CSR : Practice what you Preach
Hospitality Biz (Mayl 07th, 2013)
Author: Smile Team
Smile Foundation Empowering 500 Grassroots NGOs
Halabol (6th May 2013)
With a view to enable the grassroots NGOs to become well governed and sustainable in the local areas, Smile Foundation has so been actively working to empower 500 NGOs. The foundation has played a key role in this context in last two years and aims to reach out to 5000 similar NGOs across India by 2015.
This year Smile Foundation is actively working to cover 500 more grassroots NGOs under the Empowering Grassroots programme, Santanu Mishra, Co Founder & Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation, said.
Smile Foundation has so far built the capacities of 500 grassroots NGOs under Empowering Grassroots programme in last two years. By 2015, the aim is to reach out to 5000 similar NGOs across India, he added.
Talking about the thought behind Empowering Grassroots during an interaction program held in New Delhi during 10-11 April, Mr. Mishra, said, “The objective behind Empowering Grassroots is to enable the grassroots NGOs to become well governed and sustainable in the local areas itself.”
He added, “When grassroots NGOs are able to involve the civil society in the process of development, this will lead to good governance as well as scaling up of existing good work.”
Smile Foundation conducted a two-day capacity building programme during 10-11 April 2013 for grassroots NGOs in order to enable and equip them to participate in the process of social change at the local level effectively.
The programme held at Tivoli Garden, Chattarpur, Mehrauli, New Delhi. Interactive session included 26 selected NGOs from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir. Selected NGOs working in the area of child education and women empowerment participated and shared their experience. Representative from INDIACSR (www.indiascr.in), Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology (ISBTI), Jupiter Academy, Nai Disha-Delhi, Inna Raja, Nipun, Ankur Vidyalya, Arohan, Rasta participated in the programme.
The two-day event saw tailor-made sessions on key aspects; involving local support for sustainable fundraising, better fund utilization, meeting the expectations of donors, communicating with the stakeholders, leadership and the practice of good governance etc.
Aptly titled ‘Empowering Grassroots’, the programme focused on facilitating the NGOs at the grassroots to become self-sustained as well as bring excellence in their functioning.
Mr. Vikram Singh Verma, Chief Operating Officer, Smile Foundation said INDIACSR, “Smile Foundation see itself not a Funding Agency, but as a National Development Organization that not only to supports but helps to build capacities at the grassroots so that they eventually become self sustainable.”
Addressing the inaugural session Mr. Verma, said,
“Smile Foundation underscores the fact that helping is not simply a matter of dispersing money; but of making a long-term commitment and casting a hard eye on results. We aim to identify, handhold and build capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs to achieve accountability, sustainability, scalability and leadership. We make an effort to broad base investment in order to maximise its reach and optimize returns by approaching and strengthening a large number of like-minded individuals and organisations globally.”
Ms. Shweta Luthra, CEO-Orange Cup Solutions, gave a presentation on “communication and brand building for sustainability of NGO”, was appreciated by the participants.
The two-day programme also offered the participating NGOs an opportunity to share their experience and challenges with one another. Many interesting insights were shared during the sessions, starting from various innovative methods of engaging people towards supporting a good cause to the methodology of communicating and showcasing the real work to a wide section of the privileged society.
Smile Foundation is a national level development organization reaching out to more than 200,000 underprivileged children, women and youth through more than 185 welfare projects across 25 states of India on issues of education, healthcare, livelihood, and empowerment of women and girl children.
Source : http://voices.halabol.com/2013/05/07/smile-foundation-empowers-500-grassroots-ngos
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Labpiromg fpr a Cause
Labpiromg fpr a Cause
The Times of India (30 April, 2013)
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Job Oriented Course
Job Oriented Course
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Study Centre Launch
Study Centre Launch
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Training under privileged youth
New Indian Express (April 24th, 2013)
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Training underprivileged youth
New Indian Express (24th April 2013)
The 35th Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) centre was launched at Medahally on Monday.
An initiative of Smile Foundation, the centre will focus on making the urban underprivileged youth employment-ready in the service and retail sector.
