Impact enterprises in India : Challenges and Best Practices

MEASURING
THE VISION
Social Impact Measurement
FUND RAISINNG
AND FINANCIAL
PERFORMANPERFORMANCECE
HUMAN
RESOURCES
COMMUNICATION
AND OUTREACH
By
Manju Menon
IDEX Fellow, July 2015 Cohort
IMPACT
ENTERPRISES
Challenges and Best Practices

IMPACT ENTERPRISES - Challenges and Best Practices
- Manju Menon, IDEX FellowPage 3
Dedicated to all those who believe in their ability
to contribute towards a better world

Acknowledgments
This report is an outcome of research effort over a period of four months and would not
have seen the light of the day but for the patient insights shared by the entrepreneurs
and managers of social enterprises. Thanks to each one of you, who took time out of
their busy schedules to sharing their journeys,experiences and insights with me. Impact
Investors and Incubators,who obliged to respond to my relentless pestering and queries
deserve a big thanks on my part because without their version of the picture, the story
would have been incomplete.
In particular,I would like to thank Rajeev Kher and Ulka Sadalkar from SaraPlast(3sindia);
Pavin Pankajan from AquaSafi Purification Systems Private Limited; Dhimant Parekh
from The Better India; Neelam Chibber from Industree Crafts Limited; Nachiket Kulkarni
from Sustaintech India Private limited; Inir Pinheiro from Grassroutes Journeys Private
Limited; Shahida from Maya Organic; Arjun Bolangdy from Pollinate Energy India; Umesh
Malhotra from Hippocampus Learning Centres; Jayaroopa Jeyabarathi from Unitus
Impact; Mukesh Sharma from Villgro; Andrew Hobbs from Village Capital and Radha
Kizhanattam from Unitus Seed Fund and Siddharth Tata.
Special thanks are due to Bhavna Mathur Nair and Quinn Fegan from IDEX India team
for their invaluable support in arranging for being the conduit to the network of social
entrepreneurship in India. Also placing my gratitude to Rajesh Varghese from Ashoka
India for his inputs on the questionnaires. My co-fellows from IDEX July 2015 Cohort
deserve a warm applause for their support and motivation during this journey of
knowledge especially Priscila Costa for her insightful inputs and Rianna Starheim for
proofreading.
I owe this study to the support from my family which enabled me to undertake this
assignment, especially my six-year-old daughter, who not only patiently allowed me
away from home to participate in the fellowship, but also kept me on my toes by asking
for daily progress on my work.
This study is an independent assignment undertaken by me as a part of IDEX Accelerator
Programme. While the data and information provided here with is true and verified to
the best of my ability and information, IDEX shall not be responsible for any omission or
error in the content provided herewith.

Impact Enterprises are ventures that are conceived
out of the necessity of solving a socio-economic-
environmental problem, however using a market linked
approach. A commonly used alternate terminology for
Impact Enterprise is Social Enterprise. Most of these
ventures follow a double or triple bottom line approach.
The report is an outcome of primary research as well
as secondary study on the challenges faced by Impact
(social) enterprises and was prepared with the objective
to identify typical challenges faced by Impact enterprises
inIndiaandenlistingsomeofthebestpracticesastohow
some organizations have overcome these challenges.
With this report, author hopes that the study will help
budding social entrepreneurs overcome these typical
challenges and thus improve their chances of success.
Besides, the report can also be used as a reference by
researchers in this field and thus enable them to analyze
these challenges in detail. Author also hopes to provide
useful context to young professional who aspires to
explore career in this sector.
Typically, impact enterprises are successful at a small
scale within a local context, but face problems as soon
as they begin to scale. Thus they often struggle to reach
to more customers or attract talented human capital or
obtain the right types of funding or technical expertise
that can help them adapt their business models at each
stage of development. To have a wider perspective in
the study, organizations with 3-20 years in operations
were chosen, as they have either established or have
evolved a working model that helped them to financially
sustain, while expanding their impact.
The study emphasizes understanding whether those
enterprises continued to measure their social impact
alongside their financial results; human resource
challenges faced by such enterprises, profitability, ability
to raise funds and how do they communicate with their
stakeholders.
These specific areas were not chosen randomly, but
rather were an outcome of interactions with both the
entrepreneurs themselves as well as impact investors
enlisting them as key areas of determining success
of an endeavour. All organizations under study were
unanimous in their opinion that it is important to find
a likeminded investor or supporter, especially during
their early stages. The study also reflects that having
a strong revenue model which is tried and tested will
lend the organization time to patiently await the right
investment opportunity and still grow the organization
organically until the right time arrives. One of the biggest
challenges while scaling up is to remain relevant to your
customer while keeping the revenues ticking. External
factors may or may not be always favorable.
Interestingly, it was discovered that there are many
Impact investors in the ecosystem, ready and interested
in supporting these social enterprises, but often
they have trouble finding investment-ready impact
enterprises that have a validated business model. The
entrepreneurswhosetupthoseenterpriseshavealarger
vision, where profit is just the beginning and the social
impact is the ultimate goal. While some entrepreneurs
let the social result of their business create the impact,
some others are extremely assertive that the social
results and financial results must march hand in hand.
While it cannot be judged which approach is correct,
it is definite that balance of the two is what decides
the success of these impact enterprises. Hopefully, the
study can help some new enterprises in the balancing
act between Social impact and Profits.
Abstract

Research
Methodology
This report was developed based on inputs and
insights obtained through personal discussions with
selected Impact enterprises as well as Incubators and
Impact Investors operating in the country. The report
is supported with references derived from a broad
literature review on Social enterprise and Impact
investment space, with focus on India.
The enterprises for the study were shortlisted
ensuring distribution across sectors: Water, Sanitation,
Livelihoods, Health, Sustainable Energy, Clean energy,
Impact Journalism, Social Tourism and Education. The
selection of enterprise were also made based on the
parameters such as age of the enterprise, mission,
size, legal structure, investment raised as well as target
segment.
The tool for data collection was primarily direct
interviews or a questionnaire, in the cases when a
personal meeting was not possible. All the investor and
ecosystem enablers were also interviewed personally to
capture their observations.
The Annexure gives the details of all the enterprises
under the study and nature of their work. However to
minimize subjectivity and protect confidentiality of the
respondents, the feedback of entrepreneurs have not
been directly associated with organizations.
Since the objective of the study was to identify best
practices in overcoming common challenges faced
by impact enterprises, organization selected for
study were not early stage startups but those who
have been operational for at least a few years. The
youngest organization is 3 years old and the oldest 21
years old. With Bangalore becoming a startup capital
of India with support ecosystem available, 60% of the
respondents were operating from Bangalore, whereas
40% of the respondents were from other locations.The
following impact enterprises are covered under this
study: Grassroutes Journeys Private Limited, Aquasafi
Purification System Private Limited, The Better India,
Maya Organics, SaraPlast(3sindia), Sustaintech India
Private limited, Industree Crafts Limited, Pollinate
Energy India and Hippocampus Learning Centres.
Most enterprises were registered as a private limited
company and two were registered as Sec 25- nonprofit
company. Of the interviewed respondents, 60% were
founders themselves and in other cases, it was senior
management representatives.

