the business.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

The fundraising is now your task, the funds, which I do want to ask you about. So, like obviously, the world water crisis is huge, and there are many organizations in that work, in that community, that collaboration, that ecosystem to try and make a shift there. And I think a lot of organizations listening could probably relate to this that in their cause area, there's a multitude of organizations doing like-minded things. Where have you found your story that is distinct and unique that shines through, that captivates your supporters?

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yeah, I think in the early days, it was definitely about people meeting us, like me, my, you know, original, you know, the starting board, like people you know, because we started in a very grassroots way. And I think when you have such a big issue, when people can trust you, right? The leaders of the organization and the people running it, it's a lot of the initial support were friends, family, colleagues, right? Of myself, but also like board members who were, you know, are involved even till today. Until today, that's a lot of the connections, right? People want to know somebody part of it when you're an org that's small and growing. So I'd say that's one aspect, but now that we're going broader, right? And, you know, have foundation and grant money and corporate money, the story that's resonated is our model, right? That we work, like we have two aspects that we talk about quite heavily. It's uh where everything that we do is truly community-owned and led by women. And the global water crisis disproportionately impacts women and girls.

Finding A Distinct Story In WASH

SPEAKER_02 8:05

But the people running these organizations don't look like me very often. And, you know, and I did not grow up in an environment that I had to carry water long distances, but I menstruate and like, you know, you deal with water in a different way. And I think just having that understanding and like being in a space where at the leadership level, board level, but also in the communities and at the you know, the grassroots level, it's a lot of women that are in front and you know, with in the management positions and the education positions, even in the infrastructure positions, I think that like resonates with people, right? Like we're solving the issue with the people closest to the challenge. And in our opinion, that's really the best way to do it. And people can resonate with that message. So once you look at our model and how we do our work, I think that's helped us create like a niche within the space.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

And what I love about it is that you haven't been, yes, you're leading things operationally, but like you're here, you're speaking on podcasts, you you're positioning yourself publicly as an advocate. I talk about this all the time. And like you just said, like it starts with the trusted leader. Maybe you always knew this, but like that your voice was like, no, yeah, I didn't always know that. It was like crucial to the success of the organization. Like, did that become more intentional to speak and speak on behalf of the organization? Like, how have you structured that for yourself as the leader?

unknown 9:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

So I think when, you know, just being a founder and how passionate I am about this work. Like, if anybody just spoke to me, then of course, like I'm the evangelist for this kind of work, right? And I and I know that passion comes through. It comes through when I'm recruiting board members, volunteers, or staff, like new staff or consultants. Like that comes through. But this transition to like being more public about it, more intentional, like just even this opportunity to speak with you, Dana, like that was definitely driven by my board and like specifically Sarah on our board, who's like our marketing chair and actually on our board chair right now, which was very much like sure, but you're our biggest asset. Like, we need to invest in you, your voice, because what you're doing with me and with others needs to be heard. Like that warmth, that energy, that passion needs to be heard at a wider space. So that was intentional. It is a strategy from like, you know, as we look at our growth and plans, but it definitely didn't come for me because, you know, you're just like any opportunity to speak about what you love, like, great, but like to be intentional about it takes a little bit more thought, right? And structure about how you're gonna do that and what spaces are you gonna be in. And so that's what we're working on now, but it took time, it took time to get us there. And I'd only say like we've been around for over 15 years, and we're probably only got to the space in the last few, right? Because so it took us a long time, and I'd recommend that leaders do that earlier if they realize there's so many platforms out there now to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

