Menaka Rodriguez has close to two decades of experience in marketing, business development and fundraising for a range of arts organisations including museums, arts festivals, art councils and a theatre company in the United States and India. She heads the Resource Mobilisation and Outreach initiatives at India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). She is responsible for the growth strategy of the organisation, along with the Executive Director. She has been instrumental in building and developing the Individual Donors initiative at IFA. With expertise in archaeology, research and strategic planning, she has worked on projects for several cultural institutions including INTACH; Vasanth Seth Memorial Foundation; Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland; Society for South Asian Studies, United Kingdom; and Afghan Family Guidance Association (AFGA)

Menaka has served on the Faculty of Archaeology and Museum Studies at Madras Christian College, Chennai. She serves as a Core Team Member, Facilitator and Mentor on a capacity building programme for theatre practitioners called SMART (Strategic Management in the Art of Theatre), and is also a resident mentor on Resource Mobilisation for IDEX Fellowships. Menaka has represented the foundation at diverse forums and panels on the arts, grantmaking, fundraising, and philanthropy.

She was an ARThinkSouthAsia (ATSA) Fellow in 2012-13 and was awarded ‘Fundraiser of the Year’ at the India NGO Awards 2016 instituted by the Resource Alliance, India and Rockefeller Foundation. Menaka had also been a part of ARThinkSouthAsia (ATSA) Train the Trainer programme aimed at creating a cohort of art management trainers in the South Asian region. She was one of the International Participants selected for the Arts Leaders Programme supported by the Australia Council for the Arts for 2017-18.