Grassroot NGOs or Non-profit Unicorns – The debate is a non-starter

Some of our friends are very uncomfortable with the idea of non-profit unicorns. They see it as the corporatization of non-profits - the intent is no longer noble and the impact is superficial, in a race to scale an idea that may not even be real. Another set of our friends discount the grassroot non-profits, with their relatively small locus of impact, person-by-person approach and lack of ties with technology and governance initiatives.

The debate is a non-starter! Spoiler alert – we need both. 

It is through a synergistic relationship between them that real, long-term, and scalable change happens. Here is the 3-step process of creating scalable impact and the role of both in making this happen.

Synergistic relationship between Grassroot Non Profits and Non Profit Unicorns

1. Problem Discovery and Deep Understanding

The first is discovering the problem of a community and deeply understanding it. This is done best by organizations that are very close or embedded in the community. The community might be in a rural area, tribal area, or a geographical area with unique conditions (near mines). It may comprise a specific gender group, an exploited social group, or a certain professional group. It is easy to hypothesize, but hard to know the problems these communities face, why they exist, why current solutions do not work, and what intervention may work. This is best done by grassroot organizations that work closely with a given community. 

As Abhay Bang tells us, we must ‘listen’ to the communities on what they need and why they need it. 

Our own ideas, sitting in an ivory tower, maybe wrong. Abhay Bang spent considerable time solving a vitamin deficiency problem for the community in Gadcharoli, when they actually wanted a solution to their dying babies! The early motivation for microfinance came by talking to the community, and understanding the credit problem. Sajhe Sapne, that works closely with rural women, tells us that a daughter earning money is not a matter of pride for the family, but it is a shame to use a daughter’s income for household expenses. It is transgenders who have first picked up the cause of their issues and careleavers, who are working with the State to improve their condition. Grassroot NGOs do this best.

2. High Leverage Intervention

The second step, in our mind, is to find the multiplier – interventions that can help reduce the marginal cost of scaling the intervention to every next person. This can be a policy solution, a technology or fixing implementation issues. We have discussed here the possible models for these interventions. This is where we believe non-profit unicorns, that are closer to the government, technology and businesses, have a better chance to succeed. Yet, they have to do this in close partnership with the grassroot NGOs, listening to the problems, understanding them deeply and finding commonalities that a narrow intervention with high impact might solve. They have to stress-test their hypothesis with the grassroot NGOs to make sure they land well and have an impact. 

*This image is produced from the original article: Link

3. Last mile access and deployment

The third step is to get the benefit of the multiplier to the community. A new policy or technology does not automatically permeate to impact on a community. One needs ecosystem builders that help the intervention reach the last mile. Here, the grassroot non-profits spring back to action, and get adoption through the right communication, training, and fixing parts of the value chain. Different grassroot NGOs understand the nuances of different communities and build respective solutions on top of a policy change/technology to cater to their community. They also figure out the challenges in getting benefits of implementing the benefits of the intervention, which creates a feedback loop back to the non-profit unicorn to make the right tweaks.

Let us look at a couple of examples to understand this better. 

Case 1: EWS students in private schools

A leading think tank advocated the policy of having a quota for EWS students at private schools. The think tank, a non-profit unicorn, worked tirelessly with the government, coining the idea, advocating it, helping build the right policy details, and getting it rolled out. This multiplier suddenly opened up private education for underprivileged kids. 

Yet, the impact of the policy doesn’t easily reach the masses. The underserved communities do not know how to apply to, which school to apply to, and manage the journey of a first-generation learner through a private school. This is where grassroot non-profits come in, taking the message to their communities, helping them fill the forms and ensuring schools in their area comply. They do this by creating volunteer networks and standard operating processes for admission. They also get back blockers to the think-tanks and suggest tweaks in policy implementation/monitoring to help the benefit land better.

Another multiplier here is a technology solution that could make it easier for communities to apply, with audio-enabled form filling, getting updates, and connecting to volunteers. Yet again, grassroots NGOs will aid in the design of the solution and its percolation in the community.

Case 2: Scholarships for access to education

Let us take another example of Scholarlify, which has built a technology platform to launch scholarships for needy students and reduce dropout post schools. The technology platform is a multiplier, where a corporation or philanthropist can launch a scholarship in minutes and sift through verified applications, apply filters and make scholarship decisions. Yet the platform doesn't work till grassroot non-profits are plugged into it. 

Firstly, grassroot non-profits help discover the most deprived sections of the society, what and how much financial needs go unfulfilled, and what programmatic support might be needed besides financial support. This helps design the right scholarship programs and land value for the beneficiary. Second, the grassroot NGOs work as partners, taking the word about the scholarships to the right communities and mobilize where required. The symphony of a technology platform and a network of grassroot non-profits solve the problem.

It is not to say that the three steps described can exclusively be done by either a grassroot NGO or a non-profit unicorn. 

A dynamic organization can do more than one and such examples exist. Yet, different organizations have better strengths to do one step vs. the other.

It is thus time we move over this silly debate. It is like asking whether we just need the central government, or the ones at the state, district and at the Panchayat level. Or which one of macro-economics or micro-economics should we have!

Obviously, we need both, and tremendous money and support are needed to lift both sets of organizations and accelerate India’s progress. Let us build the ecosystem!