I know. I was gonna ask you that. So, how has your schedule or your balance of time changed? I love this because, and she listens to this podcast, Megan, I'm shouting you out, a fellow founder of a board chair of an organization that is very much the public advocate within the United States, and her organization is Ethiopian based. And I mentioned you have to get out at these like Ethiopian functions in the US, like to raise, we talked about who her donors were, and it's like you need to be out there, you need to be in person, like having the conversations, like you can only do that. Like, what are the things that, and I think this is probably what Sarah on your board was like, you can distinctly do this because of your story and who you are. Like, they can't just go and do that for you at the level that you can. So, like, how has that changed? What did you step back from to be able to like step into this kind of new, I wouldn't say new, but like another way of evolved role.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah. I think I'm still figuring it out. So I would say that we're in it now and we're transitioning in it. And I think even as so we have like, you know, quite a bold like 2030 strategic plan. And in that plan, I'm required to do even more of it, right? And step more into this like advocate fundraiser awareness builder. And so that's still in flux. But I would say that the biggest pieces have been, you know, like releasing more. Again, when you're a founder and you're you start an organization, you're doing everything, right? You're doing so much of the admin, the operations, the finance. So I'd say it's letting go of like several of those other pieces. And honestly, the people who have taken them over are so much better than me at it, anyways. Right. So it's like, yeah, but also we had to grow to the size to have those resources, right? It's only about a year ago that we had a global programs wash manager, right? Like so in our space they call Wash, and she's amazing, right? But like until then, like that

Turning The Founder Voice Into Strategy

SPEAKER_02 12:44

was also a big part of my role, right? Or so just having different people take on different aspects that are not my strong suit, yeah, it's really helped.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Since you have started to implement it, have you started to see the ripple effect yet?

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yes, I wouldn't say ripple effect, but we can see the effect, and I think the ripple is still coming, I would hope. You know, we always have these conversations. Like this is interesting because like whenever you invest in marketing and you invest in these things, the direct correlation is hard. Like it would be very interesting that if we're speaking and someone reaches out and is like, hey, I heard you on this podcast, and because of that, I want to become a big donor. Like, that doesn't happen, right, as much. But what happens is like when we have this conversation and okay, we publish in our LinkedIn, it's on our website. So we have a landing page now on Surge's website that shows all of these. And now our development consultant will use that, right? To go out there, or we can use certain links to certain podcasts or certain articles to get a certain point driven home. So, like those kinds of things, I think it's building the legitimacy, the credibility over multiple pieces. And so now if I show up in conference settings, like people will come up to me and it's like, oh, like search seems to be doing really well. We were always doing that, but now we're just speaking about it, right? Yeah, yeah. Coincidence on our correlation, like we've also doubled in size in the last couple of years, like in revenue. So amazing. It is happening in parallel. Yeah, but it is hard to like specifically isolate, like, yes, because I'm doing this, we've been doing a lot of different things. Yeah. And yeah, we do believe, like in our strategic plan, the investment in me continuing to be an advocate and a public speaker and can and speaking and being in the right rooms is still very much part of our plan. So we still see the importance. It's just a little hard to draw that direct correlation.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, sometimes I do love what you said about having the media page on your website, sharing it on LinkedIn, creating that presence there. Like it builds, it works. I'll never forget when I was attending a conference and had really been working on LinkedIn, and this is probably like three or four years ago now. And a lot of the time you like it's crickets on some channels, right? And you're like, oh gosh, nobody's listening. And multiple people were like, Are you the data snyder on LinkedIn? And I was like, I'm a data sniper. I was like, that's hilarious. I was like, I think so. I'm sure, I'm sure there's multiple datas with this name. But I was like, that's hilarious that that's how you're thinking of me. So you mentioned that you've been operating for 15 years. Congratulations, one. That's phenomenal. But that also means you have seen a lot of definitely economic shifts. I mean, we're going through a big one now, a lot of donor trends. There's been a lot of different crisis situations that have happened, evolving conversations. You mentioned women and girls, a lot around equity and equality. When you zoom out over the 15 years, what do you think have been maybe for you defining inflection points that really moved you to scale to where you are now? And that I don't know if that's three or four or five, but like other key moments that you think were really definitive for you?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Yeah, absolutely. So when I started Search for Water, I was doing it nights and weekends, first of all. So for the first five, six years, actually. So it's we're over 15 years old now. I think we're actually 17, but for the first six years, I was still in the corporate world. So I was running the organization really as like, you know, a hobby, I want to say. Yeah. You know, that was when, like, you know, we were raising funds, but we were just existing to provide a few wells and just like very, very, I guess, status quo in the way we were. And that was one of the points when I made the leap into leaving the, you know, making that transition properly, leaving the corporate world and going into running surge full-time. That was definitely a significant inflection point because that was probably the other time in our organization where we doubled and tripled in size in a couple of years, right? But that was a very specific response to going all in, right? Because it makes a huge difference when you're doing that.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

