Meet Avani Gupta Narang
Avani Gupta Narang is a native Houstonian passionate about social impact work. She currently works as Executive Director at the Indus Cares Foundation (the Foundation) and is the Managing Director of Marketing and Digital Communications at Indus Management Group. Indus Management Group was founded in 2002 by her father, Ajay Gupta, when he purchased his first investment property. Now, 20 years later, Indus Management Group has nearly 40 properties. They are transforming underperforming properties into successful, thriving communities.
Ajay Gupta is an immigrant to the United States and understands the challenges people can face when creating a new life in America. Because of his experience, in 2013, he established the Indus Cares Foundation to support advances in medical care, health and wellness education, and literacy for underserved children. The Foundation is affiliated with Indus Management Group and Indus Communities, and its work is centered on its 37 apartment communities, mainly located in the 77036 and 77081 zip codes of Houston.
In 2017, Narang joined the family business as Director of Corporate Strategy while enrolled in a Master of Business Administration program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Coming from a consulting and finance background, Narang knew she needed guidance in this new industry as she helped to enhance the established strategy at Indus Cares Foundation. After doing her due diligence on the Houston philanthropic landscape, she engaged with Greater Houston Community Foundation to establish a Corporate Donor Advised Fund and eventually enrolled in the Next Gen Donor Institute. Narang has consulted with Understanding Houston to learn more about some of the issues the residents of Indus Management may face. More recently, she has overseen the creation of two scholarship funds in partnership with Greater Houston Community Foundation, the Indus Cares High School Scholarship and the Indus Cares College Scholarship.
In her role as the Executive Director of Indus Cares Foundation, Narang oversees how they can be action-oriented by bringing services to their residents at no cost. Most Indus properties provide affordable apartments for an underserved and lower-income population throughout Houston. Narang and her team have arranged many services for their residents, including distributing food through organizations like the Houston Food Bank, Second Servings of Houston, and Meals on Wheels, dispensing over 6,000 COVID-19 vaccines in partnership with organizations like Hope Disaster Recovery, partnering with Texas Children’s to help residents with child immunizations, and hosting early childhood and ESL classes for adult residents.
Realizing that many of her residents struggle with finding adequate daycare options for their children five and younger, Narang’s efforts have focused on bringing enrichment options to the families within their communities. In 2021, she was introduced to the Collab-Lab, an initiative of Collaborative for Children, while participating in the Next Gen Giving Circle at Greater Houston Community Foundation. Collab-Lab is a mobile classroom that brings early childhood education directly to the community at no cost. It connects parents and their youngest children with experts, educators, resources, and proven programs to ensure that kids have the skills essential to learning when they begin kindergarten. Today, you can find the Collab-Lab visiting two Indus Management Group properties and many more in the near future. This partnership between Indus Cares Foundation and Collab-Lab was a perfect fit because Collab-Lab’s curriculum primarily addresses social-emotional development while bolstering positive child outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Although Narang and her team are dedicated to exploring more options for their residents in the early childhood development space, this partnership is an impactful shift in the right direction.
Narang is action-oriented and is not afraid to seek guidance when she needs to understand more about a particular industry or issue. Narang’s drive has helped provide so many resources to the nearly 45,000 residents she serves, and she is an ideal example of how you can effect change while furthering your family’s legacy. Greater Houston Community Foundation is proud to partner with the Indus Cares Foundation and serves as a resource that inspires and creates meaningful change for our community.
More Helpful Articles by Greater Houston Community Foundation:
- Empowering Futures: The Collective Impact of Grantmaking on Houston’s Unhoused Youth
- How to Start a Scholarship Fund
- Celebrating the Ultimate Boy Mom
- Welcoming Our Newest Leaders: Introducing Our New Governing Board Members
- What is a Private Foundation?
- The Surprising Benefits of Philanthropy on Your Well-being
This website is a public resource of general information that is intended, but not promised or guaranteed, to be correct, complete and up to date. The materials on this website, including all comments and responses to comments, do not constitute legal, tax, or other professional advice, and is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, nor should it be considered an invitation for, an attorney-client relationship. The reader should not rely on information provided herein and should always seek the advice of competent legal counsel and/or a tax professional in the reader’s state or jurisdiction. The owner of this website does not intend links on the website to be referrals or endorsements of the linked entities.