Introduction
Impact enterprise – the term might sound new but
the concept is definitely not new in India. SEWA Bank
and AMUL are thriving examples of enterprises born
out of a social need and thriving as a profit making
businesses and are still the best definition of an Impact
Enterprise (IE).
To understand IEs, let’s start by looking at some of the
definitions –
A Duke University report defines Impact Enterprises
as financially self-sustainable and scalable ventures
that actively manage producing significant net
positive changes in well being across underserved
individuals, communities and the broader
environment.
The Rockefeller Foundation defines Impact
Enterprises as organizations that intentionally
seek to grow and sustain financial viability,realize
increasing social impact,and influence the broader
system in which they operate.Collectively, they
have the flexibility needed to adapt to the changing
dynamics of problems and can deliver inventive and
timely solutions.
The emergence of social enterprises as an organisational
model to solve social issues came into prominence in
the early 2000s.This was partly to do with the realisation
that came to focus with Prof. C K Prahlad coining the
term Bottom Of Pyramid – for business parlance and
highlighting in his book that this segment of population
are not to be seen as just receivers of development
grants but a potential customer base too.Around the
same time, microfinance institutions were gaining
prominence across the world, especially in India.
The outcome was that suddenly the investors started
opening their wallets for a new breed of entrepreneurs
who were using market driven approach to solving
social issues while sustaining the enterprises financially.
Slowly, Impact investment evolved as a separate asset
class in the investment Industry.
For the purpose of this study, Impact enterprises are
treated as those ventures that are incorporated as
commercial entity, conceived out of the necessity of
solving a socio-economic-environmental problem, and
using a market linked approach.
An important aspect of social enterprises is the role of
the enterprise in bringing about systemic change. Such
enterprises very often find no precedence for their
initiatives and assume the role of changing the attitude
of government, civil society and target customers using
a market linked approach.
Impact Enterprise as a sector is still young in India and
lacks detailed studies in terms of evolution, success
defining parameters and dynamics involved. This
requirement is what led to conception of this study
itself where the goal was to identify and understand
some typical challenges faced by Impact enterprises
in India and at same time, pin down some of the
best practice to overcome those challenges – to give
aspiring entrepreneurs, professionals and researchers a
qualitative understanding of some common challenges
that are faced by Impact enterprises. This shall help
them to address similar challenges and avoid pitfall in
their own organizations or startups.

Challenges
for Impact Enterprises

Raising
capital
Hiring and
retaining
qualified
staff
Building
the value
chain
top three challenges to
sustainability and scale
A social or Impact enterprise functions with a dual
objective: solving social problems and maintaining
a financially viable business. This corresponds to
these enterprises facing challenges that are typical to
conventional business as well as to non-profits. This
study is an effort to analyze challenges which are specific
to Impact enterprise as a sector.
A recent review of the landscape of social enterprises
in India by Intellecap has quoted that the top three
challenges to sustainability and scale cited by the
businesses as:
1) Hiring and retaining qualified staff
2) Raising capital
3) Building the value chain
Previous studies in the sector have also highlighted
the availability of skilled human capital by Indian social
enterprises as a critical factor, and a major challenge.
Access to finance is another commonly cited problem
for social enterprises in India and refers to the financial
barriers related to the lack of equity, debt, and
working capital for start-up enterprises, in addition to
non-financial barriers, such as a lack of financial literacy.
Dhimant Parekh,
Staying relevant to our customers is our
biggest challenge, and we are constantly
working towards the same
The big debate around impact enterprise is balance
between social impact and business viability. Therefore,
another important area that needs to be explored is
measurement of impact of social enterprises (Impact
enterprises).
In addition to the above, the significance of
communication with all stakeholders as well as outreach
to the target groups is increasingly becoming important
for businesses globally. This is even more relevant for
socialorganizations.Withthesocialmediaadvancement,
communication becomes a part of strategy function for
most organizations.
For all Impact enterprises, all the above key challenges
are significant – it’s a matter of age of organization as
to which is the most relevant of the challenge. The
relevance might also vary a bit according to business
sector, especially sectors with no precedence. Let
us explore these four challenge areas with real life
examples.
01
SOCIAL
ENTERPRISE
Hiring &
Retaining Talent
Communication
Acccess to
Funds
Impact
Measurement

Measuring the Vision: Social Impact
Measurement
A.
Every Social Enterprise / Impact Enterprise starts with
a vision to overcome a challenging social scenario
and hope to make a meaningful impact in that space.
Thus, keeping a clear, measurable view i.e. Impact
measurement, becomes an important tool for
organizations to assess the progress of their efforts and
to check progress against vision. Apart from serving
the interests of the funders who were bought in with
the view on social impact, this also helps the social
enterprises to determine if they are indeed making a
difference, to market/customers/stakeholders and to
secure or maintain funding and to improve the services
or products they deliver and their organizational
processes.
Across Lifecycle
Impact measurement and reporting is required
throughout the lifecycle of these organizations, as the
vision / purpose of setting up an organization never dies.
Alignment with Strategy
It is imperative for Impact enterprises to develop an
impact measurement plan in tandem with the business
plan, so that they can refine measurement strategy as
the business or revenue model changes.
Impact Opportunity
As startups assess “market opportunity”, they should
also strive to quantify “impact opportunity” – i.e. the
baseline against which they can measure social impact.
But the temptation to build a viable product, launch a
beta, and start generating revenue and quickly rise to
the top of entrepreneurs’ glam list, is a potential pitfall
to be avoided by Social Entrepreneurs, as it leaves little
time and resources to build the data collection and
operations infrastructure needed to measure and track
social impact effectively.
While traditional business are concerned with profit-
generating outputs, a social enterprise must produce
outputs sustainably (advancing a desired social or
environmental outcome) as well as profitably – for which
they need to identify metrics (strategy) as well as need
to put resources to actually measure and document it.
I decided to explore following aspects of Impact
measurement as part of this study:
a) View of social entrepreneurs and Impact investors
as to how significant is measurement of social
impact is.
b) How to measure i.e. Deciding the Impact metrics
and methodology to measure.
c) Can the measurement of impact be made simpler?
While there is no denial among the enterprises as well
as investors that Social Impact of business has to be
measured,onthemethodology,thepracticesarediverse.
Most of the organization under study have developed
clear methods for measuring their quantifiable Impact
and they track it on periodic basis. The perceived
social Impact achieved by their businesses is seen as
seemingly legitimate social Impact performance which
is very good or beyond expectations on a 7-point scale.
Seven out of nine enterprises had aligned their Business
metrics with Social Impact. That means, on every unit
of service/ product they sell, they have formulated/
calculated social impact derivative results. Some other
organizations also used methods like social audit and
evaluation studies to trace their qualitative Impact.
It was also observed that while organizations start with
business metrics initially, they gradually move towards a
more in-depth analysis or deepen Impact measurement
methods so as to capture the qualitative outcomes as
well.
Neelam Chibber, Mother Earth
The social audit exercise has not just helped
us in sharing our Impact results with
investors, but also enabled us to share the
value created by us among all stakeholders
in the system. We realised the overall impact
of our interventions through the process.

