Mallen Baker, writer, speaker and CSR expert, defines Corporate Social Responsibility as a strategic act – “a way companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.”
Over the last decade, and much before corporate social responsibility became a mandate in India (Companies Act 2013), Smile Foundation has been working with the corporate sector linking the needs of development initiatives with the business needs of corporate, to produce results on the ground.
Today, having partnered with more than 300 global organisations, we have been able to impact over 1.2 million lives so far in the hardest to reach villages and slums of the country.
Here are some of the reasons that make Smile Foundation the perfect on-ground partner for your CSR project:
Pan-India Presence with Wide-spread Rural Outreach
In keeping with its philosophy of ‘Real Work Real Change’, Smile Foundation has taken its intervention into the interiors of India, reaching the unreached in the remotest of rural areas and urban slums. Currently having welfare projects in more than 950 villages and slum clusters across 25 states of India, Smile Foundation is directly benefitting over 600,000 children and their families every year under its four core programmes – education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment.
Transparency, Good Governance & Efficiency
Smile Foundation has been evaluated by some of the most reputed Indian and international evaluators including INTRAC London, KPMG, India Development Foundation and PRIA, and has come at par with their expectations and norms.
Credibility and accountability have always been the benchmark for Smile Foundation and are achieved through the promotion of principles of good governance in its processes and practices. It has a four-tier audit and evaluation mechanism which reviews programmes and projects, internal operations, compliance of statutory norms and conducts an external evaluation to ensure the impact of various welfare projects, as well as complete transparency and accountability in utilisation of funds.
Highest Social Return on Investment
The organization is relatively young, and sprung up just over a decade ago. Despite this, it has already been able to channelize sizeable resources towards the crucial causes it works for. It believes in achieving the highest Social Return on Investment (SROI) by bringing innovation, sustainability, optimum utilisation of resources and a culture of excellence in all its ground projects through rigorous monitoring, and robust systems and processes.
Partner Involvement
When Smile Foundation partners with an organisation, it endeavours to get both the brand and its employees directly involved in its welfare initiatives. They do this by making their partners active participants and encouraging them to play a fundamental role in the process of bringing change at the grassroots. This effort to engage is what has made Smile Foundation one of the best NGOs for CSR in India.
Use of Technology
Smile Foundation deploys the best possible technological tools for effective monitoring of our system and transparency in our internal processes. Tools like Global Positioning System (GPS), Beneficiary Management System (BMS), and online reporting formats and software are in place to ensure proper implementation of our welfare projects. Through website, social media and other such media, we endeavour to connect our supporters, well wishers and the civil society, and keep them updated, with the progress of our work on the ground.
To partner with us, please write to [email protected]
