Every Saturday, without fail, M S Mahala compiled job openings from the ngo ecosystem and shared them online under a simple hashtag: #hiringinsocialsector. What began as a small effort during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has now continued for 283 consecutive weeks, supporting 1000+ nonprofits, and building a community of 3,00,000 active job seekers across platforms like WhatsApp and LinkedIn. Today, through Ground Zero, Mahala is working to make careers in the social sector more accessible, transparent, and efficient for both aspiring professionals and organisations across India and APAC.
A Journey That Began in Rajasthan
M S Mahala grew up in Sikar, Rajasthan, where he studied at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Patan, Sikar from Class 6 to Class 12. Like many students of his generation, he initially dreamed of becoming a cyber expert. However, after enrolling in a Bachelor of Computer Application programme, he realised the course did not align with his aspirations and dropped out.
Following what he once considered a “wasted” one-year break, Mahala chose a different direction. He pursued Geography honours at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) between 2012 and 2015, a decision that gradually reshaped his future.
While at BHU, he became actively involved in student clubs and helped organise annual blood donation camps. Those experiences introduced him to community work and made him realise that contributing to society gave him a stronger sense of purpose. Determined to build a career in development, he went on to complete a Master’s in Development at Azim Premji University (APU) from 2015 to 2017.
Learning the Ecosystem From the Inside
At Azim Premji University, Mahala was part of the student-led placement team, giving him an opportunity to understand recruitment processes from both the employer’s and candidate’s perspectives.
His professional journey began with a four-month stint at Swatantra Microfinance, but he soon realised he was more interested in working closely with non-profit organisations than in finance.
In August 2017, he joined Quest Alliance, where he spent the next five years supporting young women studying in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics. During this period, he also co-piloted the Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP), a self-employment initiative that eventually expanded across 12 states. Post this, he spent 2 years at iDreamCareer understanding business, finance, and strategy while driving operations across India.
These years helped him understand not only how development programmes scale but also the persistent talent challenges faced by organisations working on the ground.
The Pandemic Exposed a Larger Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic became a defining moment in Mahala’s journey.
While speaking to The Logical Indian, he recalled noticing an unusual contradiction. Reports suggested that 12-13 crore Indians had lost their jobs, yet NGO Human Resource teams continued to say that they were unable to find suitable candidates.
His conclusion was straightforward.
“This is not the talent problem; this is the access problem.”
For Mahala, the issue was not a shortage of capable people but the lack of information reaching those searching for opportunities.
To address this, he launched the LinkedIn hashtag #hiringinsocialsector. Every Saturday, he collected job openings from around 10 to 15 non-profit organisations and shared them publicly. What started as a small initiative gradually evolved into a nationwide network connecting thousands of job seekers with organisations looking to hire, and picked the moment!
Mahala curating jobs using #hiringinsocialsector for job seekers
Bridging the Social Sector Access Gap
As the initiative expanded, Mahala recognised another challenge within the sector.
Many organisations had outdated websites, making it difficult for candidates to understand their work, organisational culture, or available opportunities. To address this challenge, Know the Social Sector podcast was launched. The podcast provides candidates with in-depth insights into non-profit organisations, empowering them to make well-informed career decisions.
In conversation with The Logical Indian, Mahala explained that the conversations went beyond introducing organisations. By interviewing CEOs about hiring requirements, career growth opportunities and, importantly, salary ranges, the podcast aimed to give candidates “easy access to information” before they applied or attended interviews.
Scaling Impact: Ground Zero Redefines Social Sector Recruitment
In January 2024, Mahala and his co-founder & CEO, Sanjana Binwal, decided to build Ground Zero full-time as a bootstrapped organisation.
Traditional non-profit recruitment in India often stretches over 3 to 4 months, creating critical operational delays for mission-driven organisations striving to meet strict CSR deadlines and field targets. This delay isn’t just an administrative hurdle- it’s a bottleneck for the entire development ecosystem. By reducing the social sector talent acquisition cycle from months to just 15-30 days, Ground Zero functions as an essential ecosystem enabler. Streamlining NGO recruitment in India ensures that crucial funding, leadership, and ground-level interventions reach underserved communities without friction.