View from Investors and Incubators:
The significance of measuring impact has been strongly
upheld by investors and incubators. They unanimously
opined the need of having a well defined social
impact metrics alongside the business metrics. This is
considered to provide clarity to the entrepreneurs and
all other stakeholders. It is significant to measure the
progress of the social outcome of their investment.
When asked about the methodologies, Jayaroopa from
Unitus Impact opined that Impact is best measured by
simple well -defined metrics. Given the fund’s focus on
livelihoods, they customize the metrics that they track
to arrive at measuring the number of poor impacted
and the increase in income to the working poor.
Villgro has an in-house proprietary tool which is
customised based on the sector and the business
model of the enterprise. Village Capital, on the other
hand, mentions that they follow B Impact assessment
methodology, however want the entrepreneurs to
develop individualised metrics that are linked to their
business. According to Radha from United Seed Fund,
Impact assessment is crucial for them as an investor
and make sure that impact is intrinsic to the business
model and the measurement also can be can be done
through business metrics. Radha from USF states, “We
discuss, analyse and set Impact metrics clearly in our
Share Holder Agreement and track it regularly. We also
internally fix certain Impact milestones in each of our
investments.”. At the fund level also, USF is committed
to measuring impact and comes out with a report every
six months and disseminate on their website. Siddharth
resonates the same view that each company has a
theory of change and from that is derived the metrics,
aimed to measuring the breadth (number of people
reached), depth (degree of improvement brought in
the lives of those people) and segment( which section
of society is impacted) of Impact. Thus it is no different
from the business metric and is an extension.
All of the above suggested that Impact measurement
shouldn’t become an irrelevant function and a burden
to an enterprise and for that identifying relevant
metrics and following an easily manageable method is
recommended.
Mukesh, Villgro
A well defined Impact metric keeps an
enterprise focused, especially when they
have to take tough decision. It instills
confidence on all stakeholders
However, the general practice seen was to evolve
a standard set of impact metrics that are linked to
operational outcomes which when captured also
provides an account of impact created by them. One
organisation mentioned that they used volunteers for
data collection for their Impact assessment, which kept
their costs low, as well as made the process objective
and unbiased.
Impact metrics
need to be defined
from the beginning,
alongside financial
metrics
The basic metrics need
to be linked to business
metrics to makes the
measurement easy, and
to keep focus
Going forward, organizations
should proactively measure
non-financial metrics, including
those not directly tied to the
business model
Approach your
investor – they
might have
proprietary tools
to measure impact
Disseminate your Impact
results proactively.
Impact measurement
should be part of
Quarterly/Annual Reports
01
02
03
04
05
Best Practices:

Conclusion:
This study indicates that most of the social/Impact enterprises have been concentrating both on tracking their
financial performance goals as well as the social Impact goals. The nature, methodology and frequency vary, but
the same is tracked in a proactive manner - including the ones that are not directly tied to the business model – a
significant practice for the sector to achieve a level of accountability and transparency as well as to capture the
diversity and depth of Impact achieved.
Interestingly in most cases, the enterprises found their social impact to be far beyond the expectation or
imagination of the founders when they initiated. Most of the respondents, especially the founders, opined that,
while they were sure about the positive social outcome of their business, the actual results were overwhelming
and encouraging to them as entrepreneurs.
Most of the Impact enterprises were using directly quantifiable and operationally linked metrics to measure
Impact, except four organizations, that were periodically assesssing the qualitative aspects of their Impact as
well. Finally, while measuring the Impact is important, so is disseminating the information.
Fund RAISING and
Financial Performance
B.
Fund raising is one of the trickiest pieces for social
(Impact) enterprises. If an enterprise pitches a social
agenda, it runs the risk of being seen labelled as a
non-profit, closing many investor gates even before
discussion. On the other hand, investors are also wary
of too much focus on wealth generation thus non-
delivery of social value. Thus, there is a fine line that
Social Entrepreneurs tread while approaching investors.
Therefore, it becomes extremely important to clearly
communicate the values of the organization when
approaching funders. A recent review of the landscape
of social enterprises in India by Intellecap indicates
financing as one of the top challenges among social
enterprises in India.
Conversations with investors reveal that there is no
dearth of capital and Impact investors cannot find
active pipelines across sectors, while the dichotomy is
that Impact enterprises don’t find too many likeminded
investors for them.
There is some difference of opinion among stakeholders
as to whether the supply of capital is the problem for
social enterprises, or whether it is the lack of viability
of the business. Research suggests that while there is
no shortage of ideas and capital, there is a shortage
of tools for developing compelling propositions to
promote investment. Some of this is being addressed
through mentoring of social entrepreneurs, developing
impact investment networks, and improving the level of
information on social enterprises, as well as by creating
more diversified approaches to securing capital.
To understand this better, the following aspects were
discussed with the enterprises through difference
questions:
1. Their business model
2. Success in raising funds
3. Factorsthathelpedtheminattractinginvestor(s)
Andrew Hobbs, Village Capital
Working on a good pitch is essential.
Sometimes pitches are too technical and
don’t address value propositions and
differentiation clearly

