Author: Smile Team

DNA (July 13, 2013)

The Hindu (July 12, 2013)

Deccan Herald (July 11, 2013)

Sify News (10 July 2013)

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) A three-day workshop for NGOs commenced here Wednesday to equip them for participating effectively in social change at the local level, officials said.

‘Empowering Grassroots’ is being conducted under the guidance of subject experts, trainers and international observers. NGO Smile Foundation has organised the the capacity-building workshop.

“It is an effort to bring various grassroot NGOs working in isolation on a similar platform to discuss, ask questions, learn from each other and get guidance from the bigger players in the field,” said Vikram Singh Verma, CEO of Smile Foundation.

Smile Foundation has built the capacities of 500 grassroots NGOs under the ‘Empowering Grassroots’ programme in the last two years. This year, another 500 are expected to be covered under the project with an aim to reach out to 5,000 NGOs by 2015.

Source : http://www.sify.com/news/workshop-for-ngos-starts-in-delhi-news-national-nhksahhjbbj.html

msn News (10 July 2013)

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) A three-day workshop for NGOs commenced here Wednesday to equip them for participating effectively in social change at the local level, officials said.

‘Empowering Grassroots’ is being conducted under the guidance of subject experts, trainers and international observers. NGO Smile Foundation has organised the the capacity-building workshop.

“It is an effort to bring various grassroot NGOs working in isolation on a similar platform to discuss, ask questions, learn from each other and get guidance from the bigger players in the field,” said Vikram Singh Verma, CEO of Smile Foundation.

Smile Foundation has built the capacities of 500 grassroots NGOs under the ‘Empowering Grassroots’ programme in the last two years. This year, another 500 are expected to be covered under the project with an aim to reach out to 5,000 NGOs by 2015.

Source: http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=253359556

Yahoo News India (10 July 2013)

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) A three-day workshop for NGOs commenced here Wednesday to equip them for participating effectively in social change at the local level, officials said.

‘Empowering Grassroots’ is being conducted under the guidance of subject experts, trainers and international observers. NGO Smile Foundation has organised the the capacity-building workshop.

“It is an effort to bring various grassroot NGOs working in isolation on a similar platform to discuss, ask questions, learn from each other and get guidance from the bigger players in the field,” said Vikram Singh Verma, CEO of Smile Foundation.

Smile Foundation has built the capacities of 500 grassroots NGOs under the ‘Empowering Grassroots’ programme in the last two years. This year, another 500 are expected to be covered under the project with an aim to reach out to 5,000 NGOs by 2015.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/workshop-ngos-starts-delhi-122541551.html

Business Standard (10 July 2013)

A three-day workshop for NGOs commenced here Wednesday to equip them for participating effectively in social change at the local level, officials said.

‘Empowering Grassroots’ is being conducted under the guidance of subject experts, trainers and international observers. NGO Smile Foundation has organised the the capacity-building workshop.

“It is an effort to bring various grassroot NGOs working in isolation on a similar platform to discuss, ask questions, learn from each other and get guidance from the bigger players in the field,” said Vikram Singh Verma, CEO of Smile Foundation.

Smile Foundation has built the capacities of 500 grassroots NGOs under the ‘Empowering Grassroots’ programme in the last two years. This year, another 500 are expected to be covered under the project with an aim to reach out to 5,000 NGOs by 2015.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/workshop-for-ngos-starts-in-delhi-113071000714_1.html

One World South Asia (10 July 2013)

Smile Foundation conducted the first day of its three-day workshop ‘Empowering Grassroots’. The workshop is a capacity building programme focused on guiding NGOs on avenues, sources and aspects of fundraising.

NGOs in India face many hurdles and issues in their day to day functioning, whether its funds, operations or branding. Keeping this in mind, Smile Foundation held a three-day workshop on capacity building for NGOs. The workshop was aimed at NGOs working at the grassroots and looked at helping them tackle the process of social change at the local level effectively.

