Her Story
About Malvika
Malvika Khitha is a grants, operations, and nonprofit strategy professional with experience in philanthropy, fundraising, data management, program evaluation, and organizational development. She currently serves as Grants and Data Administration Manager at the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation, where she has been since 2021 and recently completed five years. In this role, she oversees a multimillion-dollar grant portfolio and manages Salesforce-based grant operations, serving as the primary communication point for applicants and grantees while handling contract negotiations, budget revisions, and stakeholder management. Her career began in 2016 with a grassroots development organization in India, followed by a move to the United States. Her background also includes nonprofit consulting, fundraising, strategy, and social-impact work. She holds a master's in nonprofit management from Columbia University, pursued graduate study in women's studies, majored in sociology as an undergraduate, and recently completed a PhD in business administration through an executive program in the spring. These educational experiences enable her to evaluate projects through gendered, operational, and social-impact lenses.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Malvika
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
It never hurts to ask, and that has been my philosophy for not just my profession, like, professional life, but also my, like, life in general. If you don't ask a question, you're never gonna get an answer, or you're never really gonna get anywhere more than where you currently are.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Take a more holistic approach to your learning, especially in this field. If you have implementation experience, that will definitely aid you into a strategic and an operational role. Having worked with communities in implementation helps guide review of projects and systems.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Lived experience from grassroots in India is hard to translate to operational positions here. Consistent funding prioritization for global issues like clean water vs female education. Junior rank making voice heard among experienced people. Making passionate problems fit into global mandates.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Empathy is very important because in the non-profit space we are responsible for development. Until you can put yourself in someone else's shoes and feel from their vantage point, you can't reorient your mind to feel for their cause and think why it deserves recognition in terms of money, visibility, or connecting with stakeholders.
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