The strength of business model:
Almost 70% of the respondents expressed that their
organization has a strong revenue model in place. The
remaining 30% thought that there was still scope to
refine the same. The need of refining and updating
its revenue model based on external factors as well
as customer requirements was experienced by all
entrepreneurs. Respondents also mentioned that it
took them considerable time to develop the revenue
model. Also, some said their revenue models underwent
revision every three year, due to market dynamics.
Many entrepreneurs have tried to strengthen the value
chain and offer more value propositions to their end
customers as a part of strengthening their business
model for e.g.: Financing facility ,training or market
linkage etc.
Success in raising funds:
Eight out of the nine the enterprise participants in
this study have been supported by an Institutional
incubator/ investor at some stage, whereas the one that
hasn’t raised fund has a parent non-profit organisation
outside of India. While 80% of the organizations
have an Institutional investor currently on board, the
others are planning to raise the next level of funding
or have established business linkages for growth. One
organization hired an investment banker to drive the
process.
One big factor in the whole discussion on funding is
around how much equity is to be diluted to investor.
The house seems to be divided on this as some
entrepreneurs are comfortable diluting the equity since
it helps them achieve underlying Social Impact, others
were uncomfortable on this issue. Founders expressed
the demand of patient capital during early stages. Most
organization mentioned that external investors help in
bringing more discipline and accountability and pushes
the organization to perform.
Factors that helped Impact entrepreneurs in attracting
investors/ hindered in scaling up:
Among the factors that helped the IEs under study,
in attracting investors, presence of a strong business
model offering innovative solution to a social issue
was the single strongest factor. Conducting a pilot
and creating a proof of concept helped. Presence of a
strong team, and also proximity to an ecosystem like
that at Bangalore, had also come up as a factor among
respondents. One organisation stressed that market
knowledge, customer-focused approach, low-cost, high
quality offering backed with a passionate bunch of
people helped them to attract investments.
Interestingly, for one organization, the emergence of a
competitorhelpedingettingthemidentifiedasaparallel,
yet more impactful alternate for investment. However,
the same doesn’t always hold true, especially when the
sector is not performing well as when organizations
in similar spaces do not perform well, it discourages
investors to look at that sector with interest, even
though each IE might offer different value propositions.
In one case, the product /service became so powerful
that investors were keen to fund.
Among constraints, factors such as an execution heavy
business model that cannot scale up fast, is seen as
one of the biggest constraint for finding right investors.
Most of the organisation that plan to raise funds in near
future are focusing on building the team and refining
the business model, before taking their business for
fundraising.

A typical entrepreneur is the one with a brilliant idea and passion in the heart. The same is true for social entrepreneurs
as well. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs end with that only and don’t make that extra effort to understand the
business side of the idea. Investors point out that the common challenges for funding are threefold: not being prepared
when they pitch, little understanding of the investment space, and being unrealistic about the fundraising process.
Let’s understand each of these issues:
1. Preparing for the right pitch:
It is an unfortunate and not uncommon sight that IEs come for
meetinginvestorswithoutdoingsufficientgroundworkinterms
of team, revenue model, customer insight etc. and this puts a
poor first impression with investors. Sometimes the teams are
not very impressive. Sometimes certain domain knowledge is
absent (for e.g.: sales / marketing). No differentiated skills are
seen and there is absence of well-rounded experienced team
members. This is very important because in India we don’t
see to many business backed by Intellectual Properties. Thus
when people work on similar business models, they need to
bring out the factors that will help them perform better than
others. A good team gives that assurance. Also, many times
entrepreneurs don’t spend enough time to understand the
customer and identify whether he will use his product or
service. Siddharth points out that a business should be able to
tell a cohesive story to the investor, which should cover a well
articulated plan, demonstrated unit economics and execution
capabilty.
2. Little understanding of Investment space:
Many entrepreneurs are driven by passion alone and lack
understandingonthebasicsofinvestmenttermswhilemeeting
potential investors. The good news is that this challenge can
be easily mitigated by some efforts from entrepreneurs. There
are enough networks and platforms that can help the aspiring
entrepreneurs overcome the challenge. Siddharth opines that
taking part in a good incubator programme helps. He also
points out that Incubation programmes should be able to bring
our investible lots of enterprises at the end of the process.
3. Be realistic about your ask:
Emerging from lack of business acumen are situations where
the IEs get misguided and look at unrealistic terms and
conditions for investments, which might be related to equity
dilution or valuation etc. Sometimes IEs also get carried away
by the few large scale success stories. This creates disconnect
among entrepreneurs and investors. An entrepreneur should
know what kind of investor he/she want to approach, why, how
much should he raise and its planned use. Also, it is important
to know what value are you going to get from your investor
beyond funds.
Jayaroopa Jeyabarathi,
Unitus Impact
A pitch that delivers proof of
concept, traction and good team
is essential. Trying to keep the
business model simple and clarity
on use of funds definitely helps

Conclusion:
A strong revenue model that keeps the organization cash positive and profitable is extremely important for
attracting investment and it also helps an organization to bootstrap until they identify the right investor. Revenue
models will be dynamic and need continuous refinement. Product based enterprises need to continuously
innovate and add bouquet of services to monetize the business.
With many enterprises that will be building up a whole ecosystem around it, it is important to strengthen the
value chain and optimize it as they grow. Most of the investors agree that understanding the right financial
structuring and readiness to dilute some equity would be necessary in the beginning. However, the promoters
should have considerable equity to drive them to perform. Also with lot of tech-enabled business in development,
entrepreneurs should also invest time for developing good user interfaces, which is often found lacking. Having
a strong Impact goal plays a big role while refining business models, because it keeps the business focused and
avoid being distracted while exploring new revenue streams.
Best Practices:
Develop strong customer insight/ market learning-
Investors will better entertain entrepreneurs who have
a strong knowledge and know how about his or her
business, market and the end consumer
Spend some time to develop a network of mentors and
advisors. Right references can add value
Be clear about your ask - Meet couple of investors and
take advise before you actively start fund raising. Also
be clear on what are you raising for
Participate in a good incubation program that actively
engages with the entrepreneurs helps in refining the
business model and connects the entrepreneurs with
the right network
Prepare a good pitch - Be ready with a good pitch
that covers aspects such as problem, solution, value
propositions, differentiation, team and fund required,
Intended use of funds
Have a strong understanding of legal and regulation
aspects of your business
Building the team around - Investors want to know the
execution capability
Quite often Impact enterprises are part of an
ecosystem. It is essential to clearly establish the role of
organization in the value chain
01
02
03
04
05
06
08
07

Human
Resources
C.
Having a strong founder and building a core team is
critical to the success of any organization, including
an Impact enterprise. It is essential to have the team
that is the right fit for the objective of the enterprise.
Often, too much emphasis is put on passion as opposed
to a practical approach to the business. A right balance
of various skill sets and temperaments are important
for the enterprise to be able to handle needs and
contingencies of diverse natures.
Research has indicated access to talent - qualified,
quality and affordable employees to work at social
enterprises, particularly at the mid-management level
- as a key constraint faced by Impact investors. The lack
of finance to pay market rate salaries is the main cause
of this challenge, with the consequence that these
businesses are unable to hire or retain qualified staff
and experience a high staff turnover.
To explore about challenges in human resources,
enterprises were questioned to understand the
following aspects:
1. What are the human resource challenges that
they face?
2. What did they do to overcome some of them?
All the organizations under study have faced some form
of human resource challenges during different phases
of the growth. Interestingly, one of the entrepreneur
commented that having a co -founder itself is important,
as it keeps even the founder on his toes and makes one
more accountable and mission driven. Organizations
that were set up by individuals brought in either a co-
founder or a senior manager to drive the mission.
Some of the key HR challenges are stigma to join
untested sectors/stigma sectors and retention of field
level teams.
Stigma attached to various aspects of social work also
adds to talent worries e.g. For one of the organizations
that works in the sanitation space, it was challenging to
attract employees to join the mission initially. They had
put in concerted efforts to provide a sophisticated work
environment to their workforce. Along with offering
employee benefits they have engaged in a trust building
exercise that has gradually helped them to overcome
those cultural challenges and today they have over
300 people working with them. Another organisation
mentioned that their field staff were initially hesitant to
work in slums as it was not a glamorous job. However,
when they begin to experience the impact of their work,
things changed.
OneorganisationmentionedthatsinceImpactenterprise
is an upcoming sector, new talent is still not considering
the sector as a long term career option. You might get
good volunteer, but getting full-time employees in the
sector is a challenge. Until the time an organisation
grows in to a full fledged entity, this challenge remains.
With few organizations that had sales forces at the
field level, retention had been an issue. Most of
them mentioned that attracting and retaining middle
management and the top management was not a
problem, but the field level staff retention becomes
a challenge. The constraint with field staff was often
linked to paying market salaries and also for the
need of training them as a sales force with a social
mission, rather than just a behavioral change agent.
Organizations shared that very often, field level staff will
not differentiate between a regular commercial entity
and an Impact enterprise, thus paying market salaries
becomes inadvertent.
Pavin Pankajan, Aquasafi
The first five people in your team
defines the culture of your
organisation. So spend time in
choosing your team

