Digital CSR Programme Internship 2018

In this first section we will walk you through some key information about the NGO sector in India

10 L crores are spent on social programs every year in India. This money comes primarily from four different sources

1. Largest contributor is government spend - roughly 8LCr - this is 40% of the annual budget - money to build schools, hospitals, unemplyments benefits, etc.

2. International donors such as UN, USAID, etc. have historically given a lot across themes such as maternal health, malnutrition, polio eradication, etc. But with the India economy growing rapidly several such organizations are moving their funding to less developed countries. This reduction in funding is creating a strain in the NGO sector

3. In 2013, the Indian government introduced an article in the companies act that mandates large corporations to contribute 2% of their profits towards CSR (COrporate Social Responsoibility). The figures are still unclear but it amounts to rougly 10thousand crores each year. This is a small amount compared to the total sum but the aim for the act was to promote interaction between corporate and NGOs in the hope that NGOs would learn management practices from NGOs and corporate sector would understand the problems of the under-priveledged better

4. Individual donations make up the smallest contribution to social spend in India and mostly happens through religious trusts. There are movements to increase individual giving from the corporates employees

Another interesting thing to remeber about this sector is that it is made up of several verticals - e.g. Education, healthcare, sanitation, women empowerment, environment, etc. Total 11 defined by the CSR act.

The challenge this produces is that different line ministries run programs in their sectors, e.g. HRD in education, Environment miinstry in sustainability, etc. but there is hardly any organization responsible for the cross-cutting development of the sector. This cross-cutting development is called "Capacity Building"

A lot of "Capacity building effort" is currently focused on training individuals. These NGO employees then develop their own systems, but in most cases when they leave the job, organizations are back to square one.

Impactify will not just train people but also provide simple online tools that NGOs can use. In this case even if someone leaves, the knowledge and systems remains with the NGO and the NGO can function as before

The first such system that Impactify has built is the project management and monitoring system - what you will learn in this internship and help one NGO adopt the system

Why do you need a project proposal?

For any NGO, fund raising is the most difficult activity especially at it’s beginning. This process takes lots of time and resources. But you can increase the probability of getting a sponsor by having a strong proposal about your project. A clear, professional funding proposal not only delivers your mission and key message to a potential investor, but also helps you build a better understanding of how you will achieve your objectives and improve outcomes. This will make your propsal stand out among the other competing project funding proposals.

What should be included in a project proposal?

Some important elements that should be included in a strong project proposal:

1. Organisation Overview- talks about the profile of the organisation - team details & prior experience
2. Project Charter- defines timeline, outcome and measurabe impact in terms of key performance indicators
3. Current situation - states the starting point from where the project needs to originate
4. Solution & rationale - Ways in which the needs identified will be addressed and hence, current situation will be improved
5. Execution plan - List of activities to be undertaken under the project and the work stream they belong to
6. Budget planning - Activity wise, category wise, payment schedule & revenue stream (if any)
7. Sustainability - Details of operations to be undertaken for continued impact to the target beneficiaries
8. Supporting documents - Registration certficate, PAN card, 80G, 35AC and other legal identity documents

What other information should be considered to make a great project proposal?

Apart from all this, most sponsors will have specific requirements on what supporting documents they need like NGO/Society/Trust
Registration certificate, PAN card, Income tax return and audit reports (last 3 years). But a good funding proposal should have these commonly-asked documents pre-attached.
• Use clear and plain language and if you use technical jargon, make sure to include definitions/explanation
• The proposal should be professional- looking. This includes proper formatting and language
• The proposal should be of the right length - The level of details in the proposals should depend on various factors such as duration of project, size of budget, complexity of plans, number of implementation locations, and stage of engagement with sponsors (early vs. final submission), but it is advisable to include all the items we listed

What is the significance of activity plan? (sponsor side + internal usage)

Activity plan captures the essence of what the project will achieve and how. A detailed execution plan is an important part of a project proposal, and it is also the one where many NGOs don’t put in much effort. However, a well thought- out and properly presented execution plan reaffirms the faith of a sponsor in the project

What are the elements of an activity plan?

