Atul Tandon


Atul Tandon is a nonprofit executive, entrepreneur, humanitarian and author. Tandon currently serves as CEO of Opportunity International, an organization committed to helping those living on less than $2 a day to break the cycle of endemic poverty, transform their lives, and strengthen their families and communities. He leads the organization's activities to engage American donors, funders, corporations, foundations and the public in Opportunity's work; and helps the organization develop programs that serve the global development community's collective goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. Tandon has enjoyed a highly successful 30-year career in a variety of senior leadership positions in industries including consumer banking, e-commerce, humanitarian relief, and development.
In May 2011, Tandon launched the , an advisory firm working with non-profits and social sector enterprises worldwide to maximize their effectiveness and impact. Previously, he served as United Way Worldwide's as the Executive Director of the organization's 41-country International Network and Executive Vice President of Investor Relations. He provided oversight and leadership to United Way's international network, including the advancement of the organization's fund-raising objectives. From 2000 through 2009, Tandon was the Senior Vice President of Donor Engagement for World Vision United States, one of America's largest charities. He served on World Vision's executive team for nine years and led the organization through a .
Prior to his leadership roles in the non-profit sector, Tandon made a number of important contributions in the global financial services industry at Citibank in India, California, and New York, including the introduction of services like ATMs, credit cards, mortgages, consumer loans and remote banking for the first time in India and pioneering customer-centered relationship banking in California and New York.

From the Daryaganj to Wall Street

Tandon was born in New Delhi and grew up in the remote Kutch district. As a young CEO in the mid-80s, he introduced innovative financial instruments into Indian capital markets. In 1986 he joined the multinational Citibank where he played a vital role in building a consumer banking franchise in India, introducing modern banking in the region with services including ATMs, credit cards, mortgages, consumer loans and remote banking.
Tandon moved to the United States in 1992. He played a role in turning around Citi's West Coast businesses in the mid-90s. His work pioneered customer-centered relationship banking and led to his involvement with Citi's Web 1.0 initiatives. He led corporate-wide sales culture and technology change. During Tandon's tenure as Sr. Vice President and Global Branch Distribution Director at Citibank, the bank grew its global consumer networks to more than 146 million accounts with $5.3 billion in income with a presence in 101 countries.

Humanitarian relief and involvement with World Vision and the ONE Campaign

Atul Tandon left the banking industry in 2000 to join the humanitarian organization World Vision. There, he led the recruitment, growth, and cultivation of World Vision's 3.5 million donor, church and corporate relationships in the United States. Further responsibilities included the growth of World Vision's 50-state public engagement network of regional and local offices as well as major gifts and volunteer engagement functions.
Under Tandon's leadership, World Vision consistently grew revenues at double-digit rates, increased its name and cause awareness, and scaled donor satisfaction to all-time highs. His teams launched a nationwide campaign to focus the attention of Americans on the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the plight of widows and orphans in Africa — the HopeChild campaign. He led World Vision's emergency response capacity development, established a significant Web presence, shaped radio and Christian music industry practices, created a corporate engagement platform, started a national radio news magazine and developed a strong brand platform for the organization.
Tandon was one of the leading voices behind the Better Safer World campaign, which later joined together with Bono's DATA organization to birth the ONE campaign in the United States seeking to build awareness and enthusiasm among Americans to address issues of global poverty. In addition, Tandon was a member of World Vision International's executive team providing operational leadership to the international World Vision partnership that runs community development, relief and advocacy projects in nearly 100 countries with 35,000 staff and an annual income of approx. $2.6 billion.

Nonprofit management

Tandon has been widely recognized as a thought leader and changemaker in nonprofit management. He has written extensively on topics ranging from board governance and executive leadership to the changing philanthropic landscape and how to build sustainable funding engines. As a result of his leadership, he was recognized by the Nonprofit Times, as one of America's most influential and effective fundraisers in 2009.
"In October 2017, Tandon was selected to be a member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council, an invitation-only organization for nonprofit CEOs. According to Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the organization is a social capital-driven network that helps every member make an even greater impact on the business world."

Supporter Transformation

Tandon's foremost contribution has been in developing and gaining industry-wide acceptance for a charity's two-sided mission: one that seeks to impact its beneficiaries and the other that seeks to change hearts and minds amongst its donors and supporters. These ideas around Supporter Transformation and the ethics of engaging donors are now gaining widespread recognition.

Publications and interviews online