Community based organizations are the backbone of the development cycle in any society, and ensure last mile delivery of government welfare schemes and policies to the communities. However, they often face challenges in terms of bandwidth and resources which impedes their potential and impact.

Traditionally, the Indian development sector depended on large corporations, multinationals or international grant making institutions for their major funding, but these were often out of reach for local social initiatives. However, with progressive policies, a rising middle class and the CSR mandate, several new doors have opened for community based organisations within the country.

Smile Foundation’s Empowering Grassroots programme is designed to help such grassroots social initiatives become locally sustainable, without dependency on foreign resources. Aligned with Government of India’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat” mission, Empowering Grassroots helps CBOs to become more efficient, scale up their welfare activities and enables them to tap locally available resources to ensure long term sustainability of the social projects.