Gautam Bastian

Generalist · Economist · Grant Strategy · Impact Evaluation

Summary

An applied economist focused on helping development teams run smarter and more efficiently. I partner with funders, researchers, and field teams to bridge the gap between data and real-world execution. Building better operational processes and leveraging technology helps cut down project timelines, reduce administrative friction, and maximize limited resources for practical, scalable results.

Experience

Director of Mission Advancement
St. Jerome Academy · Hyattsville, MD
  • Retained ~90% of 53 donors through sustained organizational change, securing $2.2M in individual contributions and supporting an additional $1M foundation grant — bringing total campaign commitments to $3.2M toward a $4M goal.
  • Built a federal grant pipeline and centralized management of 6 public and private grants — growing grant revenue 50% and freeing capacity to pursue a new $200K federal grant for the first time.
  • Caught a ~10% structural budget shortfall traced to fees frozen since 2017; launched a scholarship fund campaign to begin closing the gap.
  • Helped establish a School Advisory Board and Finance Committee by aligning parish leaders, school leadership, parents, and donors — bridging siloed teams to create governance structures previously absent.
  • Provided strategic continuity across a $4M+ campus capital project through two leadership transitions, navigating legal, regulatory, and stakeholder complexity to reach county submission and approval.
  • Grew daily website traffic 156% and eliminated negative feedback by building communications infrastructure from scratch — 2 website rebuilds, 100+ written pieces, and 4 recurring content products.
  • Grew after-school program revenue 50% ($100K → $150K) and cut admin time 60% by redesigning billing from weekly to semester cycles.
Consultant
World Bank · Washington, DC
  • Conducted market research scoping study that secured $10M in funding for the Africa Gender Innovation Lab, identifying cost-effective programs to close economic gender gaps.
Research Consultant
Harvard Business School · Washington, DC
  • Updated HBS case on Mindspark, demonstrating that ROI and learning gains were driven by teachers' use of the technology, not just the software platform.
Research & Program Manager
Precision Development · Washington, DC
  • Designed and executed an A/B test for a mobile advisory service that reduced message volume while increasing user engagement by 33%, significantly improving impact per dollar spent.
  • Facilitated due diligence and investment strategy for a climate-resilience tech fund serving 50,000 farmers, assessing scalability while mitigating execution risk.
  • Secured $3M+ in competitive funding to expand digital services across 7 countries; authored the strategic plan for a $150M USAID investment thesis on digital agriculture productivity.
  • Raised $1M in grant funding for a project to serve ~2M dairy farmers with innovative financial inclusion models for water tanks to build climate resilience.
  • Presented policy recommendations to USG leadership for a $150M digital agriculture investment targeting 100M farmers at Unlock Aid 2022.
Economist
World Bank, Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region · Washington, DC
  • Managed and co-designed a $5M impact evaluation portfolio across East and West Africa, bridging major funders (USAID, ExxonMobil Foundation) with grassroots partners (CRS, TechnoServe) to align investment strategies and increase long-term program effectiveness.
  • Systems Improvement for Social Safety Nets: Partnered with Catholic Relief Services to evaluate a Nigerian graduation program; demonstrated that shifting to quarterly payments cut administrative burdens by 50% while maintaining full community impact, directly influencing $750M in subsequent funding designs.
  • Workforce & Fintech Social Return: Assessed training models in Ethiopia and Tanzania; found psychology-based mentoring and mobile savings drove 75% higher profits than traditional technical curricula.
  • Capacity Building: Built real-time impact infrastructure for partners including ACDI/VOCA and Promundo, enabling field teams to track performance data without administrative friction.
  • Collaborated with U.S. government partners and foundations to advocate for a $2B+ fund for women-owned small and medium enterprises.

Education

Master of Public Administration — Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis
Columbia University · New York, NY
B.A. in Economics
St. Xavier's College · Mumbai, India

Selected Publications

Economic Development and Cultural Change · 2022
With Mehrab Bakhtiar and Markus Goldstein.
Center for Global Development · 2018
PLOS ONE · 2018
With Ruti Levtov, Kate Doyle, Vandana Sharma, and Gary Barker.

Skills

Languages English, Hindi, Marathi (all native)
Grant & Portfolio Grant management, grantmaking, portfolio management, due diligence, impact assessment, cost-effectiveness, expected value analysis
Research Methods RCTs, quasi-experimental design, meta-analysis, A/B testing, cost-benefit analysis, impact metrics
Technical Tools Excel, Stata, Python, R, CRM, Asana, GIS, Microsoft 365, AI-assisted research
Domains Impact investing, global development, nonprofit management, government relations, network building

Certifications

  • Measuring Social Norms — The World Bank
  • Questionnaire Design — University of Michigan
  • Python — University of Michigan
  • Social Network Analysis — University of Michigan
  • Project Management — Harvard Extension
  • Randomized Evaluation Training — MIT
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