As chief development officer, Aparajita Bhalla leads the Rainforest Alliance’s integrated fundraising strategy and efforts that enable the organization to deliver on its mission and impact. She brings more than 20 years of experience in corporate management, philanthropy, and non-profit partnerships.
Bhalla oversees a global team that is responsible for managing and growing a diverse portfolio of revenue streams, including grants from foundations, governments and multilateral agencies, corporations, as well as funds raised from individuals, cause marketing, special events, and capital campaigns.
Bhalla joined UTZ in 2015, which later merged with the Rainforest Alliance in 2018. At the time of the merger, she co-led the internal strategy unit responsible for developing an innovative and impactful strategic plan that would set the foundation for the new organization. Most recently as the Rainforest Alliance’s senior director of markets transformation, Bhalla spearheaded the development of the organization’s vision and approach to shared responsibility for more ethical supply chains. She has always been inspired by the opportunity to leverage the skills and resources of global business to advance conservation and sustainable development.
Prior to the Rainforest Alliance, Bhalla started her career in consumer marketing at Johnson & Johnson in India but was drawn to the magnitude of the development challenges the country faced; and moved on to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She spent the next decade working on a first-of-its-kind scaled public health program in India to address its emerging HIV crisis. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hindu College, New Delhi and a master’s in business administration and marketing from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. Bhalla is based out of our New York City office.