Indian American Deepak Bhargava Named President of One of the Largest Grant-making Foundations in the U.S.

Deepak Bhargava, the newly elected president of the JPB Foundation, one of the largest grant-making foundations in the U.S, wants philanthropy to be part of the chorus of voices that are speaking up for how essential multiracial democracy and its institutions and practices are. 

An expert on social justice movements, he is co-founder of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, which trains and supports early and mid-career people working for social change, especially people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people from working class backgrounds. He has been a lecturer at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies since 2019. 

“The threat to democracy is the single greatest challenge facing our nation,” he said in a JBP press release. “Saving democracy will require building broad alliances across civil society to unite those who may have differing worldviews but agree on bedrock commitments such as the right to vote and the need for representative and responsive institutions. We must work to meet those short-term threats to our formal democratic institutions while also addressing the long-term drivers of our crisis of democracy.” 

The foundation said it plans to spend up to $100 million in additional funds in 2024 to strengthen democracy. Under an expanded mission, it will “help people who have been denied power to build it, so they can change unjust systems and create a more democratic, inclusive, and sustainable society.”

Before joining CUNY, he led Community Change for 16 years, where he worked to strengthen the community organizing field and launched coalitions that achieved major policy reforms at the federal level on issues such as poverty, health care, and immigration. He has trained and mentored hundreds of leaders who’ve play key roles in progressive organizations and social justice movements.

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He has served on the boards of numerous organizations, and is co-author of “Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World” with Stephanie Luce (New Press, 2023) and co-editor of “Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future” with Ruth Milkman and Penny Lewis (New Press, 2021). 

He was a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute from 2020-2023, where he co-authored “The Statue of Liberty Plan: A Progressive Vision for Migration in the Age of Climate Change” with Rich Stolz and “The Death of ‘Deliverism’” in Democracy Journal with Shahrzad Shams and Harry Hanbury, which explores the relationship of economic policy to political allegiances.  He has written extensively about community organizing, public policy related to poverty and economic justice, progressive strategy, civic engagement, and racial justice among many other topics  for various publications. 

Born in Bangalore, he grew up in New York City, where he currently resides. He is married to Harry W. Hanbury, a documentary filmmaker.