Collaborative philanthropy is advisable and achievable

The CEO of one of India's leading education and livelihood centric social enterprises explains how partnerships within and between the philanthropic, government and corporate ecosystems are key to multiplying and sustaining outcomes. EdelGive completes 10 years this year. In our first decade, we grew from novice, social entrepreneurs executing siloed programmes driven by instinct; to a young, learning organisation which understands the power of collaborative philanthropy in driving large-scale, multi-pronged change. In doing so, we must have got something right, because till date we have influenced 150 crores into the sector. These comprised funds wholeheartedly contributed by high net worth individuals and institutions besides Edelweiss who shared our vision and placed faith in our ability to channelise their support into credible programs. Having supported over 130 organisations implementing critical, and often under-invested work in education, livelihoods and women empowerment covering 400,500 individuals till date; we have witnessed the power of partnerships in catalysing sustainable change. However, in our earlier years, and to some extent even now, our programmes portfolio evolved intuitively based on the needs we identified, learnt or were informed about; and driven by our resoluteness that only being action-oriented could lead to attainment of wider outcomes. By 2015, we had funded a number of NGOs addressing the issues of access, retention and learning outcomes in poor communities. While their work was growing steadily and made deep impact in the communities they served, we soon realised that the scale of problems in India demanded a fresh, new way of problem-solving. Alongside, we also repeatedly heard our fellow-travellers in the development terrain complain about the lack of collaboration in the sector. Their indignation was understandable, as philanthropy, especially, is expected to be free of the constraints that we see in the corporate world: competition, egos, unbridled growth and a strong, “what-is-in-it-for-me ” mindset. I think we should all shed this notion of nobility. Collaboration is very difficult even in the corporate world, and even among businesses within the same corporation, where one would assume that there is commonality of the profit maximisation objective. But it is possible to align objectives by providing the right incentives - not just monetary, but also non-monetary that encourage the right behaviour, such as promotion, recognition and faster growth opportunities. I confidently say this not from a theoretical, moral high-ground, but based on the astounding results of an experiment in collaborative philanthropy we anchored. A risk, if I may say that we took, which in turn generated asymmetric returns we had expected, but had not expected to exceed. The Collaborators for Transforming Education - EdelGive's Coalition for Transforming Education which has successfully completed a two-year run reaching over 1,000 schools and over 25,000 students. I feel the success of the first phase has truly vindicated not just our role as catalysts in transforming primary education, but also the contention that collaborative philanthropy is advisable and achievable!

The contextual premise of Collaborators

A multi-stakeholder coalition: EdelGive+ corporate sector involvement+ Government =

• Phase-I: School Transformation Program (STP) focused at school-level improvements to elevate learning outcomes
• Phase-II: District Transformation Program (DTP) targeted at building the leadership abilities of education functionaries at district, block and cluster level, as well as activating community engagement for accountability. Interventions below the cluster level will be driven through the education system.

Results of Phase-I (2016-18)

• The average scores of Grade III and V children, in terms of Language and Mathematics skills, are above national and state averages (NAS data, 2018) in Nandurbar and Parbhani
• For Amravati and Gadchiroli, the average scores are near National and state average
• Every 9 out of 10 children are Pragat [as de ned under Pragat Shaikshanik Maharashtra programme] in the intervention schools at Nandurbar
• Every 8 out of 10 children are Pragat in intervention schools at Parbhani and Amravati [Grade III-V]
• Every 7 out of 10 children are Pragat in intervention schools at Gadchiroli [Grades III-V]

• 100 per cent competency in Math and Language in 44 per cent intervention schools
• 96 per cent teachers have started practicing child wise action plan
• 47 per cent schools have reconstituted Bal-Sansad
• 80 per cent schools in Amravati and Gadchiroli have active libraries
• 80 per cent schools in Amravati and Gadchiroli have reconstituted their Assembly sessions
• 63 per cent of School Management Committees (SMC) were reconstituted as per Right to Education Act (RTE) and out of that 62 per cent participated in development of School Development Plan (SDP)

Looking ahead