Consortium funding for the Non-profit organisations – it’s about time…

The new law coming in force for mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending by Corporate India is likely to make available largesse in excess of INR 13,000 crore for the non-profit organisations, every year. This is a large sum of money – to ‘give’, and to ‘absorb’, considering the manner in which businesses operate and many of the 3 million strong Indian non-profit organisations operate.

The challenge that the Givers might face could include:

  • identifying the right cause
  • identifying the right operator (the non-profit organisation)
  • Deployment process, monitoring
  • Assessment, evaluation (ensuring impact)

For the Givers, it is of prime importance that the moneys are given to the right organisation(s), utilised for-the-purpose intended, yielding the targeted impact.

Act of Kindness Aesop

As many of the challenges and parameters to be managed are beyond the realm of things that the businesses do on a day-to-day basis, the end-to-end process might require additional (expert) resources within or outsourced from external agencies. That means additional management costs (for the Giver).

This opens up a new possibility for collaboration – Collaboration amongst the Givers.

When the Givers intending to support a common cause come together, leverage their manpower resources and management processes as a ‘Consortium’ (akin to the consortium funding practices in the for-profit sector), management of functions such as identifying the right recipient, deployment, monitoring, assessment, evaluation etc. becomes centralised and shared. Together, it would mean conserving precious money – that could be (additionally) made available to further the cause!

Opportunities for collaboration in the Indian non-profit sector – even at the Giver level – are real. Possibilities are endless. It’s about time we do.

Can we?