How should one identify the organisations to further their cause?

Our experience at SSF has strongly convinced us of the ever increasing relevance of the not-for-profit model in general, and small and medium sized ones in particular. In India there are a few social concerns that continue to animate the idea of development, where many small to medium sized organisations are very active:

• caste- and gender-based discrimination,

• fast-paced and unplanned urbanisation,

• neglect of the rural economy and its social conditions,

• exclusion from a fair representation in the local political processes,

• excessive privatisation of health and educational services, as well as

• damaging consequences of environmental changes on livelihoods and lives of the most vulnerable.

This is because, the development sector, like most industries, is a long-tail phenomenon: that the sum of the work done across the tail of the sector far outstrips that by a few larger ones. This follows quite naturally from a simple observable fact: development is about real persons and real communities located at a certain place and time. For the work of an organisation to be truly effective, the organisation must over time blend itself in that context and become its permanent fixture.

For donors, it provides an opportunity to leverage the benefits of historical programmatic funding, support their inherent strength to tease out responses in real-time and contribute towards preserving their primary mission, organisational ethos, and their relevance in future.

If you are looking for such organisations, we can help you find some from our portfolio or help you pick some from the ones you know of.