NGOs from different parts of the country gathered to discuss about sources of funding and avenues of sustainable fundraising. The first day saw NGOs make presentations on their fundraising plans and their potential donors. The presentations were aimed at informing the gathering on how to raise funds in order to be sustainable. The event provided a platform for these NGOs to exchange and share their experiences and challenges with one another. Various innovative methods on how to engage and mobilize different groups and stakeholders towards supporting a good cause were discussed.

Vikram Singh Verma, Chief Operating Officer, Smile Foundation, talked about the role his organization looks at playing in terms of helping building capacity of NGOs, “Smile is a national development organisation that not only supports, but helps build capacities at the grassroots so as to make themselves sustainable. ‘Empowering Grassroots’ is an effort to bring various grassroot NGOs working in isolation on a similar platform for discussing about each other’s success and failures and get guidance from experts in the field”.

Talking about the thought behind the event, Santanu Mishra, Co Founder and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said that the organisation aims to identify, handhold and build capacities of NGOs working at the grassroots, to achieve accountability, sustainability, scalability and leadership. Mishra added “This event is an extension of this effort in order to maximise reach and optimise returns by approaching and strengthening a large number of like-minded individuals and organisations globally.”

The first day of the event was a success, with many NGOs getting answers to difficult questions related to fundraising. The workshop is on for the next two days and will deal with many more aspects like management, branding and communication and governance; all of which are important for the good functioning of an NGO.

Source: http://southasia.oneworld.net/news/smile-foundation-kickstarts-empowering-grassroots#.UeThk6wrdqR

The Guardian (09 July 2013)

Philanthropists are increasingly shaping the development landscape but what drives them and how healthy is the focus on getting ‘bang for their bucks’?

The venture philanthropy model: should we be asking questions about the strings attached to funding? Photograph: Bu Ensa/EPA

With no end to austerity in sight and aid to the developing world continuing to plummet (down 4% in 2012), donors from DfID to AusAid and Korea’s Kaidec are exploring new financing mechanisms, including working with philanthropic organisations and foundations.

According to the 2012 index of global philanthropy and remittances (pdf), while government aid accounted for just 18% of total financial flows within international development in 2010, philanthropic giving, remittances, and private capital investment accounted for 82% of the developed world’s economic dealings with developing countries.

Philanthropic organisations are also increasingly adopting corporate ethics, opting for venture philanthropy or philanthrocapitalism.

The emerging trend of philanthropy, according to the European Venture Philanthropy Association, features six main characteristics. It involves high levels of engagement, tailored financing, multi-year support, offers beneficiaries assistance beyond finance to include support for marketing or organisational infrastructure, organisational capacity-building beyond mere project delivery, and performance based management with a strong focus on measuring outcomes and impact.

New Philanthropy Capital, a UK-based consultancy, reports that venture philanthropy typically begins with funding basic frontline services where donors can see real ‘bang for their buck’, as they become increasingly familiar with the issues behind the challenges they seek to address.

NPC’s head of charity effectiveness, Iona Joy cites the example of a family trust that has come to focus on the challenge of water and sanitation as the issues drive so many other challenges that occur in the developing world.

“Something like water and sanitation is a good area for funding market, rather than straight [traditional] aid, solutions,” says Joy. “So how do you build the informal market for decent cheap toilets or affordable access to clean water? Sometimes the solutions can be market-based rather than do-gooders running around digging wells.”

One development organisation that has built venture philanthropy into its DNA is India’s Smile Foundation. Co-founded by Santanu Mishra in 2002, the organisation says it reaches out to more than 300,000 underprivileged children and youth across 25 states of India. Having benefited from a middle class upbringing and from cashing in on India’s economic boom when the country liberalised its economy in the early 90s, Mishra and his associates felt the need to give something back.

They set up a foundation and chose to run it on a venture capital model. The approach enabled them to look for individuals who had talent, ideas and a wish to do something but lacked adequate resources.

“We decided to equip them with resources to become self-sustainable and scale up the good work they were doing on a smaller scale at grassroots level,” says Mishra. “That is why instead of investing or focusing on building infrastructure we opted for social venture philanthropy as … the social return on investment was high, impacting more beneficiaries.”

