The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation today announced that four nonprofits have been selected to receive grants from Facebook through its CSR initiative, Facebook Pragati. They are Tech4Good, Shakti An Empathy Project, India and Bharat Together and Skilled Samaritan Foundation. Selected through a robust process, from among a pool of 1,326 applications, the four nonprofits are early-stage women-led nonprofit startups focused on boosting women entrepreneurship through adoption of digital skills and tools.
Tech4Good works towards providing open source technology solutions to nonprofits and has so far enabled these for over 500 such enterprises across India, helping them serve more than 1 million of their beneficiaries better; Shakti An Empathy Project (STEP) runs an incubator program for women-led social enterprises with a special focus on those based in tier 2 and tier 3 locations across India; India and Bharat Together (IABT) builds the capacity and skills of young girls in Uttarakhand to make them self-reliant as entrepreneurs while Skilled Samaritan Foundation enhances the skills of women entrepreneurs in the marginalized population in Uttar Pradesh by providing them with design inputs and access to markets.
Based on their organizational maturity, IABT and Skilled Samaritan Foundation have been selected for incubation and will receive grants of Rs 15 lakh each while Tech4Good and STEP have been selected for acceleration and will receive grants of Rs 50 lakh each.
Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India said, “We have always been committed to improving the gender divide on the internet. We believe that when women and youth have the skills and technology to improve their lives, they can unlock economic and social value for themselves and their communities. The potential to support and transform the lives of women entrepreneurs are boundless, and our aim is for Facebook Pragati to promote innovation and economic growth. I wish all four organizations the very best.”
“The/Nudge’s faith in the power of technology to deliver and amplify impact has been further strengthened with all the tech enabled pivots seen in the non-profit space to deal with COVID. We also believe that with just one in five MSMEs being run by women, India is losing out on the globally proven superiority of women led business. We are delighted to be partnering with Facebook to bring entrepreneurial solutions to both these underserved spaces that have the potential to impact millions of Indians, ” added Akshay Soni, Managing Director, The/Nudge Accelerator
In addition to the grants, each of the nonprofits will get access to
- Mentorship: The startups will also receive hands-on support in areas like technology, marketing and human resources from renowned experts and industry leaders. The startups will receive hands-on support in areas like technology, marketing and human resources from renowned experts and industry leaders, as well as employee volunteers from Facebook India.
- Fund-raising: Fundraising is key to sustenance. They will be imparted courses in fundraising strategy through techniques including targeting and storytelling.
- Organisational capacity building: The program will work on building second tier capacity within the nonprofits, with a series of functional mentors across marketing, HR and technology. Apart from creating sustainability, this will also let the founder of the organization spend time on strategic growth.
Facebook Pragati, an initiative to boost women entrepreneurship was launched in 2020 in partnership with The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation. The program aims to provide entrepreneurs access to tools, mentorship, and resources to help overcome some of the barriers they face to build a successful enterprise using technology. To learn more about Facebook Pragati, please visit https://csi.thenudge.org/campaigns/pragati
