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Corporates and individuals who have been wanting to make meaningful contribution towards solving social issues now have a new platform in Social Venture Partners. Recently SVP India started its Pune Chapter.
Social Venture Partners India (SVP India) founded in May, 2012 in Bangalore brings together influential leaders committed to solving complex social issues through personal philanthropy, advocacy and capacity building.
After Bangalore, SVP India has now started its chapter in Pune and Mumbai. Ganesh Natarajan, vice chairman and CEO of Zensar Technologies would be the convener for the Pune Chapter.
SVP India focuses on three themes; livelihood enhancement including job creation for unskilled workers, effective vocational training and job placement, incubation of social enterprises and supporting them by giving them access to resources and connection.
The idea behind the platform is to pool individual philanthropy and use venture capital investment principals. SVP India concept is based on SVP Seattle, one of the largest network of philanthropic investors. SVP started in 1997 from Seattle and has about 400 partners started to expand internationally two years back and now has presence in Japan, China, Australia and India.
“There are about 3.3 million NGOs in India. You have people who want to give back to society. Rather than just writing a cheque, they also want to be involved in the work. We want to make SVP India that platform where both of these can come together,” said Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman Microsoft India, also one of the founders of SVP India.
Since inception, SVP Bangalore chapter has managed to get over 60 like-minded people and selected three organisations who can use their expertise. Of this, two have been also provided grants. The grant size for NGO’s can start from Rs 500,000 and go up to Rs 25,00,000.
“Our goal is to replicate what Bangalore has done. We have got to take the partner network in Pune to 50-60 mark in the next few months. Our funding philosophy is not just providing finances but also capacity building,” CEO, Arathi Laxman said.
SVP, the world’s largest network of engaged philanthropic investors, said it carefully selects organisations to invest in. “In India too organisations will be vetted by us. Once we are done with our due diligence, we will strengthen our financial investments by providing strategic, professional services,” added Laxman. SVP Bangalore sifted through 180 organisations before finalising three to invest in.
With the Government of India mandating India Inc to spend on croporate social responsibility, SVP can act as the platform where firms can select the area that they are interested in making an impact in. “For those organisations that are yet to formulate a CSR plan, SVP can be of help,” said Natarajan.
After Mumbai and Pune, SVP India intends to spread across other cities like Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
