Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India has collaborated with Oracle and organised three regional workshops across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to help build the capacity of 71 Oracle-supported NGOs to effectively implement CSR projects. The workshops focused on grant management, financial management, programme implementation cycles, legal compliance, and use of digital media to highlight programme impact.
The workshops brought together implementing partners working in diverse areas. In the area of Education, Oracle NGO partners’ projects range from training primary school teachers to deliver science, technology, engineering, art and and maths curriculum in a better way to help and ensure that children stay in school. In the area of Environment, projects range from developing wildlife corridors and providing alternative livelihoods for people living around wildlife sanctuaries to cleaning up lakes. In the area of Community, projects range from training healthworkers in maternal and child care to providing entrepreneurship training.
The workshops were envisioned as a way to strengthen the working relationships among CAF India, Oracle, and Oracle-supported NGOs andexplore how to deliver high-impact CSR projects and programmes that willimprove and transform the lives of the marginalised populations, help students stay in school and develop valuable skills, and protect the natural world for generations to come.
Rajendra Tripathi, Senior Manager, Oracle Corporate Citizenship, India, said, ‘’We are supporting 71nonprofits working to advance education, protect the environment, and enrich communities in India. This requires us to monitorand support projects across 21 states to effectively drive our corporate citizenship strategy. Regional workshops like these are vital to build the capacities of nonprofits so that they can deliver a lasting, positive impact on the ground.’’
In that spirit, the workshops aimed at turning ideas into impact, and objectives into accomplishments, as non-profits were provided a platform to develop mutually agreed upon systems and processes in connection with their Oracle grants.
Meenakshi Batra, CEO, CAF India, added, “To take a CSR project from idea to impact, it is important for all stakeholders to come together on a common platform. CAF India has been working to strengthen the organizational capacity of NGOs in order to create maximum impact for their beneficiaries. We have witnessed several gaps in NGO management ranging from governance and overall management to reporting. Socially responsible companies like Oracle realise the importance of helping their grantees adopt best practices in project management, fiscal discipline, and rigor in the evaluation of their projects’ impacts.’’
These workshops covered a wide range of challenges faced by non-profits and the corporate sector in implementing corporate citizenship initiatives, focusing on legal compliances, nuances of CSR rules, importance of effective communication in the NGO sector, budgets and financial management of the grants for most impactful outcomes.
Gayatri Subramaniam, Chief Program Executive and Convener, NFCSR, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), reasoned, “Proper mechanisms need to be in place to deliver on CSR approaches of the corporate sector. For this, many NGOs would need to strengthen themselves. This can create a multiplier effect to their projects in order to ensure maximum impact.’’
The workshops primarily focused on strengthening partnerships among all the stakeholders in order to achieve common goals.
The regional workshops brought together nearly 200 participants from the non-profit sector, working in the areas of education, environment, and community development, supported by Oracle.
