We recently connected with Mathangi and have shared our conversation below.

Mathangi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

After spending three years in the private sector—and juggling a lot of public sector projects on the side—I hit a wall. I was deeply frustrated. On paper, things looked great, but inside, I felt disconnected. I knew I wanted to do something more meaningful, something that aligned with my values.

So I quit my job, packed my bags, and moved back to India. No concrete plan, just a deep conviction that I needed to start over—on my terms. My first role in the social impact space was at Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, where I helped launch their Youth Venture program in India. It was a big leap, and I felt both terrified and alive.

My job was to identify young changemakers across the country — youth who were launching bold social ventures in their communities. That’s how I met Manisha, a girl from a remote village in Central India, who had been married off as a child and had a baby by the age of 17. Despite everything stacked against her, she was building a powerful grassroots initiative to prevent child marriage in her community. She had no formal training, didn’t speak English, and had never stepped outside her village before. But she had a fire in her. And she lit a fire in me.

That moment—seeing the raw, untapped leadership potential in girls like Manisha—was the beginning of what would become the next decade of my life: working at the intersection of gender equity, leadership development, and mental wellness. Looking back, I’m deeply grateful I took that leap. I love working in the impact space because it has healed and fueled me since. first jumped into it. And I’ve never looked back.

Mathangi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Mathangi Swaminathan—speaker, writer, monitoring & evaluation consultant, and the founder and CEO of Parity Lab, a global organization that offers mental wellness tools to prevent and address gender-based violence (GbV). I started Parity Lab during the pandemic, and in just four years, we’ve scaled from a grassroots experiment into a growing global movement.
Our work is grounded in one core belief: survivors are not broken people to be rescued—they are powerful change agents. We help them heal, lead, and scale solutions that are rooted in their lived experience. Through our fellowship programs, we support both rural and urban survivors of violence in building trauma-informed organizations and leadership pathways. We’ve now reached over 70,000 individuals through our programming.

After years of seeing how systems repeatedly fail those most affected—especially women and girls—I built Parity Lab to fill the gap. We are one of the only platforms that combines gender equity, leadership development, and mental wellness in an ecosystem designed with and for survivors. What started as a program focused in rural India has now expanded into a global fellowship and a growing network of leaders and organizations working across borders.

Alongside Parity Lab, I also work as a consultant in holistic healthcare and human services, helping organizations build trauma-informed systems of care. I specialize in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), and help teams design meaningful, values-aligned evaluation systems to track both impact and healing. My approach blends data with empathy, systems thinking with lived experience. I am an award winning researcher recognized by Harvard University and work has been published across several international publications and peer reviewed journals.

What sets my work apart is the deep integration of healing and leadership. Whether I’m supporting a survivor-led nonprofit, training a global team, or building out evaluation frameworks, I bring a lens of radical care to everything I do.
What I’m most proud of? That we’ve stayed true to our values while scaling globally—and that everything we build is led by those most impacted. At the end of the day, when survivors lead, systems change—and my work is to make that possible, sustainably and boldly.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your firm or practice?

Funding Parity Lab was less about a big break and more about consistent, intentional relationship-building. Since I designed it as a nonprofit—and didn’t personally know any investors or major donors—I had to start from scratch. I began with what I had: a spreadsheet and a network of about 30 people.

Every day, I’d spend about 20 minutes reaching out, refining my pitch, and asking for feedback. Each conversation helped sharpen my vision—and each person connected me to two or three more. I was diligent and persistent. Within a year, I had spoken to nearly 180 people about the idea. Those conversations weren’t just about fundraising; they were about testing alignment, refining our model, and building trust.

Eventually, this grassroots effort led me to DAWN Worldwide, who became our seed funder. But even more importantly, it helped create a ripple effect: every single one of our future donors has come from that original web of people. One connection led to the next. It wasn’t flashy, but it was deeply relational—and that’s still how we grow today.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Absolutely—without hesitation. I love working in the impact space. Every day, I get to build something that matters, alongside people who care deeply about creating change. And as an entrepreneur, I’ve found a sense of autonomy and purpose that I wouldn’t trade for anything else. It’s not always easy, but it’s meaningful—and that makes all the difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mathangiswaminathan.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathangiswaminathan/
• Other: https://www.paritylab.org/