A good activity plan captures 6 things: list of high level "things-to-do", Activities and associated deliverables, the duration of said activity, the person responsible for its success, and the required budget. Lets talk about each of these in detail
These High level "things to do" are called a Work stream
It is important to list all the big chunks of work that need to be accomplished. For example, in a skill development project, it would be required to identify candidates, develop or customize course material, conduct the trainings, evaluate trained candidates, etc. These are called work-streams
Second, Under each work-stream, there should be activities that will be undertaken as part of the project and lead to tangible deliverables. Defining activities enables the organization in aligning the internal team on project execution, and to communicate to sponsor and other stakeholders all the work involved in the execution of the project
Third, it is important that the activities lead to tangible deliverables. Conducting a meeting is not an activity, but getting two parties to negotiate and sign an agreement is- it may take multiple meetings. The latter should be defined as an activity and the agreement document as the deliverable. Mentioning the deliverables for each individual activity listed by the NGO, provides you a tangible way to measure the execution of that particular activity and confirm its execution
Fourth, there should be a clear timelines set for each activity. This means that it should be clearly estimated how much time it should take for an activity to get completed, and the same should be mentioned alongside the activity listed. This step not only promotes transparency on the NGO part, but also reassures a sponsor and other stakeholders that the
project is a well thought-out and that the NGO is serious about sticking to deadlines
Owner
While listing down all the activities and their timelines as part of the execution plan, another key information that is not included by most organizations is the owner of a particular activity, task, or work-stream. It is always helpful to know the doer and/or the owner of a particular activity listed by NGO in the above steps. This promotes accountability and ownership of tasks in a project. For a small project single person may own multiple activities, for larger ones, ownership can be distributed
Finally, it is extremely useful to estimate and include activity-wise budget. This process includes estimating budgets for each individual activity the NGO might have listed. Mentioning individual budget alongside each activity will not only help you cross-check the budget requirements, but will also reassure that the funds provided by you will be spent efficiently

What is the significance of project charter and what should be included?

Project charter is the summary of the project. It should concisely capture all important information about the project. While the project is being reviewed for acceptance, several senior executives may look at only the charter of various applicants and decide to dive deeper or not. Therefore, a good project charter should have the basic information regarding the organization including, but not limited to selecting key performance indicators (KPIs), defining targets and baseline, etc. about which we will learn in sometime.

Can you a talk more about KPIs?

Key performance indicators or KPIs are business metrics used to track and analyse factors deemed crucial to the success of a project. Having clearly-defined KPIs shows the sponsor that you have a clear plan to provide and measure impact, and also gives them a firm understanding of what metrics to consider when measuring the success of your endeavor. Selection of the right KPIs begins with project planning stage. It is important to have KPIs that align with your project’s goals and objectives which should have a well-defined structure and measurability. Also, it is necessary for all project proposals to explain the results that will be achieved by the project. This includes both the output of the project, as well as its outcome.

What are different types of KPIs?

Key Performance Indicators can be of two types - Output KPIs and Outcome KPIs
Outputs are the tangible results that can be achieved and measured in the duration of a project. Output can be measured in terms of quality and quantity. For example, in a project on skill development of handicraft workers, output can be measured in terms of number of workers trained under the programme, the total number of goods manufactured, and the
quality of training they were provided (through a series of tests incorporated into the curriculum, and/or an end of training survey from students).
However, outputs do not measure the overall impact of your project. In this example, they do not tell us how the lives of the handicraft workers that were trained were impacted. This is measured by outcomes.
Outcomes are the results that may not be achievable or measurable during the life cycle of the project. Outcomes tell us how a project has impacted lives of the people associated with it (primary or even secondary beneficiaries) and how it has brought about a change in their lives or circumstances. Therefore, outcomes are a better measure of effectiveness of a project.

The best practice to follow while selecting KPIs is to include both output and short-term outcome KPIs since they correctly measure the execution and effectiveness of a project.

What if it isnt possible to measure outcome within the lifecycle of the project?

Outcomes can be long-term or short-term:
Short-term outcomes can be measured during or shortly after the life cycle of the project is complete. In our example of a skill development project, short-term outcomes can be measured in terms of the increase in income of the handicraft workers, the increase in sales of the workers, trainees getting a job offer, etc.

Long-term outcome KPIs can only be properly measured a long time even after the completion of a project activity. However, we see some change at the ground level because of the project activity, it can be considered a proxy for the long-term outcome. Taking the above example of a skill development project, if the participants start to mobilize their community members to increase their earning potential, then it is an outcome of the project. Another way to show evidence of long-term impact is through conducting beneficiry surveys or getting their honest feedback about the benefits of the project

What is the significance of budget plan?

