Empowering Grassroots

Empowering grassroots

Helping Community Based Organisations Become Locally Sustainable

Empowering grassroots

Helping Community Based Organisations Become Locally Sustainable

About Empowering Grassroots

Community based organizations are the backbone of the development cycle in any society, and ensure last mile delivery of government welfare schemes and policies to the communities. However, they often face challenges in terms of bandwidth and resources which impedes their potential and impact.

Traditionally, the Indian development sector depended on large corporations, multinationals or international grant making institutions for their major funding, but these were often out of reach for local social initiatives. However, with progressive policies, a rising middle class and the CSR mandate, several new doors have opened for community based organisations within the country.

Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots programme is designed to help such grassroots social initiatives become locally sustainable, without dependency on foreign resources. Aligned with Government of India’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat” mission, Empowering Grassroots helps CBOs to become more efficient, scale up their welfare activities and enables them to tap locally available resources to ensure long term sustainability of the social projects.

How We Work

With the aim to catalyze effective and impactful grassroots social initiatives, Empowering Grassroots empowers genuine and credible Community Based Organisations through a comprehensive two-pronged approach:

Matching Grant to CBOs

Extending critical investment to ensure the smooth functioning of the social initiatives, while also encouraging them to raise part funding through locally available resources

Handholding & Capacity Building of CBOs

Building the capacities of the CBOs for better organizational planning, local fundraising through innovative ways, effective communication, and robust monitoring and reporting systems

Our Impact

Total Organizations

organizations empowered
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Local Sustainability

organsiations became locally sustainable
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What our participants say

Meet Our Changemakers

Bethany Society

Established in 1981 in East Garo Hills, Meghalaya, India, Bethany Society is a non-profit with its…

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Training for CBO in SICHREM

SICHREM – a community-based organization in Bangalore received a series of training on resource mobilization and…

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Blogs

Empowering Grassroots – changing the face of nation

The growth of the non-profit sector in India in the last two decades has been phenomenal. India has possibly the largest number of active non-government, not-for-profit organizations in the world. Official estimates put the number. Read more…

Change the Game Academy in Bangalore

Change the Game Academy in Bangalore

Smile Foundation in collaboration with The Wilde Ganzen Foundation, the Netherlands organized a national five-day capacity building workshop in Bangalore for grassroots NGOs and CBOs under Change the Game Academy.

Change the Game Academy is a global alliance initiated by the Wild Ganzen Foundation (Netherlands), and co-created by CESE (Brazil), the Kenya Community Development Foundation (Kenya) and Smile Foundation (India). It aims to mentor and strengthen grassroots social initiatives from across the world to become locally sustainable in compliance with the rules and regulations of the respective countries. Founded in 2016, Change The Game Academy now has partners in 15 countries.

Smile Foundation implements the same philosophy in India through its Empowering Grassroots programme.