However, associate professor of law, Garry Jenkins, in his paper ‘Who’s Afraid of Philanthropcapitalism’ (pdf), writes that the new venture philanthropists are “increasingly directive, controlling, metric focused, and business oriented with respect to their interactions with grantee public charities in an attempt to demonstrate that the work of the foundations is ‘strategic’ and ‘accountable’.”

The criticism of venture capitalism goes beyond the management style of its proponents. In a recent article Michael Edwards, a senior fellow at the thinktank Demos, questioned whether money can actually foster social transformation. While no development initiatives can function without some money, the wealth required to fund them in Edwards’ words, “raises questions about inequality, the strings attached to funding, and the power of those who hold them to push resources to causes they approve of, perhaps even weakening or corrupting authentic social action in the process”.

Despite his misgivings Edwards argues that there are emerging experiments in what he calls “transformative financing” – funding that, according to Edwards, “has the double impact of boosting radical changes in society and transforming relationships surrounding money in support of these activities.” One such example is the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation. Rather than the top-down, micro-managed approach that is common in the venture philanthropy model, PVF’s financing comes with no strings attached. Its philosophy is that by simplifying the grant giving process, “every dollar would work harder and do more.”

In the book Grassroots Philanthropy the organisation’s founder Bill Somerville writes: “We fail to realise that the chief benefits of working in a foundation – money, power and privilege – also work as the three greatest obstacles to doing a good job.” It is a lesson that both philanthropists and development may do well to heed.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jul/09/venture-philanthropy-aid-effectiveness

SLICE of real life (07 July 2013)

The leading media outlets across the world celebrated Impact Journalism Day this 22nd June and vowed to publish solution-based stories on the problems, minor or major, affecting human life as well as society. The principal objective of Impact Journalism is to drive positive changes in the socio-political and socio-economic frameworks of society. Various social issues and social crimes are the main targets of this noble initiative. It is the responsibility of not only media. Common men can participate too. After all, their unity and collective power work towards revolutionizing the system. SliceofRealLife.com got in with a few thoughtful entrepreneurs to share their views on how common people can pursue impact journalism in day-to-day life:

Mr. Bhavesh Sanghavi, founder & owner of Bhashan T-shirts, belongs to the band of successful young entrepreneurs in India. An inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs, Bhavesh merged his entrepreneurial interests with his responsibility towards society. He chose T-shirt as a medium to highlight social iniquities, move the youth towards driving positive changes in the nation and encourage them for social entrepreneurship. Here is what he says for the readers of SliceofRealLife.com:

“If HISTORY can speak, then it may also tell that it’s the COMMON YOUTH which always saves the country. Today, many people believe that to do something for the country you have to be in a position which is nationally reputed. But for me, I do not accept this reason.

I believe we need to grip the fiery torch and work to re-ignite it with the same essence as the past. We need to be the change agents and inform the new generation about the civil rights.

I feel I am doing my bit by encouraging the youth and also motivating them to let them express what they feel and bring about a CHANGE in the society through the medium of my T-shirt brand named “Bhashan”. For example, We have a design called “R U Corrupt”, which means while we blame our Government Officials for being Corrupt, we need to ask ourselves first aren’t we the ones who urge them to be Corrupt by bribing them to get our work done? So, it’s better to get the work done in a proper systematical manner.

We often hear people saying, Youth are the leaders of tomorrow and I believe, they indeed are and they must be involved in all decision-making processes that affect their future on all levels.”

Mr. Ashwani Kumar Narula, the Founder President of PeoplePlus Software Inc., came up with Hamari Suraksha Software Solutions to check the growing concern about the security of women, households, corporate and intellectual properties. Hamari Suraksha Software Solutions is an identity management and background tracking firm. A technology entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience and revolutionary thoughts, Ashwani Kumar Narula has made the website Hamarisuraksha.com available for senior citizens to register their identity with the information of their tenants and domestic workers for the sake of security. Here is what he says to the readers of SliceofRealLife.com:

“A bunch of people living, working and growing together create a society. They have the power to bring positive change in the society. The first and foremost responsibility of people is to serve the community that they themselves have created. Safety is the primary concern of the society we live in. But sadly in our country people don’t take security seriously. Everything is on God. Deeply shaken and saddened by the current situation of law and order in India and increased terrorist activities I decided to take to task the lacuna in security information through evolving technology.

