Endurance International, when it comes to CSR is guided by the simple philosophy of making an impact as also making it more outcome-based. While the organization has been quite successful in making an impact with its recent initiatives, SPO India got into a conversation with Lavita Nathani, Director – HR at Endurance International Group to know more about it –
In the words of Helen Keller –
“The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Inspired by the opportunity to do larger good, Endurance’s Corporate Social Responsibility program is articulated with a philosophy of ‘Making an impact for betterment’ to help the future today. At Endurance, CSR programs are focused on promotion of Health Care, Social contribution, Education & Empowerment of Women. “We believe in this all-inclusive growth, where we balance individual growth with the growth of those who may or may not be directly involved in our endeavors,” says Lavita Nathani, Director – HR at Endurance International Group.
Today most of the businesses are developing corporate social responsibility platforms and programs and it has become an important part of companies’ strategies. There are multiple reasons why any company chooses its CSR activates –
• The role of CSR is to create value for its shareholders but in such a way that it also creates value for society, manifesting itself as a win-win proposition.
• The CSR activities can be driven by its leaders and hence become important as a part of company strategy. It reflects on the human side of the organization.
• The charitable motivations of employees who are already engaged for a cause. A company comes forward to make an equal/ proportionate contribution to match employee’s motivation.
• It serves as an employee engagement platform.
• It also acts and improves a companies’ social standing.
The CSR activities at Endurance are run by its employees and duly supported by the HR team. “At Endurance, CSR is driven with the support of its leaders & employees combined,” reiterates Lavita. “The company has a dedicated team of volunteers who are excited to achieve our CSR goals through in-house team called the Share & Care committee. Our team members help us achieve our goals towards Health Care, Social contribution, Education & Empowerment of Women. As part of our effort to help those in need, we continue to be involved in the various initiatives. Some of them are weeklong celebration with Platelet & Blood donation camp, a NGO Mela, Joy of Giving week and a Laugh and Learn with Improv Story telling at our Mumbai and Bangalore locations,” she explains.
Endurance has a list of calendar activities planned at the beginning of the year along with which the company is also there on the forefront to come out and contribute towards any causes where it can support on Humanitarian Relief.
Recently, Endurance conducted an initiative ‘Story telling session’ for children at the St. Jude India, a child care centre for cancer affected kids. “Endurance turned a Hero for Kids at St. Jude India Child Care. Endurance in partnership with Improv Comedy Bangalore hosted this show for the little Superheroes at St. Jude Lower Parel. Total 4 centers from St. Jude India came together for this show. The show was hosted on 10th September 2016. With more than 60 kids along with their family members were present for the show with around 15 volunteers from Endurance India team represented the organization and helped run the event successfully. Rohit Nair, an employee at Endurance India is an active participant at Improv Comedy Bangalore who was an active member in planning and executing the event successfully. Besides the story telling session, Endurance India had also arranged for snacks & some brownies for the kids for the day,” says Lavita.
St. Jude is a child care center for cancer affected kids. At St. Jude, every child suffering from cancer, irrespective of economic status, deserves to get the best chance of surviving the disease and leading a full, healthy, happy life. St. Jude provides this chance through its well-established model of cost-free, holistic care during the period of the child’s treatment.
So far, the initiatives with St. Jude Center for Cancer relief have been one of its most successful social initiatives. There have been challenges however in accomplishing it.
“Some of the challenges included making sure the Improv group, who usually work with adults understand the age group and work on storytelling for them. To ensure that the end goal of making them learn and also enjoy the session at the same time was most challenging. We overcame it by briefing the group on the requirements and taking to them about the needs. Eventually the event was a great success,” points out Lavita.
Besides this, Endurance had also initiated a Clothes Donation and Newspaper Donation drive across their Mumbai and Bangalore offices to celebrate the ‘Joy of Giving Week’ being from 2nd October to 8th October. A total of 500+ employees participated in the drive which was conducted in their Bangalore & Mumbai offices.
“Through this drive, the proceeds from the clothes donation was donated to Goonj Andheri center in Mumbai and in Bangalore center. The amount collected from newspaper sales was also contributed towards Goonj foundation to help provide the needy with essential items. Endurance has contributed 10 times the total amount collected through sales of the newspaper drive,” Lavita states.
Going ahead…
In the times to come, Endurance wants to keep focus on a few key areas while selecting projects or target institutes. “We however would not like limit to only this and hence would look to partnering with NGOs which are either recommended by our employees who work with them or the NGOs which help us achieve the requirements for our cause,” she concludes. The areas of interests would be –
• Promotion of Education
• Promoting of Health care & Social Contribution
• Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women
• Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
A few of the key initiatives that Endurance has planned for the times ahead are –
• Blood/ platelet Donation drive
• Joy of giving with Newspaper drive and clothes distribution
• School away from school: An initiative to help children learn
• Sponsor & Participate in Marathons supporting cause of women welfare
• Promoting of Health care where we work closely with for cancer affected children & families
