We have structured the funding process into three simple yet critical steps.
(a) Understand
We invite you to have detailed deliberations with us on your view of programmatic grants/donations and understand the causes that you care for. The discussions will venture into the specific contexts in India based on our experience. With mutual clarity on the interests and the context, we can discuss each of the non-profits in our India portfolio or your own portfolio.
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(b) Engage
With the context, we can prioritise the non-profit(s) to understand deeper and engage with. We can bring in leadership and key personnel from the non-profit and have more detailed interactions. We can then collectively agree on the institution-building agenda, and our role in it and the financials.
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(c) Participate
Our role in the engagement will be to actively engage with and embed ourselves within the non-profit to design and execute a calibrated process of medium-term (of at least seven years) organisational development. This is the length of commitment needed to realise any substantive long-term institutional agenda.
Ideally, we expect you to engage with us on a quarterly basis to discuss the ongoing work and at least once a year engage with the leadership of the non-profit, as an active investor would do.
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Impact investment: Redefined
Though the direct impacts of institution building are not tangible and measurable using popular quantitative impact metrics, they improve the non-profit’s ability to achieve them holistically.
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We have seen measurable improvement in the intangible assets of the non-profits, which mainly involve:
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Accountability – Ensure that these non-profits have a higher degree of accountability to society at large. We believe that all tax-exempt non-profits are effectively organisations whose real ownership is held with the public, and thereby every little action of theirs, especially financial ones, would need to take this into account carefully.
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Independence – Improvement in the ability to hold their own and preserve their independence to sustain themselves honestly, energetically, and prudently enough.
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Governance – Strengthened governance structure with an engaged Board.
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Dynamism – Increased ability to respond to the changing local context and broader developmental paradigm in general.
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Rootedness in the system – Increasingly become part of the local administrative system and pave ways for fair participation of the community in the decisions concerning them.
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Relevance – The work of the organisation continues to create responses to the contemporary issues of the community.
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Expertise – Incremental improvement in the capabilities of the organisation in the functional and programmatic areas.
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Microstructure – Emergence of permanent forms of community local structure with the agency to influence their own lives and have fair representation in related decision making.
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Degree of influence – Gradual increase in the influence the organisation and communities have in the local matters.