The centre was inaugurated by Dr Jessy Fenn, Project Manager, Bosch India Foundation. Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) is a national level initiative of Smile Foundation.
The programme aims at preparing urban underprivileged youths with skills in English proficiency, basic computer education, retail management, personality development and various soft skills for enhancing their prospects of employment in fast emerging retail, service and BPOs sectors. Speaking about the association, Vikram Singh Verma, COO, Smile Foundation said, “STeP is an effort towards creating a pool of independent youth living with dignity from the underprivileged section through skill enhancement in tandem with market requirements. Smile Foundation, through this programme, has trained 13,735 youth and placed 9,849 of them in over 140 leading retail and service brands across India.”
The event took off well with lighting of lamp by Pankaja, Deputy Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Karnataka. Pankaja was present as the guest of honour for the event. She addressed the programme by applauding Smile Foundation, Bosch India and Vidyaranya for helping the marginalised youth in getting employed and thus putting them on path of sustainable empowerment.
The course curriculum for Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) has been developed by a leading International Management Institute, New Delhi) except the computer course, which is certified by Microsoft. The course material is reviewed and updated from time to time.
Smile Foundation trains NGOs to turn fund-raisers into ‘fun-raising’ events
merinews (16th April 2013)
Twenty-six Non Profit Organizations (NGOs) were trained in various sessions to build up their own sustainability during a two-day grassroots NGOs meet, organized by Smile Foundation at Tivoli Garden Resort Hotel in New Delhi.
The meet, aptly called as “Empowering Grassroots” was held on April 9, 10 in which grass root-level NGO founders from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir participated.
The interactive sessions were presided over by various well known trainers, and Smile Foundation’s COO Mr. Vikram Singh Verma delivered the keynote address on the first day of the meet. Talking about the sessions and the event, he said, “Smile Foundation underscores the fact that helping is not simply a matter of dispersing money; but making a long-term commitment and casting a hard eye on results. We aim to identify, handhold and build capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs to achieve accountability, sustainability scalability and leadership.”
The NGOs discussed their problems, hurdles, initiation and innovation in the work in their respective fields. One of the NGO founders from Jammu and Kashmir said he started by teaching kids who used to accompany their labour parents to the place of their work and that is how Ankur Vidyala happened. Innovative ideas like selling newspapers and raising lakhs of rupees by another NGO was also applauded by everyone.
Taking about the event, Verma said, “Smile wants all these grassroots NGOs to be adept in their communication skills so that they can showcase their credibility and get the maximum benefit from philanthropists.”
In an interactive session, speaker, Ms. Sweta Luthra, CEO of Orange Cup Solutions shared how fundraising by NGOs can be “fun raising” and the various other ways in which effective communication could be the road to a good resource mobilization. Psychological hurdles such as people do not want to associate themselves with NGOs as they do not want to be termed as ‘poor’, alienation of kids from their family after getting education from NGOs; were also talked about.
Swatantra Gupta, National Manager (Resources ) Smile Foundation, during the most important part of the session, taught these NGOs that how they can involve local support for sustainable fundraising and better fund utilization to be self sustainable. He also explained about the 5C model for building organizational competencies of these grass root NGOs.
NGOs, such as Jupiter Academy, Nai Disha, Inna Raja, Ankur Vidyalya and Arohan, who are co-partners with Smile Foundation, had their own presentations and queries, and qualified trainers tried to provide solutions to those queries. The event was also important for partners so that they could get a feel of the people they interact with on a daily basis.
Smile Foundation, which is into four main sections of the society- education, health, livelihood and empowerment of women – wants holistic approach towards the problems associated with all the above mentioned issues. Talking about the same, Mr. Verma said, “We invest in not just a child’s education but in his health, his mother’s health and his livelihood so that generations can be taken care of by investing a particular amount of money.”
For the people, who want to do some charity, Ms Luthra had an important message: “They should not be concerned as to what happens with their money after it is being donated. A person should give away to a credible NGO like they give to a corporate house so that impact is deep rooted,” suggested Ms Luthra.