Outsourcing Responsibility

How some enterprises bring stakeholders together to help implement CSR projects.

- Manu Balachandran

Ever since a 2014 law that made it compulsory for companies to spend 2 percent of their net profit on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the sector has been brimming with activity. But even before then, some enterprises had been working with big corporates to help with everything from assessing to implementing CSR activities. Forbes India looks at two such enterprises.

SAMHITA SOCIAL VENTURES

Priya Naik’s mission is clear. “India has a vibrant social sector and there are complexities associated with the nation too,” she says. “We want multiple stakeholders to come together, collaborate and create value using their core competence.”

Her eight-year-old company, Samhita Social Ventures, is one of India’s largest social enterprises that collaborates with companies to develop impactful CSR initiatives. It is one of the few enterprises that helps companies build CSR strategy, programme design, implementation and on-ground assessment. It focuses on water and sanitation, clean energy and skill development, and its clients include multinational firms such as Reckitt Benckiser, Titan and Hindustan Unilever.

“There are three types of projects that we usually undertake,” says Naik, 38. “One is where we cocreate the strategy for companies and then monitor and evaluate the work. The second is where we advise companies, and they pay us to implement the projects, such as midday meals in governmentrun schools. The third is strategic projects, where we manage the projects entirely for companies.”