Eighty% of India’s highest‑impact nonprofits have achieved “unicorn” scale by partnering directly with government agencies, according to The Playbook for Nonprofit Unicorns, a new research report released by Change Engine.
The study examined 33 organisations that each impact at least one million people or 5% of their target population, and found that leveraging the state’s reach, infrastructure and policymaking power proved the single most powerful lever for rapid growth.
Change Engine’s analysis revealed that nearly half of these nonprofit unicorns secured their first government collaboration within a year of outreach, and that 42% did so through unsolicited, “cold” pitches to relevant officials.
By proactively engaging ministries and agencies, these organisations bypassed long‑held assumptions about bureaucratic inertia and demonstrated that government partnerships can be both accessible and transformative.
Varun Aggarwal, co‑founder of Change Engine, emphasised the importance of this approach: “Government holds unparalleled power to scale interventions. A single policy reform, a new institution or a significant budget allocation can shift societal outcomes non‑incrementally. Nonprofits must proactively partner with the government to create population‑level impact.” His co‑founder, Shubham Bansal, echoed this sentiment, urging mission‑driven organisations to build on evidence, develop public goods and harness both community engagement and market mechanisms alongside state support.
Case studies in the report illustrate these findings vividly. The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy provided technical drafting and advisory assistance to the Ministry of Finance on bankruptcy‑code reform and continues to support implementation under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. SaveLife Foundation’s road‑safety solutions reduced fatalities by 58% on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway and are now being scaled across 100 highways in partnership with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Meanwhile, Rocket Learning delivers digital early‑childhood curricula to 150,000 Anganwadi workers across nine states, with participating students consistently ranking in the top 30% of their classrooms.
Since its founding in 2023 by Varun Aggarwal, Shubham Bansal and Shailendra Nath Jha, Change Engine has supported seven high‑potential nonprofits through its accelerator programme, helping them achieve product‑market fit, scale operations rapidly and raise more than US $2 million in additional funding. The Playbook for Nonprofit Unicorns distils those learnings into a practical guide, arguing that when nonprofits view the government not as a hurdle but as an essential partner, they unlock the capacity to drive deep, systemic change at a population scale.
