Sunil Lalvani is a social entrepreneur and impact advocate who transitioned from running a global electronics business to tackling one of the world’s most urgent challenges, sustainable access to safe water.

As the founder and CEO of Project Maji (Swahili for water), he now spends his time managing a network of solar-powered water kiosks to ensure long-term, cost-effective solutions for communities across Africa.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025, Project Maji provides more than 300 million litres of clean water to some 400,000 people across rural Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda every year by combining frontline community work with technology and data platforms.

In this wide-ranging interview for the Shaping Philanthropy podcast, Sunil shares how it all began, how he’s brought his family along with him, and what he’s learned about running an NGO operating in Africa.

Sunil reflects candidly about how his approach to money has changed since launching Project Maji and how he’s become more mindful about consumption and waste.

“I run Project Maji like a business, that’s in my DNA, but our North Star is not making a profit, it is about how much impact we can have,” he says.

The conversation with host Anissa Punjani is jam-packed with useful advice for anyone thinking about starting their own nonprofit or expanding a family business CSR initiative.

Dubai-based Sunil also makes a clear appeal to donors to trust the NGOs they fund, and to stop overthinking overheads and running costs.

“We need to reframe how we think about donations,” he says, frustrated that investors have no qualms trusting people to make a profit on their behalf, but when money is being given away, they want to scrutinize how each dollar is spent.

Making the case for supporting water projects, Sunil adds: “Every single day, a thousand kids die due to preventable waterborne diseases…That's how serious this is… So, solving water is a sensible prudent investment, it needn’t be looked at as charity.”

Read more about Sunil's work on Circle here and watch a short documentary about Project Maji here.

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Circle is a partnership between Philanthropy Age and the Pearl Initiative. It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Money alone is not the solution to the challenges we have today. The solution is to get us to change how we how we act.”

That is one of messages shared by Maria Ahlström-Bondestam, a fifth-gen Finnish philanthropist, during her interview on Shaping Philanthropy.

Speaking down the line from Helsinki, Maria shares her family’s journey into philanthropy, explains the focus on women and girls, how she measures impact, and why she takes collaboration so seriously.

A co-founder of the Eva Ahlström Foundation, and the Ahlström Collective Impact inititive, Maria makes the case for influential families to speak up to right wrongs and calls on fellow philanthropists to use their networks and power to speak up for forgotten people.

“We all are role models,” she says. “Either good ones or bad ones and that is somethig we have to remember as members of society. People can be inspired by us, but they can also be put off by us.”

Maria, who trained as a pediatric nurse and went on to work for UNICEF, recalls how her family’s first investment of € 200,000 into a water and sanitation project in a village in India, went on to be scaled by the government to impact 10 million children.

She also talks legacy, values, and finding a cause. “Think about what really matters to you,” she says. “What are your passionate about? What would you like to change? And then have a go… Don’t overthink it.”

During the interview, our host, Anissa Punjani, also asks Maria about her inclusion in a recently-released study into next-gen wealth and impact.

Maria was was of more than 60 people from across 30 countries who was interviewed for LGT Philanthropy Advisory’s Wealth for Impact report, which explores themes of privilege, responsibility, and personal values, and how wealth is created, invested, spent, given, and transferred.

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Circle is a partnership between Philanthropy Age and the Pearl Initiative. It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Nina Hoas and Silvia Bastante de Unverhau from LGT Philanthropy Advisory join Anissa Punjani to discuss their new research paper Wealth for impact: global perspectives from the next generations of wealth holders.

This deep-dive study is based on interviews with more than 60 individuals from 30 different countries, aged between 18 to 77. It examines how wealth holders perceive privilege, responsibility, and personal values, and explores how this wealth is created, invested, spent, given, and transferred.

The report comes as the world stands on the brink on an unprecedented transfer of wealth, with all eyes on the next generation, whose actions are set to re-shape financial landscapes as well as wider society.

During their interview, Hoas and Bastante de Unverhau talk about where the idea for the study came from and highlight some of the key findings, including a strong focus on values, how next-gens are seeking out more blended approaches to giving and impact, and a surprising openness when discussing what is often a taboo topic.

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Circle is a partnership between Philanthropy Age and the Pearl Initiative. It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.