Meet Pune’s social venture philantrophists

Social Venture Partners India (SVP India), a vibrant community of philanthropists with over 30 partners working silently in the city since 2012. SVP India is a community of 200 strong individuals who have come together to pool their resources and invest in innovative non-profit organizations taking the number of NGOs under their wing to 7 in the city.

Afsha Ali Shaikh a 12th pass, an introvert who hails from a conservative family, had no skill as such that would help her financially aid her family until she joined the tailoring course at Anjuman-I-Islam. Married at a young age, afraid of interacting with strangers or even leaving her home alone and she didn’t want to trample over her family’s rules.

Meher Pudumjee (fourth from left), chairperson, Thermax, along with woman who are training to become home chefs at the Idea foundation. (HT PHOTO)

However Anjuman-I-Islam and Social Venture Partners India (SVP India) helped her find a new direction in life. With the blessings of her in laws, she enrolled for a tailoring course and is now a qualified tailor, earning and supporting her family.“I learnt tailoring and many skills such as how to speak to people, now I feel confident enough to talk to customers and take orders from home. I have already begun working for Bombay Hosiery store”,said Afsha.

Similarly Sarika Kudekari, 22 a Jagruti Seva Sanstha Arogya Sathi, who earlier worked as a maid at Symbiosis schools in Pune is now undertaking specialised gynaecologist assistant nurse training. Her mother is the sole bread winner of the family, working as a maid in multiple houses. Sarika started working at the age of 12 to help her mother. She simultaneously also cleared SSC after multiple attempts. Sarika has three younger brothers; two of whom work with a decoration contractor and attend night school while the youngest brother is too small to work. After completing her Nursing Aide training at Jagruti in January 2017, Sarika worked at the ‘Mai Mangeshkar Hospital’, Pune. However, when her first increment was due and was set to receive a good 80% hike, she had to leave the job due to some family emergency. She later joined‘Ketkar Hospital’ and is on training to become a specialised Gynaecologist assistant nurse. She is currently being paid 5500/- a month under training.

Droupadi Kasbe, a wife of an auto rickshaw driver and a mother of two, is enterprising, aware of the market and maintains her financials herself. But before she joined the second batch of Idea Homechefs, not only did she know nothing about finance, but could not even calculate the profit margin she received for the tiffin box service she provides. With her sons studying and staying at a hostel, there was a dire need to increase the family income. Droupadi, did not want to work as a house maid therefore started selling tiffins, but could not scale as she knew nothing about costing or supplying. When she learnt of the Idea Homechefs course,she enrolled her name which in turn helped her develop her cooking and business skills. Droupadi went on to grow quickly in business awareness and confidence; so much so, that she decided to start her own snacks stall. She currently runs her snacks counter near Chandani Chowk, Pune.

Ganesh Natarajan( seconfd from left), founder-chairman of SVP Pune along with the women who are training to become home chefs at the Idea foundation. (HT PHOTO)

All these women have one thing in common; they have all received support not just from their respective NGOs but also Social Venture Partners India (SVP India).

Social Venture Partners India (SVP India), a vibrant community of philanthropists with over 30 partners working silently in the city since 2012. SVP India is a community of 200 strong individuals who have come together to pool their resources and invest in innovative non-profit organizations taking the number of NGOs under their wing to 7 in the city.

SVP India has 250 partners in five cities across India. They have collectively invested more than Rs 5 crore and thousands of volunteer hours in 26 vetted non-profits since 2012. In 2016, SVP India tied up with leading foundations, corporates, government and academia to launch its ambitious ‘Million Jobs Mission’, which committed support to high potential non-profits to achieve and amplify impact. Natarajan , founder-chairman of SVP Pune, has a network of over 50 philanthropist partners chaired by Meher Pudumjee, chairperson Thermax. The chapter has worked with 7 non-profits and has deployed over Rs 1.06 Crores towards creating livelihoods for over 1500 people in the last three years across communities in and around the city.

“We have over 30 partners, six funded NGOs, with three early investees going strong – Jagruti Seva Sanstha, Home Chef from foundation for Initiatives in Development and Education for All (IDEA) and Pune city lighthouse, where we make a difference in thousand plus lives,” added Natarajan. “We have partners who have donated nearly 7 crores in funding, which helped build tech platforms for agriculture and crafts sectors. They contributed 50,000 hours of volunteering time, with focus on livelihood, agriculture, entrepreneurship, women empowerment, and enhancing skill sets.”

Non- traditional model

We are a growing network of “venture philanthropists”, a non-traditional philanthropy model where donors not only donate money, but also their time, professional expertise and network to strengthen non-profits,”said Ganesh Natarajan, executive chairman and founder of 5F World, a platform for digital start-ups, skills and social ventures. The biggest value we add is the time and expertise of our partners. By 2020 our vision is to put venture philanthropy across 100 locations in India and become one of the key drivers of sustainable livelihoods in the country.

When any individual becomes an SVP India Partner, they gain access to multiple opportunities which includes:

1. Participating in grants and grants review committees, to ensure invested funds have the most impact.

2. Engaging with SVP India NGOs to help build their capacity through knowledge sharing and professional expertise.

3. Engaging through workshops and peer learning opportunities to benefit from shared experiences and better practices of philanthropy.

4. Join a nation-wide network of philanthropists and transforming lives as a major collective unit.

Partners at SVP Pune pool in their time and talent besides money for maximum social impact . Some give us their premises to conduct classes, meeting sessions etc, whereas some give us industry connections to get jobs for people, others help in orders for catering, tailoring. Some help us with marketing support for making collaterals for NGOs, others in helping put up stalls for creating business opportunities.

The Benefactors

Subhadra Rathi- Sudarshan Chemicals

Meher Pudumjee- Thermax, Pune Chair

Aruna Katara- I2IT

Ganesh Natarajan- 5FWorld

Rati Forbes- Forbes Marshall

Sameer Ladkat- Panama Industries

Ruby Jhunjunwala- Adipa

Dimple Rai- Alicon

Roshan Talera- Dynamic Logistics

R.Vasudevan- Vascon

Narendra Goidani- Lifeschool

Neeru Goel- Duroshox

Kumar Gera- Gera Constructions

Aasiya Tejani- Gits

VJ Rao

Vinita Ram- Chittlesoft

Ramesh Mirakhur-5FWorld

Makarand Phadke- Reliance Innovation

Aditya Mishra - Centrum

Rachana Rathi- Sudarshan

Leena Daandekar- Raintree Family Office

Bishaka Ghosh

Vinit Teredesai

Francis Coelho

Amit Chordia- Easy Meals