So that was one in the early days, which is, you know, now 10, 11 years ago is when I did that. And then I'd say the when I went in full-time, then the other piece that the first thing that I did, and this maybe has to do with my engineering background, well, definitely, because I didn't, you know, marketing and fundraising came later to me. So it's kind of interesting. Like I first focused on the operations. Like I went in and I was spending time in country with the partners, learning about how to do this work on the ground, right? And developing the model we have today. It's different approaches. That was just all I knew and how I would do it. I probably would have tried to raise the funds first and now, but back then, and I used my own money to do it, right? Because I came from the corporate world. So, like that was an investment that I made in the organization. Once that came to life and we had that infrastructure, which keeps evolving because you have to do that in a complex environment. And then we were able to tell people like that helped, right? That helped get us to the next growth point. Then we went through the pandemic, like every other nonprofit that happened, and that wasn't that long ago. And I would say when that happened, we weren't the org we were today, even if it was only six years ago. But like we questioned, like, can we survive this, right? Because it was really hard. That was the first time in our entire history that we had a 10% reduction in revenue. And like that ended up being like not that bad because so many organizations, businesses had to shut down through that period. So going through that really helped us to like really like look closer at like processes and sustainability and financial sustainability, right? Like things that we may have taken for granted until that point. And I'd say coming out of the pandemic, right, and having stronger, like going through that was when we really saw like the significant growth that we had, like true investment in that's when we started to invest in like our brand, our story in fundraising. And we saw the greatest growth like after those periods. So we'd done the operation side, we went through a crisis, then we intentionally invested in marketing and development. And now I think we're seeing when I talked about doubling in size in the last couple of years, like I know we're seeing the benefits of those investments.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Absolutely. It's interesting. One of my very first episodes, Paige from The Birthday Project talked about during the pandemic, they also, because there wasn't a lot going on

Inflection Points That Drove Real Scale

SPEAKER_01 21:49

programming-wise in the US, that they took a step back and they invested in their brand. They're like, let's redo our brand. And that rebrand got the attention now because they looked legitimate. It was stunning from these new corporate partners that wanted to now be associated, found out about them. And they're like, it was wild. Like, it's not where we had pictured like funds necessarily coming from, but this was the genesis because we invested in this. So it's really interesting whenever I hear that. It's very true. I think there's a lot of resistance of like, well, what's the ROI of brand? What's the ROI of redoing our local?

SPEAKER_02 22:30

We went through that. Yeah. We went through that on our board, right? Because their board members are like, well, that's the, you know. But yeah, I like we did it. We've actually through our history gone through probably two or three brand refers, you know, one like interns doing in your early days, and then one that a pro bonock farm did, which we love. A brand doesn't last forever, right? The world's changing, right? And like has and the space changes, and you change, right? You order changes in the world.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

So I always like to ask this too is like if you were launching now, knowing everything that you know. And you talked a little bit about like marketing, fundraising, but is there anything else that you would do differently? I'm just thinking of the orgs made like in your first three years that you would change or do to really like accelerate healthy growth and sustainability.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

And so part of me is like we're meant to be on the journey we're on, and every lesson learned is part of who we are. But yes, of course, like I just like, you know, as I mentioned, like I didn't know about this whole brand, marketing to like invest in fundraising, right? Like I just came into it very naively because I didn't have the nonprofit experience. So knowing what I know now, right? If we did that up front, I think that that would have brought some of that growth early on. In the early days, from a program perspective, like we were chasing the numbers, right? Like we wanted to reach like hundreds of thousands of people because we thought that's what donors would want to hear. And we worked in 12 countries, and now we are truer to who we are, right? We're we're not after those numbers. We're after depth and like true impact. And the story is very different, and we're we can stand up to that story. So realizing that early on might have helped, like, you know, even focus us, right, and be more laser focused initially. But again, how would you know that if we didn't go through the journey? How do you know?

