VE idea Accelerator & Entrepreneurship & : NGO, Skill Development and CSR

and , August 8, 2023, 0 Comments

The typical challenge of how to measure the ROI in terms of people employed for any initiative is quite difficult for any organisation but it is particularly precarious for the NGOs whose future viability depends on it. How does an NGO funded through the CSR route meet this demand i.e, that the trained student should be either employed, undergo an internship program or start their own micro business?

Here the NGO is teaching Design Skill sets to the students from the underprivileged community or economically weaker section of the society. These students come to these training centres because they are interested in design and they are in dire straits to get some jobs related to it once they finish the course, as it can provide monetary support to their families. However, the challenge is the age group (18-22 years old) and the fluid home environment of the students. Coupled with students’ ever changing priorities, this acts as a difficult mountain to climb for the NGO along with the students.

Design Skill sets taught by the NGO – Adobe Creative Suite ( Photoshop, Light room, Illustrator, Premiere, After effects and few others), CorelDraw, 3DMax and etc.

How do we find solutions which are more in touch with the prevailing reality on the ground level or the needs of various stakeholders? There is no single answer to it but it comes in different combinations.

We would look into a few combinations, one of them is to create a small micro or nano incubation centre alongside with the training centre or partner with an entity skilled in tackling such challenging needs.

The task is to find/screen a few students from each batch who have entrepreneurial drive as well as the determination to succeed against all odds. Some may excel in certain aspects of designing, clubbing/grouping these students can form a cohesive unit to start their entrepreneurial journey. Without testing or giving a decent try it would be difficult to envisage the outcome. Even out of 100 startups that begin, only 10 may survive but in this case, they are young, raw talents with limited resources and opportunities trying to find their way.

The unit has to be provided with the necessary working environment that acts as a launchpad to guide them and in launching themselves as a viable business unit.
Relying on one source of revenue makes the climb even steeper. Therefore, to give them the space for growth and teach them to survive in this highly competitive market, additional sources of revenue channels must be added to the main revenue channel.

This unit’s revenue has to be additionally augmented by one or two verticals which generates passive income without too much effort. Why do we need these passive verticals? When you are fresh and young it is very difficult to get going from day one to generate the revenue during those testing times ( initial one year) there is a good chance that this unit will lose their motivation or mental strength to keep going on.

The passive verticals could be a small stationary outlet that can sell stationary items or provide photocopy services or project making centres for the school kids. What it would do is create additional visibility for the unit, which is the need of the hour when customers don’t know anything about them or their offerings. So and so Design centre is there, where you can get great design at a very affordable and decent price. These passive verticals would bring in additional revenue during the initial years when generating revenue using the primary channel becomes difficult.

Again, the choice of passive verticals would depend on various factors on the ground and the need at that time.

This could be one of the combinations which can be tried on and could serve as one of the good workable models which can meet the ROI needs of the CSR Fund.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of MarketExpress – India’s first Global Analysis & Sharing Platform or the organization(s) that the author represents in his personal capacity.