However, these challenges have been innovatively handled by the organizations under study:
Two organisations mentioned that attracting talent was never an issue for them because their service became
the voice of the organisation and it motivated people to join.
All the organizations mentioned that strong internal communication brews transparency and motivates people
to associate with the organisation.
At the field level, one of the IEs undertakes a detailed trust building process and thus has been able to reduce
issues related to human resource considerably.
One of the IEs was able to create a positive brand that attracted people to associate with them.
Some IE’s focused on identifying staff from local areas so that there is not need to relocate them. One of the IEs
follows a one-month induction period for rapport building and relationship building with every new employee.
One IE mentioned that they identified competency maps for potential employees at a field level and hired
candidates matching these parameters. This helped them in hiring suitable candidates to begin with and reduced
attrition.
One IE trains sales staff/part-time employees also for considerable time till they begin to share the vision. It
helped new joins to acclimatise to the working conditions before starting to give targets to them.
Some of the organisations have a hybrid model where their non-profit entities are involved in social development
programmes in the geographies they operate. This has helped them in developing a multifaceted relationship
with their ground staff, thus reducing attrition.
All the entrepreneurs agreed that talent is critical factor for the success of any enterprise and they focus on building
their organisation culture to attract, retain and grow talent at all levels.
All the investors stressed on the need of a good team
as critical. Villgro emphasizes that building the team is
one of the most critical, but often ignored aspect about
building an enterprise. Quite often, the mindset of team
building is still not existent and people are often treated
only as employee and not stake holders.
Siddharth points out that since business plans are very
volatile and lastly evolving, what works today may not
relevant in coming months, a good team is capable of
carefully calibrating and consolidating the change, and
that is significant factor looked at by any investor.
Jayaroopa from Unitus Impact reflects that a founding
team is something that is very critical for any investor. To
recruit quality talent, any venture - social or otherwise,
talentneedstobeincentivizedadequatelywithmonetary
and/or non-monetary incentives. Only then we will
see more talent entering in to the enterprise space.
Jayaroopa also provided tips to budding entrepreneurs,
stating that a founder should have his vesting schedules
for employees clear from the beginning. Consulting
an advisor and keeping those transparent will avoid
unfavourable situations later.
Andrew from Village Capital indicates that some time
people try to become cheap at wrong places, which
could be even in hiring. Radha from United Seed Fund
echoes the same mentioning that talent is crucial for
any startup, but for Impact enterprises it becomes more
challenging, because they might not be able to pay
market salaries in the beginning. And some business
might need people to work in remote location that make
recrutiments and retentions difficult. On the challenges
on attracting talent, Siddharth suggest entrepreneurs to
network with educational institutions and inspire young
talent to join them.

Conclusion:
The day the idea is converted from passion to business, it ceases to be one man’s game. Every business,
commercial or social, needs a strong team for it to succeed. There is no shortcut to managing human resources
than to provide them with right work environment, building up an organizational culture that they could be
proud of while remunerating well.
Talent becomes significant, as very rarely we have founders who might have multiple skills, thus a cross functional
core team of co-founder and senior management becomes critical. The founders should have a mix of offering in
his or her place, and recruit others who complement these skills.
Once on ground, hiring the right person, inducting, training and motivating the resources become key functions,
especially when functioning in lean times and handling multiple roles.
The entrepreneurs also opined that working for a social/Impact enterprises need additional skill sets that involved
understanding of the social problem addressed by the organisation and bringing about behavioural change in the
communities. For an Impact enterprise, its also important that the mission should be spoken to all employees
through various forum and internal communication modes.
Best Practices:
Focus on team building right from the beginning. It is
essential for setting up an enterprise, raising capital
and achieving organizational goals
If the enterprise has an execution heavy operational
model, field staff become critical. Offering right
induction and training, offering market-linked salaries
and improving working conditions helps in retention
Transparency with team and establishing a good work
culture helps
Attract interns who are keen to work in challenging
assignments
Leverage your network and connect with as many
people as you can
While building up a core team, get ready to offer
benefits beyond salaries. And be clarified on the same
Have an advisory board - Focus on building one
01
02
03
04
05
06
07

Communication
and Outreach
D.
Communication and outreach is a necessary function
for any organisation, whether it is a non-profit,
conventional business or Impact enterprise. While
mainstream conventional businesses have gone a long
way in this aspect, where they have specialized teams
to handle it, the same doesn’t hold good for many
non-profits and Impact enterprises. Communicating
within the organisation is mostly an intrinsic function.
However, communicating with stakeholders outside the
organisation doesn’t come by design. With social media
tools gathering momentum, organisation are trying to
engage with external stakeholders using them.
One of the objectives of this study was to understand
whether Communication and Outreach has been
handled as strategic function by the respondents.
For that, the respondents were asked some question
revolving around the following aspects:
1. Perceived functions of communication in their
organisation
2. Does the organisation have a dedicated staff/team
to handle their communication
3. Significance and use of new media to connect with
stakeholders
Who handles communication?
Five out of nine organisation have a dedicated staff or a
team to handle the communication functions and one
has outsourced the external communication. With the
rest, it is either handled by a core team member or a
staff member as an additional responsibility.
Six out of nine organisation mentioned that they
are in to Business to Customer (B2C) business and
communicating with end customers as well as public is a
critical business function. One organisation mentioned
that a considerable part of their customer interaction
are handled by their sales force, thus an increases
brand presence would reduce the conversion time
considerably. One organisation mentioned that since
they are a product company, who has Business to
Business (B2B) business so far, they haven’t invested
much on the outreach and external communication
aspect. However, they intend to enter to B2C business
soon and thus would need more outreach activities
planned.
Three organisations mentioned that they invested in
using technology to improve internal communication,
which had helped them in improving operational
efficiency. Yet another mentioned that they proactively
engagewiththeir staffandhaveinternalcommunication
methods in place. This helps build transparency at work
place. All the organisations stressed on the need to have
strong branding, outreach and internal systems and
their focus to work towards them.
Significance of new media
All the organisations studied have websites and social
media accounts. But except four of them, others were
either not active on social media or were just moderately
active with occasional posts. All the enterprises consider
that a good presence on social media can help them in
raising brand awareness and enhance organisational
image. Also since some of the business is B2C in nature
it can also attract new customers or raise awareness
about the social issue and the solution. Organisation
were unanimous is agreeing that it definitely helps to
connect with more supporters if they are active.
Jayaroopa, Unitus
In a B2C business, the entrepreneurs must
focus on simultaneously building their
processes while engaging in PR exercise