Ground Zero is a next-generation talent and advisory firm dedicated to powering the social impact ecosystem. They partner with nonprofits, foundations, and mission-driven institutions to build strong leadership pipelines, resilient hiring systems, and future-ready people practices. Ground Zero helps organisations reimagine talent. By blending deep sector knowledge with data-driven insights and technology, they enable nonprofits to attract, grow, and retain exceptional leaders.
They work as long-term talent partners to their nonprofit clients, helping them design inclusive talent strategies, strengthen organisational culture, and adapt to the evolving world of work. Their team brings together expertise across philanthropy, development, and human capital- ensuring every match they make contributes to both individual purpose and institutional impact.
Ground Zero’s mission is simple yet bold: to strengthen the talent backbone of India’s social sector – because solving the world’s toughest problems begins with the right people.
Empowering Future-Ready Talent for India
Solving the talent crunch in India’s 13-15% growing development sector requires more than filling entry-level positions; it demands robust leadership pipelines and equitable talent retention strategies. Ground Zero is driving a structural shift across the social sector by advocating for strict salary transparency in social impact hiring. By refusing to work with organisations that withhold salary ranges and actively guiding professionals through cross-sector transitions, Ground Zero helps non-profits attract, retain, and nurture high-caliber talent for sustainable development sector careers.
For those planning careers in development, Mahala highlights three qualities as essential.
The first is context, or developing a deep understanding of the issue one is working on, whether in education, climate, or public health.
The second is self-learning, especially as technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital data systems continue to reshape development work.
The third is maintaining a strong problem-solving approach, recognising that solutions must adapt to local geography and changing community needs rather than relying on a single formula.
Looking Ahead
As Mahala mentioned, to bridge the access gap at scale, Ground Zero‘s long-term bet centers on 1Jobboard, an AI-powered platform launching in 2026 designed to connect applicants with social impact organisations in real time. By eliminating expensive subscription barriers and integrating targeted upskilling initiatives for women returning from maternity breaks, the platform ensures that the future of social impact recruitment is both technologically advanced and deeply inclusive.
Beyond recruitment, Ground Zero advocates for healthier organisational cultures, ensuring leaders and teams keep shared values and workplace culture where people and purpose are at the centre of their operations.
Ground Zero has consistently advocated for salary transparency, choosing not to work with partner organisations unwilling to disclose salary ranges publicly. Through this approach, the organisation has encouraged more transparent recruitment practices across the ecosystem.
Team Ground Zero, during a team retreat in Goa, April 2026
Today, Ground Zero partners with more than 150 non-profit organisations, including Peepul, Language and Learning Foundation, Udhyam, Quest Alliance, and Swades Foundation, while operating with a fully remote team of 12 members.
“Ground Zero is an incredible force and is changing the way that search firms work to great effect. As a fast-growing organisation, both speed and quality are important to us, and Ground Zero brings exactly the right kind of energy and pace to their work. I would recommend Ground Zero very strongly,” says Kruti Bharucha, CEO and Founder, Peepul.
“Everyone shares resumes, but Ground Zero takes it to the next level. The team sits in for a few interviews to get a sense of the softer aspects of the role the organisation is looking for. Ground Zero is not a vendor or a consultant; they are a partner to us,” says Rahul Karatria, Sr Director at Swades Foundation.
From a student in Sikar, Rajasthan exploring for his own career direction to building an organisation dedicated to solving the social sector’s access challenge, M S Mahala’s journey reflects how identifying one persistent gap can create opportunities for thousands of others. Through Ground Zero, he continues working towards a social sector that is not only growing, but also more transparent, accessible and prepared for the future.
The Logical Indian Perspective
M S Mahala’s journey shows that one of the biggest challenges in the social sector is not the lack of talent, but the lack of access to opportunities. By promoting faster hiring, salary transparency, and better career guidance, Ground Zero‘s support make the sector more accessible and inclusive for aspiring professionals.
As India’s social sector continues to grow, connecting purpose-driven people with meaningful opportunities could be just as important as creating those opportunities.
What more can be done to make careers in the social sector accessible to the next generation?
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