How to create lasting impact through CSR programs: learnings from the field

Hosted by
Mr. Anant Bhagwati, Partner
The Bridgespan Group

Mr. Shashank Rastogi, Principal, and India Lead (Rural Prosperity)
The Bridgespan Group

Introduction
India’s social sector stands at a tipping point. Despite economic uncertainty and the continuing impact of COVID-19, Indian philanthropy has continued to grow. At the same time, the funders and the changemakers are being more strategic in their approach, leading to an even greater contribution to the nation’s social development. Corporate Social Responsibility Funds (CSR) is playing a large and growing role in overall philanthropy. CSR giving has grown at a CAGR of about 13 percent over the past five years and now represents the second largest source of social sector funding. As CSR reaches a degree of maturity, there are clear themes emerging from the work of leading practitioners on what are the contributors towards effective CSR, and how CSR can achieve the full potential.

Objectives and highlights
Working closely with leading CSR organizations, and conducting in-depth research on the topic over multiple years, The Bridgespan Group has synthesized its learnings on how organizations can further improve the social impact of the CSR programs.
The interactive masterclass will help CSR leaders identifies ways by which they can make their own programs more effective. The class will help answer some of the key questions faced by the CSR leaders with respect to maximizing long term impact through Strategic alignment, collaborations with government, civil society and philanthropic organizations, adopting a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lens, and by creating greater synergies between the corporate strengths and the CSR programs.

About the Facilitator

1. Anant Bhagwati is a Partner at The Bridgespan Group, working in the Mumbai office. He has an abiding interest in enabling Indian NGOs and Domestic Philanthropy to achieve their full potential.

He works closely with multi-generational families, technology entrepreneurs and corporates, and global foundations to help them dream bolder and with greater equity. He works closely with over 30 leading nonprofits in India, both scale actors and high potentials, on their journeys of transformative scale. Anant writes and speaks at forums extensively, and has co-authored the India Philanthropy report for over five years.

Prior to this, Anant was Director for Capacity Building and Expertize at Dasra, focusing on strategic philanthropy and field building. He has transitioned from a career advising for-profit companies culminating as Partner at Bain India, where he led Digital Transformation in India. A few common elements have continued to excite him through his Consulting career of nearly 20 years.

Anant is passionate about applying these skills learnt in the corporate world to support Philanthropists and NGOs with strategy formulation, implementation and scaling impact. Anant lives with his wife and teenage daughter and mother in Mumbai.

2. Shashank Rastogi is a principal in The Bridgespan Group. Shashank leads the rural prosperity vertical in India, and is co-leading Pay-What-It Takes India Initiative with a focus on transforming funder-NGO relationships.

At Bridgespan, he has supported CSR organizations, philanthropic foundations, and NGOs across sectors to envision a better, just, and equitable future and develop the strategy to strive for it. He has also led and co-authored several reports focusing on good funding practices like Bridging the Gap on Funding the True Costs of NGOs in India, Building Strong, Resilient NGOs in India: Time for New Funding Practices; and Building High-Impact CSR Programs in India .

In his prior social sector experience, Shashank set up and developed the impact investing practice in CIIE.CO, at IIM Ahmedabad, investing in companies in a range of sectors including rural energy access, agriculture and agtech, and health. He was also the co-founder and chief operating officer of Sarvajal.