On PR and external communication, the investors
also agreed that it depends on the business model to
decide how aggressive and at what stage one should
focus on external communication. In aB2B business,
communication and brand building may not be relevant
to begin with, and can be gradually built up. But for a
B2C company, it has to be taken as a strategic focus.
The need of a basic website was considered necessary.
Andrew from Village Capital suggests that social
media can be used as not just a platform to speak
about an organisation, but also to attract talent, build a
knowledge network, etc. Mukesh from Villgro stressed
the importance of communicating with stakeholders,
mentioning that Villgro has a very proactive
communication with all its incubatees and had built
upon that strength. However, he mentions that lack
of proactive engagement with key stakeholders is an
issue that exists in the ecosystem. Radha from USF
mentions that every publicity is good, because it helps
brand recall. But one should be careful burning cash on
it. The use of communication depends on strategy, but
new media is definitely a free of cost platform. Everyone
should have a website and relevant media presence.
Communication is also a culture that has to be built in
to a system. It is very critical internally also, because
each team plays and different role and company should
focus on promoting open communication between
teams. Then only feedback from customer will reach
the leadership. Also the people in different teams will
be able to deliver properly.
Conclusion:
There is no disconnect among enterprises or among investors about the function of communication and outreach.
However, only B2C businesses have linked this function directly to business goals. In all other cases it is not given
equal significance. While entrepreneurs like to enhance and improve their communication efforts, it is equally
important to balance it with your business deliverables. Do sell, but do not over sell.
Publicity and brand building
need to be balanced with
operational acumen, especially
in B2C business
When communication and outreach
is carried on a strategic function,
then it yields to specific business
results. For e.g.: It helps raise more
awareness about the problem
Proactive communication
with key stakeholders is
equally important
Internal communication
helps build trust and
complements to good HR
practices
01
02
03
04
Best Practices:

Ecosystem
for Social Entrepreneurs

An Impact enterprise ecosystem consists of entrepreneurs as well as support organisations that use financial and
non-financial methods to support entrepreneurs. There are also a number of organisations funding and improving the
infrastructure of the ecosystem – access to finance at a sector level, access to value chain or to markets, for example.
Government policy is an important actor as policy and programmes can be important enablers.
An enabling ecosystem, therefore, needs to cater to both the commercial and social parts of a social enterprise, creating
a business climate in which entrepreneurs can start and grow, but also provide support for the specific social (“doing
good”) aspects.
Based on the discussion with enterprises and Impact investors and enablers, the following attributed were highlighted
on ecosystem for IE in India:
1. The ecosystem today has many players but still has a lot of potential to grow in terms of Incubators and early stage
Investors.
2. Certain sectors are seeing more pipeline whereas certain other have not seen such traction. The ecosystem calls for
more collaborative efforts to support more fields to emerge and the approach has to be proactive that a reactive
one.
3. Policy support:
a). No tax holiday or benefits alike Special Economic Zones for commercial entities.
b). Government policies on Financial Inclusion eg. Pradan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana; Mudra Bank Yojana, Swach
Bharat Abhiyan etc are facilitating change , but yet to pick up speed at grassroots level.
c). Internet Penetration, Smart phones and accessibility to news and media is a big push factor for many IE’s.
4. No precedence of similar business becomes a barrier for institutional donors/financial institutions in lending
credit. Also, unavailability of small consumer loans among customers by mainstream financial institutions limits
the purchasing power of end consumer.
5. Social Barriers
a). Social taboo associated with failure is strong in India. Society need to evolve to level where failure in one’s
venture shouldn’t be linked to a person’s personal life. Then, we will see more risk takers and entrepreneurs
entering this space.
b). Managing interference from local people/labor issues
6. Formal, regular and quality Incubation and Accelerator Programmes should act as networking platforms, trying
to bring other enterprises as customer and vendors, thus helping each other grow. Investors should focus on
connecting startups with each other.
7. Angel investment is becoming common, which is a good indicator. Strength of senior entrepreneurs turning angels
is encouraging.
8. There is apprehension around founders of an organization taking a salary. To attract more talent in to the ecosystem,
we have to allow entrepreneurs to earn while they set up.
9. Connect Entrepreneurship and Innovation with Academic Institutions: Many interviewees indicated that connection
between entrepreneurship and academics institutions is nascent in India compared to countries like U.S.A.
Academic Institutions through its infrastructure and intellectual capital can offer a good platform for research and
innovation, as it is a costly affair for an entrepreneur to bear individually.

Conclusion:
Impact (Social) Enterprises and the surrounding ecosystem is gearing up in India, and so are the Impact Investment
players. However, the typical nature of an IE, in which it solves a critical social problems through a market linked
approach, make it a unique case. An IE has to balance its financial goals and social Impact goals, and what helps it
in ensuring the same is the clarity on the impact parameters from the beginning and how to go about measuring
the same by linking it with operational metrics. While the methodologies may be chosen as per the business
model, keeping it simple and performance driven is a good way to start. However, it is also suggested to measure
quality of Impact once the organisation has steady resources flowing. Having a good impact metrics helps IE to
stay focussed and enables them to take tough decisions in their life-cycle.
While Impact is what an IE aspires to achieve, the two key resources that helps to reach that goal are Funds and
Human resources. In order to push the growth of the enterprise, it is essential to have a good business model in
place, keeping the customer as the central focus. Having a strong revenue model with clear value proposition and
differentiation helps the business not just to raise funds but also keep their revenues ticking. Understanding the
market and customer becomes a key focus area.
On the other hand, the best of the best business models need strong teams to execute them. Thus hiring right
people at all levels forms a significant function for a promoter. It is also a critical factor that is assessed by a
potential investor. Entrepreneurs and Investors emphasizes the need of building a good work culture and having
right HR practices as an enabling factor for the success of an enterprise.
Communication is a power tool for stakeholder engagement. It helps build efficiency and build a transparent
work culture within an organisation as well as among key stakeholder. On the other hand it helps build awareness
on the social issue while creating positive impression about the IE. Thus it has to treated as strategic tool that just
a medium of dissemination. The new age media has enabled the access easier and cost effective, which needs to
be tapped in by IE’s too. However, care should be taken not to over spend and oversell the same.
Comparing an IE to a vehicle, Social Impact metrics provide direction, while a good business model is the fuel and
the engine. People in the organisation drive the organisation to its destination, while communication coordinate
the system and let know the IE’s presence in the ecosystem.

