Social Impact Founder + Advisor
Lawyer + Communications Strategist
Equity + Leadership Advocate

Social Impact Founder + Advisor
Lawyer + Communications Strategist
Equity + Leadership Advocate

CULTURE + STRATEGY = IMPACT

Juhu Thukral is Founder and Principal of Apsara Projects, a social impact consultancy. She is a social justice lawyer and founder of social impact ventures focused on rights and opportunity for women and girls, LGBTQ+ people, and Black/Brown/Asian and immigrant communities.

APSARA PROJECTS

Apsara Projects is a boutique social impact consultancy where culture meets strategy to make impact. We use a unique three-prong approach combining change management, communications strategy, and building an Equity Mindset to guide our clients. We partner with them to strengthen their vision and values as they embrace and navigate change.

WHAT APSARA PROJECTS DOES

SOCIAL IMPACT GUIDANCE +
STRATEGIC DIRECTION

BUILD PARTNERSHIPS +
CAMPAIGNS ACROSS SECTORS

IMPACT EVALUATION

BRAND STRATEGY + FRAMING
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE VALUES

WHO WE HAVE WORKED WITH

  • "It was a pleasure to work with Juhu when she was contracted by my organization to carry out a field scan on the state of anti-trafficking and its growth potential in the US. The assessment produced by Juhu - within a tight turnaround time - highlighted strategic opportunities and became an important tool for engaging funders. After its completion, Juhu was entrusted with leading a donor briefing and grantee convening. Through this work, Juhu's vision and leadership lay the foundation for a donor collaborative fund."

    JULIE CALLAHAN, NEO PHILANTHROPY

  • "Juhu worked with Atlantic Philanthropies and our seven global Atlantic Fellows programs to help them identify a shared framework and language around narrative strategy. She also engaged with the programs to help integrate narrative approaches into their work with Fellows. She was a thoughtful and responsive partner throughout the project and delivered high-quality materials (on time) that will be valuable to us and our partner organizations." 

    Benjamin King, The Atlantic Philanthropies

  • "When I was the director of a social justice organization, I hired Juhu to help the organization transition culturally and pragmatically during a time of high conflict and major staff division. Juhu came in with the tools necessary to assess and guide the transition. She was a major support to management who needed a consultant who could jump right in because the managers' work never slowed down. She provided assessment, a roadmap, and on-the-ground leadership that was extremely valuable. She was a pleasure to work with and I would hire her again the next time I need extra help in organizational change or conflict, new program development, or anything similar I may need assistance with." 

    Crystal DeBoise, Urban Justice Center

  • "Juhu’s advice, support, and counsel has consistently been crucial in our work. She is truly an expert when it comes to navigating difficult legal and policy questions, and is always generous with her time and support. Her dedication to women's health, the rights of sex workers and survivors of trafficking, immigrant communities, and social justice is unwavering. Juhu wields her intelligence and experience in these fields to augment larger policy initiatives and messaging. There is nothing that she cannot undertake with grace and success. I will continue to turn to her for this guidance and support as we make impact in our advocacy and cultural work. " 

    Melissa Broudo, SOAR Institute

  • "I had the privilege of working with Juhu as she led Justice in Motion to establish strategic communications priorities around thought leadership and a narrative strategy program at a key moment in our organization's development. As we delved deeper into a multi-year plan, Juhu helped us understand our goals in establishing narrative frameworks and pillars that expressed our core values and vision. Her way of working allowed us to pivot from engaging in communications in a transactional way to aligning our organizational communications with our programmatic impact. Juhu mentored me, and our development and program staff, on best practices of incorporating strategic communications into daily aspects of our work." 

    Yadira Huerta, Justice in Motion

  • "Juhu was the best partner we could have asked for in developing a new strategic plan for our organization. She exceeded our expectations in every way, guiding us through every step as we thought through goals, strategies, and implementation of creating a more region-empowered model. She expertly facilitated strategy discussions and guided our senior leadership team to make difficult and important decisions about the strategic plan and its implementation. At a time of significant internal change for us, Juhu created a critical touchstone for thinking about how to incorporate an Equity Mindset throughout the organization. She blew us away by how organized and adaptive she was, pivoting to meet our needs as they arose and as the project unfolded. Our experience with Juhu stood apart from those we've had with other consultants because of her unparalleled reliability, responsiveness, and adaptability. Her skills elevated our work in ways that will continue to benefit our organization long after our formal engagement with her. Juhu is also incredibly kind and emotionally intelligent, always reading the room with ease and helping us balance a helpful sense of optimism and realism as we encountered challenges. By the end of our process, she truly felt like a member of our team."

    Jamie Berger, Mercy for Animals

  • "Juhu and the Apsara team worked with us to create a name and messaging framework for our new focus area. Her work combines branding and communications skills with a sophisticated understanding of organizational needs, resulting in a name and messaging that reflects our work and our values. In addition, Juhu worked closely with us, almost as an extension of our team, bringing internal stakeholders along as we introduced the new area of work."

    Nicole Allred, Omidyar Network

  • "Juhu and the Apsara team guided us through rapid growth and a major restructure. Their approach to change management is equity-focused, and their team is extremely adaptive and nimble. The entire Apsara team shares a sharp sense of organizational dynamics and brings depth and emotional intelligence to their work. It was a pleasure to work with them, as the Apsara team worked to communicate with and earn trust from all the stakeholders involved in organizational change. Thanks to our partnership with Juhu and the Apsara team, we were able to successfully move through the restructure and growth process while focusing on organizational culture and stakeholder needs. It is my belief that we would not have been able to successfully navigate the change management process without the assistance of Juhu and the Aspara team. Their caring, focused and unique approach was exactly what we needed as an organization at the time."

    Dirk Butler, Center for Policing Equity