Most large-scale programmes fail not from lack of funding — but from a structural gap between what is designed and what systems can deliver.
Design Without System Fit
Programmes are well-crafted but misaligned with government capacity, culture, and constraints. They work in ideal conditions; they falter in real ones.
Execution Without Ownership
Programmes are delivered with commitment, but government ownership remains shallow or absent. When external partners step back, the work does not continue.
Pilots That Don't Scale
What works at district level falters when extended across states — because system conditions change, and the design was never tested against that reality.
Scale fails when what is designed does not align with what systems can deliver — and sustain. Evidence fails when it cannot withstand independent scrutiny. Catalytic Corps exists to close both gaps.
5+ years of institutional impact
From individual non-profits to large government programs — each engagement leaves institutions measurably stronger and more capable of sustained delivery.
Explore our workTwo integrated practices. One purpose.
Pure advisors do not have the research muscle to produce credible evidence. Pure evaluators do not understand what government adoption actually requires. Catalytic Corps does both — which is why our adoption advice rests on independently verifiable evidence, and our evaluations are designed to be acted on, not filed.
Government Adoption Advisory
Ensuring programmes are designed for the systems meant to sustain them — and that those systems are genuinely ready to adopt.
Ambitious programmes regularly fail to scale — not from lack of effort but because the design assumed ideal conditions, government ownership was never built, and the transition from pilot to system was never planned. We close that gap before it costs further investment.
- Design for Scale & Government Adoption
- Programme Management & Execution (PMU)
- Institutional Strengthening
- Leadership & Learning Journeys
Research & Evaluation
Producing rigorous, independent evidence that informs design, validates outcomes, and earns credibility with funders and governments.
Evaluations that are commissioned by the same parties funding a programme are rarely trusted by the governments expected to act on them. Our research is designed to be credible precisely because it is independent — and because it is designed for use, not for archive.
- Independent Impact Evaluations
- Landscape & Ecosystem Mapping
- Primary Data Collection
- Sector Research & Policy Analysis
Before committing further investment to a programme moving toward government scale — know exactly where it stands.
The G-ART Compass is Catalytic Corps' structured diagnostic that enables organisations to assess whether a programme is designed for system realities, whether the government system is ready to deliver it at scale, and what specifically must change before further investment.
- Foundations planning scale investments
- CSR arms assessing government partnerships
- NGOs navigating pilot-to-system transitions
- Implementation partners reviewing scale readiness
The G-ART Compass assessment is available as a facilitated diagnostic engagement. Contact us to begin.
Built on 20 years inside government systems.
Catalytic Corps was founded by Sandeep Mishra — a government reform practitioner with over two decades of large-scale education programme leadership and five years building an independent consulting practice at the intersection of public systems reform and philanthropic scale.
The firm was founded on a hard-won insight: most large-scale development programmes fail not from insufficient funding or weak design, but because of a structural gap between what external partners design and what government systems can actually absorb, own, and sustain. We built Catalytic Corps to close that gap — systematically, practically, and with rigour.
Most large-scale development programmes fail not because of insufficient funding or weak intent, but because of a structural gap between what external partners design and what government systems can actually absorb, own, and sustain. I built Catalytic Corps to close that gap — systematically, practically, and permanently.
If your programme is ambitious enough to need government systems — it needs to be designed for them.
Whether you are planning the next phase of scale, commissioning a rigorous evaluation, or simply trying to understand why a strong programme is not getting adopted — we should talk.