Dreams
Fulfilled:
Brief Stories

During the process of this study, I met many inspirational people and heard their stories of struggle and success. It
would be unfair if I don’t share those stories, albeit in brief. This is an acknowledgement of the entrepreneurial spirit of
these people and their organizations. I hope that these briefs about the organizations under study would inspire more
budding entrepreneurs.
SaraPlast(3sindia)
Head office: Pune
Founder: Rajeev Kher
Sanitation Director: Ulka Sadalkar
The Better India
Head Office: Bengaluru
Founders: Anuradha Kedia and Dhimant Parekh
Founded in 1999, SaraPlast(3sindia) is a one-of-a-kind
Indian enterprise with vision of offering “total sanitation
for every man, woman and child in urban and semi-
urban India with a high sense of hygiene, to generate
employment, reduce environmental impact and offer
a comfortable location for addressing the most basic
of needs”. Many agree that sanitation is an issue that
needs to be addressed; what sets SaraPlast(3sindia)
apart is that they do something about it.
Rajeev Kher built the organisation around the concept
of portable loos. In addition to providing these portable
toilet cabins on rent, SaraPlast(3sindia) designs,
manufactures, and deploys portable toilets and waste
disposal system across urban settlements that have
no water supply or sewage system. SaraPlast(3sindia)
follows a comprehensive approach, involving both
maintenance and awareness campaigns discussing
open defection and its effects. SaraPlast(3sindia)
also designates micro entrepreneurs in slum areas,
who manage portable loos for their communities.
As of 2014, more than 32,80,000 people have used
SaraPlast(3sindia)’s services, including 13,12,000
women. SaraPlast(3sindia) has disposed and treated
161 million litres of sewage and saved 59 million litres of
water. In the course of this journey, Rajeev and his team
had not just fought the taboos of working with a non-
glamorous and unsought sector, but have challenged
through the journey from choosing the right technology
amidst work with no policy support. With no other
impact organisation offering a similar solution in this
space, SaraPlast(3sindia) is continuously innovating its
products and value propositions, while attempting to
create a positive policy environment and ecosystem
support for this initiative. With infectious energy and
ambitious goals to achieve, Rajeev and his team is
already set on a mission, which many of us hesitate to
even attempt.
This husband-wife duo is on a mission to build an
organisation that will be named as synonymous to
positive news in India. The Better India was born out the
latent need to identify and disseminate positive news in
the country. This came out of the realisation that if there
is only negative things happening around, the world
would have been chaotic. Founders Kedia and Parekh
believed a lack of chaos indicated positive stories that
were being left untold.
The founders began the job of story telling as a part-
time activity and were amazed when people loved
what they shared. What started as a blog created one
weekend grew to its current form of a website read
by two million people around the world every month,
and growing. Today The Better India has more than 500
writers. This large writer base democratizes the way they
source news, and brings a wide variety of reportage on
positive news, unsung heroes and inspirational stories
from India. Awed by the impact their reports have
created, The Better India has developed a mechanism
to measure impact of each story they publish. The
founders are slowly and diligently building up the fabric
of the organisation so that the basic culture and purpose
doesn’t get diluted as they grow.

AquaSafi Purification Private Limited
Head Office: Hubli
Founder: Kevin Cluff
Executive Director: Pavin Pankajan
Sustain Tech India Private Limited
Head office: Bengaluru
Founder: Svati Bhogle
COO: Nachiket Kulkarni
Grassroutes Journeys Private Limited
Head office: Mumbai
Founder: Inir Pinheiro
With a daunting 154 million Indians in need of clean
drinking water, Aquasafi is on a mission to provide
universal accessible and affordable purified drinking
water. Established in 2011 by Kevin Cluff, Aquasafi has
developed a proprietary water purification systems
using reverse Osmosis and Ultra violet purification
technologies, which allow the firm to purify and resell
water at a competitive market rate. Their technology is
uniqueinthattheyneedsnooperationalmanpower,and
thus can be operated remotely. Aquasafi’s technology
is currently used in 130 water purification units in
Karnataka state villages, where approximately 130,000
people use the units for safe drinking water everyday.
The units can generate up to 1,300 litres per hour. Pavin,
Cluff and the rest of Aquasafi’s management team come
from a technology background and has many years of
experience working with community water systems.
As a organisation planning to initiate a growth stage,
Aquasafi is currently exploring the investment partners
to help fuel their growth.
Sustaintech was set up in the year 2009 with the mission
to promote the rapid adoption of sustainable energy
technology and products. It was conceived from the
experience of Technology Informatics Design Endeavour
(TIDE), a 20-year-old non profit organisation in the field
of clean energy space. Leveraging the years of customer
insight and technology know-how and training support
from its non-profit entity, Sustain Tech uses a market-
linked approach to maximise its product reach among
target customers and servicing them well. Sustain Tech
caters to a unique segment of micro businesses that
use cook stoves in their hotels, Dhabas or messes.
Traditionally this segment has been catered to by
un-organised players who hardly paid attention to
energy efficiency, health hazards or the environment
impact of design. Sustain Tech ventured in catering to
this segment with a range of products that last longer,
burn fuel more efficiently, produce less smoke and heat
and are convenient to use.
With no precedent to look up to, Sustaintech has
shouldered the additional responsibility of creating
an entire value chain that involved cook stove
manufacturers who are micro entrepreneurs. They
arrange cook stove financing through Peer to Peer (P2P)
lending platforms. The organisation has sold more than
3,500 stoves to date, with aggressive plans to expand in
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharastra.
With the aspiration of creating 1 million livelihood
opportunities in rural India, this enterprise is the
outcome of young founder’s journey connecting urban
India to its beautiful rural counterpart through rural
tourism. With nothing to look up to as precedent,
Grassroutes has evolved as a strong and unique impact
enterprise in the area of rural tourism in the country.
They currently operate in 3 states, spanning 10 villages
and influencing more than 500 families. The journey has
not been an easy one, but it has indeed been rich for
Inir and his colleagues. Together, over 8 years, they have
transformed rural and tribal families into hospitality
partners, supplying families with 20-25% additional
income annually and creating 6,000-8,000 days of

