In September 2020, Pradeep Kakkattil was facing difficult questions about his team’s strategic direction. In the two years since he had founded the Office of Innovation at UNAIDS – the United Nations agency for coordinating global action on AIDS – the team had grown from two people to six and had established over 100 partnerships globally.

The case describes how Sadia Khan, president of the INSEAD Alumni Association (IAA), built a thriving organisation that is largely funded and powered by a diverse group of volunteers.