SPEAKER_01 24:18

So I love that. There was a great, I think it was on LinkedIn that I read where it was somebody talking about they realized that they needed to put together their annual impact report, but they didn't have the time to do like the glossy pages and the deck and all the numbers. And so they're like, instead, we did a really simply we focused on a couple individual stories and how those resonated so much more than saying the big stats because it was readable, it was able to be understood, and it was so core to what the work was that they were doing. Instead of it like glossing over a summary of things or having like a list of like a bunch of donors' names and all this stuff. And it was like we just didn't have time to do that, and we had to get really scrappy, and surprisingly, like that worked even better than like what we traditionally think. So I think it goes back to like what you're saying is what's the truest, like authentic voice of the mission, the organization, and those one-on-one storytelling moments that can be so powerful. I love the work that you're doing and that you have stepped into this role to amplify the work and that the board is really supportive of it and helping to hopefully like make those opportunities. What would you say to somebody who's like on the fence that is in a seminar role but hasn't taken like, oh gosh, I don't know if I should be on panels or on a stage or doing podcast episodes or whatever the stages look In very this is a stage. There's very different stages. But to kind of take that first step.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

I think for me, and everyone's journey is different, right? Like for me, I've always enjoyed and been really deeply grateful for the opportunity to share Serge's story, to share this work, right? Because especially when you work in international environments, right? Like we have the honor to represent these voices of like the communities that we work with. So I've loved every opportunity, of course, right? There's like when you're on bigger stages and bigger rooms, like I get nervous and you know, all those things happen. But if that's the right thing for your organization's message to amplify, and you know, it's just about starting and like finding those opportunities and finding what's comfortable with you because you're absolutely right, right? Like maybe it's just posting more on social media and whatever channel that is. Like that's the first step. So each one, like there's so many different paths to get there, depending on the audience you'll you're going after. Each of us have to figure that out for our own orgs. But for Surge, like this has been one of the paths, and it's, you know,

What She Would Do Differently Today

SPEAKER_02 26:53

as we continue to do it, right? It it continues to help elevate and and I'm all after the same thing, right? We want our work to be amplified and we want that to lead to increased awareness and funding. And this is one of the paths that can get us there.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Can you share as we wrap? Has there been an amazing moment as a speaker out there that has just like wowed you or or made you nervous or something or even a funny story, like something to leave people with?

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Honestly, like so. I just woke in a university last week. So regardless of what rooms I'm in, if I could be in like rooms with like, you know, huge corporate events and I'm speaking on stage, and those are amazing to have that opportunity. But my favorite moments are with students, especially like college kids who are still trying to figure out their journey because I just feel like that's such a like if you talk about ripple effect, like honestly, like to me, one of the most beautiful things is that if something I could say has influenced someone else who's trying to figure out what they want to do in their lives, and I could have helped, I could have helped with that path, like helping ignite that purpose, take that purpose longer, and like having conversations after that when students have reached out and been like, hey, can we talk more? Because I'm on this path, I'm on this journey. Or sometimes years later, people have reached out and it's like, I heard you on this podcast, I heard you speak in this room, and I've started an org and I need help. Like things like that to me are the because that's the true ripple effect. Like, yes, water was my calling, and like what I'm doing with surge was mine, but there are so many other amazing things that can be done out there to amplify good in the world, especially at a time like now. And so it doesn't have to just be a student, but it could be anyone, right? Who could resonate? Like that's magic.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, that's so funny. I did that very early on. And you probably just like made their eyes light up, like, what? Like, this is possible. Like I could do something like this. Exactly. Just thinking back to sometimes when I've shared people like different parts of my career, and they're like, You did what? Right. You never know what the opportunity is gonna present you with. Like, connect with everybody and help open the door for others after you, too. So this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your advice and expertise and wisdom with everyone. Where can they

How To Start Speaking As A Leader

SPEAKER_01 29:21

connect with you?

SPEAKER_02 29:22

I'm on LinkedIn. That's probably where most active. So you can connect with me personally on LinkedIn. And otherwise, Search for Water is on all the channels. So that's to connect with the organization.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

That would be the other way.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Thank you, Sheller, so much for being here today. And yeah, everyone, go reach out to her.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movement. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review wherever you're listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too, so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.