Hippocampus Learning Centres
Founder: Umesh Malhotra
Industree Crafts Limited (Mother Earth)
Founder: Neelam Chibber
If you are working in the software industry and
wondering whether you can do anything about
improving education in India, then you might do well
to read more about Umesh Malhotra and his journey
with Hippocampus. This former Infosys employee
left his career to pursue his belief that education can
change lives and should be accessible to everyone.
Beginning with one reading centre in Bengaluru,
Malhotra pioneered an innovative reading programme
through the Hippocampus Learning Foundation that
was recognised and has since been replicated across
India through Hippocampus’ strategic partners. Soon
into his journey in education, Malhotra realized that
giving children direction and support during their early
stages of life would ensure upwards social mobilization,
but that children in rural areas lacked those facilities.
So was born Hippocampus Learning Centres. These low-
cost schools offer a pre-school education to children
from low and middle income families in rural areas. In
addition to a proprietary curriculum, they have focused
programmes on English fluency and Mathematics. The
organisation works in over 104 villages today. They also
train and recruit women in these villagers as teachers,
offering them a livelihood.
Striving through the unchartered paths and roadblocks,
Umesh and his team are on a mission to make quality
preschool education affordable and available to children
from low income communities in rural areas.
“Perseverance and patience are required when you are
starting out on the journey of sustainable development,”
says Neelam Chibber, founder of Industree Crafts
Limited, an organization that works towards enhancing,
creating and securing artisanal livelihoods through
socially, economically and environmentally sustainable
production. Chibber doesn’t just preach these words,
but practices them as well with the Industree team,
which is in its 21st year of operation and still feels that
it has to do much more to improve livelihoods of rural
artisans. Industree was born out of Chibber’s urge to
connect contemporary designs to rural artisanship
by selling articles designed by her and made by rural
artisans. The journey saw the business models evolving
from single branded store to shop-in-shops and and now
a brand promoted by Future Group, while transitioning
from a craft company to a lifestyle-food-apparel
consumer business. Industree has changed and the
ways through which market linkages can be penetrated,
down to the last link in the production value chain. To
quote an example, Industree has set up unique craft
producer companies that are owned and managed by
artisans under Industree mentorship.
In addition to its commendable financial success,
recognition and social impact, perhaps the most
inspiring features of Industree are the team’s continuous
and untiring efforts to build a sustainable ecosystem for
artisans in India. With the passion, determination and
sense of purpose the dynamic leadership and team of
Industree has already demonstrated, it will doubtlessly
soon be impacting 1 million artisans.
employment every year. They have also been able to
reduce migration to cities from the villages they operate
while conserving the environment and traditional arts
and crafts practices. Grassroutes provides unmatched
experiences to their customers by offering experiential
rural holidays where customers participate in anything
from rice farming to rural sports ; from milking a goat
to just sitting back and soaking in nature. Customer
engagement on social media and traveller reviews
validate the success of the organization. As Grassroutes
takes firm steps to grow, they make sure to keep the
culture and flavour of their organisation intact. Scaling
is a goal, but they will never forget their roots.

Maya Organic
Head Office: Channapatna
Founder: Solomon Jayaprakash
Operations Head: Shahida
Pollinate Energy India
Head Office: Bengaluru
Founders: Katerina Kimmorley, Alexie Seller, Jamie
Chivers, Ben Merven, Monique Alfris, Emma Colenbrander
Director of Operations: Arjun Bolangdy
The wooden toys and lacquerware of the tiny town of
Channapatna are world famous. Maya Organics has
playedasignificantroleinkeepingthisage-oldartisanship
alive by training artisans to design wooden toys and
handicrafts as per changing consumer preferences. But
what makes MO different from many Channapatna toy
manufactures and sellers is its social mission. MO came
in to existence after almost 15 years of community work
by its sister nonprofit entity MAYA , against child labour
and towards poverty eradication. Through this work, the
need for sustainable livelihoods became apparent and
Maya Organics was set up as a livelihood development
initiative involved in developing a network of artisans,
workers and micro-entrepreneurs capable of producing
world-class lacquerware wooden products. Fifty percent
of the employees are women, a path breaking trend in
a traditionally male-dominated craft. These products
are child friendly, eco-friendly, hand-crafted pieces,
and confirm with fair trade standards. The evolution
of these masterpieces in the hands of those artisans,
from bare wood to polished toy, is worth watching. In
addition to manufacturing activities at its own factory,
MO also promotes micro-entrepreneurs in the local
community by offering training, design support and
marketing contacts. Maya organic is the only of the two
non -profit company that has been included in this study.
What makes this organization notable is the fact that its
founder has delegated the day-to-day management of
the organisation to the management team. The founder
of Maya Organics, Mr. Solomon Jayaprakash, is a serial
impact entrepreneur.
Poor families with limited means often migrate to a
nearby city hoping to earn more and expecting a better
life. To their despair, they often find themselves settled
in a slum, lacking even basic amenities such as clean
water, energy, clean cooking fuels or proper housing.
“Energy poverty” —a lack of modern energy services—
is the issue that Pollinate Energy’s founders identified on
a visit to India. They decided to take a market approach
to tackle it. What started as a pilot project to provide
accessible, sustainable and affordable products in
slums has today become an established social business
enterprise.
Pollinate energy identifies enthusiastic patrons
called pollinators, who are micro-entrepreneurs and
franchisees. The pollinators sell clean cook stoves,
solar lamps, water purifiers and other products directly
to consumers. Wherever possible, financing is made
available. Within three years of operation, Pollinate
Energy has reached over 50,000 people in 1,530
communities and saved 2.46 million kilograms of Co2
emissions,whilealsosavingtheircustomersanestimated
53 million rupees. The company aspires to reach 53
cities of India within the next five years, thus impacting
one million people. Though a young organisation,
Pollinate Energy has done a remarkable job in tracking
the qualitative impact of their work in a cost-effective
and objective manner with the help of volunteers. A
visit to their website, www.pollinateenergy.org, is highly
recommended. With 25% of India living with no access
to electricity, Pollinate energy is a beacon of hope.

References:
1. The Challenges of Measuring Social Impact, April 12, 2012, By Colleen Poynton.
2. Discussion about “What is Impact” between Tom Adams of Acumen Fund, Allison Basile of Grassroots
Business Fund, and Rhett Morris of Endeavor.
3. India Social Enterprise Landscape Report by Asian Development Bank, 2012
4. On Path to Sustainability and Scale- A Study of India’s Social Enterprise Landscape, Intellecap, 2012
5. Understanding Human Resource Challenge in India’s Social Enterprises Sector- Intellecap, 2012
6. http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/07/15/when-measuring-social-impact-we-need-to-
move-beyond-counting/
7. http://reports.weforum.org/impact-investment/5-recommendations/5-2-role-of-impact-enterprises/
8. http://www.unltddelhi.org/challenges-early-stage-social-entrepreneurs

By
Manju Menon
IDEX Fellow, July 2015 Cohort
Phone: +91-7755908540
Email: manju.menon@idexfellows.com

Impact enterprises in India : Challenges and Best Practices

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