Mr K K Varma is a man of many moods. Chief (Projects & Partnerships) at Smile Foundation, he studied in IIT Kharagpur & made a career in social sector, before toying up with the idea of being a professional cricketer. He has also worked with Government of India & had been very liberal in grant making. He recalls a very innovative proposal by an NGO to Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, which was put on hold due to its sheer novelty.

He likes writings of Khushwant Singh & enjoys Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s autobiography, The Tiger’s Tail for sheer joy of learning English this book offers.

He spoke at length to IndianNGOs.com about social sector, role of NGOs in development & of course, his own journey.

The Last hope
NGOs have emerged as the saving grace for the welfare sector of India. They have stepped in, where government didn’t deliver.

However, government officers may be inefficient but aren’t NGOs equally non transparent? Well, There are several fraud NGOs in India. True. But, NGOs still are lesser evils. Their productivity ratio is usually higher. If an NGO spends 100/- on public welfare, at least 40-50% goes to the community. However, with government schemes, one never knows the exact situation.

Managing the systems
My immediate task at Smile Foundation was to put systems in place & introduce technical procedure to appraise proposals. Technical appraisal of the proposals we receive from other NGOs was not very sound. We didn’t have a scientifically developed monitoring format

I made it more systematic & technical, prepared a team for how to technically appraise a proposal. An appraisal should have a brief introduction about the organization. It must contain what you found in the field visit. Whether there was a proper need assessment & then based upon that need assessment, objectives should be framed. Relating to the objectives, there should be a project design & then linking the budget & expenditure components. It gives not only the crude quantitative statistics but also qualitative statistics.

Approaching the Funding Agency
Training of the staff on proposal development is imperative as to what an ideal proposal to corporate & funding agencies should contain. How to deal with donors & how to read between the lines when you are meeting with a donor agency. He may not very specific, may not tell you all the points during a fifteen minutes meeting. But, you should be quick enough to pick his priority & concerns so that you do not ignore his concerns. You should address his apprehensions in your proposals. Try to find out during that meeting if there is any ceiling on the budget or is there any particular manner of funding of that organization. For instance, few organizations do not fund capital cost, may not fund cost of the land. Closest you read a donor, closest the proposal would be & closest would be the chances of its rejection.

Ashutosh Bhardwaj