Hamari Suraksha Software Solutions Pvt. ltd. is an identity management & background tracking firm. It is of great significance to individual homeowners, RWA’s, corporates, business factories, security agencies and other service providers such as infrastructure & facilities management. They can add and maintain the identity information of their employees, contract or subcontract workers, domestic help, tenants, workers, security guards, drivers, cooks etc. “Please do not wait to be a victim first, to join this drive.”

Mr. Santanu Mishra is a social entrepreneur with several identities – an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, an Associate Member of ICSI (Institute of Company Secretaries of India), a veteran lawyer and co-founder of Smile Foundation. Out of his passion for social entrepreneurship, he established Smile Foundation in collaboration with his friends to give back to society. A national level organization, Smile Foundation works across 25 states of India in the niches – education, healthcare, women empowerment and livelihood. Santanu Mishra believes in collective power of the mass for driving positive changes in society. Here is what he says to the readers of SliceofRealLife.com:

“If you want to change lives, no one can stop you. If you don’t, no one can help you .Smile Foundation always believes that the real development can never come until & unless the civil society participates in it. Community or society development is a very subjective topic. The basic problem is not just developing society but how to develop it.

Since our beginning in 2002, we have always been trying to develop efficient and accountable models in project management, bringing multiplier effect in social development, and involving civil society as a partner in the development process. If each member of a civil society gets involved and takes responsibility of only one child, then no one can stop our country from being a developed nation, free of corruption and ill practices.”

Mr. Vinit Parikh, a budding social entrepreneur, believes in the outcome of converging social needs and the power of web media to bring about a digitized change in society. He has been providing technical upliftment to several social organizations: Rotaract, Jamnabai Dongarshi Kanya Chhatralaya, Shri Virji Devshi High School, Vrudhashram, Advitya, Enelek and IIT Bombay. The founder of Creatiwitty, a web and graphic designing firm, Vinit Parikh thinks that social organizations can motivate the youth to work towards society by focusing on their love for technological advancements. Here is what he says to the readers of SliceofRealLife.com:

“Do you need a social or political identity to bring about a Social Impact? Answer is NO! Just stand up and speak out for what you feel is incorrect, unjust and wrong. Think before you act upon it, measure the outcome and the output of your actions. If everything is positive, then you are on the path to bring about a positive change in the socio-economic and socio-political structure of society. “

Asmita Tandon is a writer with thoughtfulness and a poet with conscience. She voiced her protest against rape in the poem The Beasts Run Wild, published by MSN. The noted author of Love on the Rocks, she is in the headlines for her latest release, Jacob Hills. A harbinger of change, Asmita took up pen to fight against social crimes committed to women. Here is what she says to the readers of SliceofRealLife.com (check interview with Asmita Tandon):

“The common man isn’t as helpless as he is supposed to be. Uttarakhand, for instance, is flooded with water, decaying bodies and pilgrims. Their numbers are running in thousands. Amidst this mayhem comes the news that locals and shopkeepers are not only refusing shelter to the stranded, they are charging them exorbitant amounts of money for a bottle of water and a bowl of rice. You wonder what’s wrong with them. What’s missing? “Empathy”.

In our daily lives we are surrounded by situations where someone could do with our help; a girl being eve teased or a government official harassing a poor man or little children begging for a living. This is the moment that the common man needs to seize, to step up. There are innumerable instances that we simply walk past because it has nothing to do with us.

If every individual were to put himself in the shoes of another, there would be no crime, no wrong doing and no corruption. Do you think the thousands who left home to take a dip in the holy Ganges knew of the horror that awaited them? It could have happened to any of us. Empathy is not merely a word; it’s the power that you and I possess to make a change wherever and whatever situation we find ourselves in.”

Source: http://www.sliceofreallife.com/2013/07/07/what-entrepreneurs-say-about-impact-journalism-practice-in-society/