Budget planning is a very crucial element in a project funding proposal. It provides a clear understanding of all the expenditures that are going to be involved in execution of the project. In order to draft a strong funding proposal and even to design a good, solid project, it is important to focus on the budget and make sure that all the expenditures to be proposed are justified.
It is also very important to remember that sponsors usually have a lot of experience reviewing projects so if the proposed quotation is too high they may reject the proposal, if on the other hand the estimation is too low, the project execution and quality will be tempered.

How is budget allocated activity & category wise?

It is useful to provide two distinct view of the requested budget - activity-wise budget estimate, and breakdown by category of spend

The best practice to draft an effective budget is to try and estimate activity-wise budget. It is best to estimate a realistic budget by seeking potential vendors, looking online for prices of items you plan intend to purchase or find other proxies. This reassures your sponsor of your understanding of the project and the budget required to perform each activity in a feasible manner. Add all these activity budgets to calculate the full cost of the project.

The budget must be allocated to different categories judiciously to reassure the sponsors that their money is in safe hands, and that just because funds might be available in abundance would not entail unnecessary and rash expenses. Allocating the budget category-wise ensures the potential sponsors that the expenditures you propose are fully justified. The process of allocation is quite mechanical. Allocate each budget line item to the category where majority of the money is used. This keeps things simple instead of allocating to multiple categories. Now add the amounts by category and put them in a tabular format. The sum total of all categories should be equal to the full project budget. Use this check to ensure that you maths is correct.

What are these categories of spend?

Several sponsors define their own spend categories. In case they dont, use the following categories.
1. Goods purchased: This is where you would allocate the cost of any physical items you purchase - e.g. if you are distributing wheelchairs to handicapped people, the cost of wheelchairs would go here, or if you are constructing anything that cost may go here as well
2. Vendor Payments: This category covers the services that you will be paying for, e.g. if you are creating a website for your project, or paying for ads on the radio, those expenses should be listed here
3. Salaries: It is important to consider the cost of employees who are working on the project, if someon is working part-time incluse part of their salary here
4. Volunteer per diems: Several programs bring volunteers that work for free or for a small remuneration to support a cause they care about. Any remuneration or expense reimbursement for volunteers should be listed in this category
5. Travel and general expenses: Expense reimbursements of own employees should be listed in this category
6. Overheads: NGOs incurr costs to run their office, electricty bills, salaries for senior employees that manage the NGO, costs for IT systems, etc. These costs should be allocated across all the ongoing projects. If an NGO has only one project, all overhead costs would be included in the one project, if it is running 5 projects, the costs should be devided across projects in a method that is most justifiable

How is the payment facilitated/ what is the schedule?

Two important points to remember about this
1. While it makes sense to get all the funds before starting a project, several sponsors are more comfortable releasing payments in parts based on the achievement of some goal. NGOs should try to propose the phased approach as it makes them look more professional, and if the sponsors wishes, they can always disburse the full amount upfront
2. With the governments' push towards digital India, NGOs should try to receive their funding through digital channels - ideally directly through bank transfers. If they have individual donors, they should try to get payments using online payments on their website. This increases their credibility and reduce compliance issues. Also this is more convenient now that the Government has put a ceiling of INR 10,000 for cash donations in the 2018 Budget

Why do you need to state information about team and organisation? (legal credibility, income tax, past experience etc.)

An organisational and team profile is important to build credibility and provide sponsors the confidence that your team will be able to successfully implement the project. This information clarifies the purpose of the NGO, who it is intended to benefit, how it is linked to the intended beneficiary community and what it is committed to achieving through its work.
• Information about the team provides the organisation with a credible governance structure, informs them about who will be executing the project, and why they are the appropriate person for the job.
In summary, you need to present yourself as a sound, accountable organisation, competent to execute the project and achieve its objectives.

You should include the following elements
• For legal credibility, Indicate the legal form (section 21 company, turst, society, voluntary association, cooperative, etc) - include organization registration information, Memorandum of Association, tax exemption certificates, any awards and recognitions
• For Goal Clarity, include Information on the background of the organisation: Goal, purpose and objectives of the organisation as a whole
• For Team clarity and credibility: Information about owners, management and staff. The management information and the management structure in the organisation - include a description of the skills and experience of managers and staff. Provide an outline of organisation chart showing the functions and responsibilities of management and staff.