The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation selects 4 non-profits for grants under Facebook Pragati to boost women entrepreneurship

The/Nudge Centre of Social Innovation, an impact stream of The/Nudge Foundation that aims to “nudge and nurture top talent to solve India’s biggest challenges”, on Friday announced that four non-profits have been selected to receive grants from Facebook through its CSR initiative, FacebookPragati.

These include Tech4Good, Shakti An Empathy Project, India and Bharat Together, and Skilled Samaritan Foundation.

Shortlisted from a pool of 1,326 applications, these four organisations are early-stage, women-led non-profit startups that are boosting women entrepreneurship using digital skills and tools.

Tech4Good works to provide open-source technology solutions to non-profits and has so far reached out to over 500 such enterprises across India, helping them serve more than one million of their beneficiaries better.

Shakti An Empathy Project (STEP) runs an incubator programme for women-led social enterprises by focussing on those based in Tier II and Tier III locations across India.

Renu Shah, founder of Shakti, an Empathy Project (STEP), shares the impact her project has created. STEP is one of the non-profits that has received grants from The Nudge Centre for Social Innovation under Facebook Pragati project.

“We have always been committed to improving the gender divide on the internet. We believe that when women and youth have the skills and technology to improve their lives, they can unlock economic and social value for themselves and their communities,” said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India.

"The potential to support and transform the lives of women entrepreneurs are boundless, and our aim is for Facebook Pragati to promote innovation and economic growth," he added.

Meanwhile, India and Bharat Together (IABT) builds the capacity and skills of young girls in Uttarakhand to make them self-reliant as entrepreneurs. The fourth organisation, Skilled Samaritan Foundation enhances the skills of women entrepreneurs in the marginalised population in Uttar Pradesh by providing them with design inputs and access to markets.

Tech4Good and STEP received the grants in June 2020. This year, IABT and Skilled Samaritan Foundation have been selected for incubation and will receive grants of Rs 15 lakh each while Tech4Good and STEP have been selected for acceleration and will receive grants of Rs 50 lakh each.

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“The/Nudge’s faith in the power of technology to deliver and amplify impact has been further strengthened with all the tech enabled pivots seen in the non-profit space to deal with COVID. We also believe that with just one in five MSMEs being run by women, India is losing out on the globally proven superiority of women-led business, ” said Akshay Soni, Managing Director, The/Nudge Accelerator.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Facebook to bring entrepreneurial solutions to both these underserved spaces that have the potential to impact millions of Indians," he added.

Apart from the grants, these non-profits will also have access to mentorship, with hands-on support in areas like technology, marketing, and human resources from renowned experts and industry leaders. They will also have access to fundraising strategy courses and organisational capacity building, with a series of functional mentors across marketing, HR and technology.

Facebook Pragati is an initiative that was launched in 2020, to boost women entrepreneurship, in partnership with The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation. The programme aims to provide entrepreneurs access to tools, mentorship, and resources to help overcome some of the barriers they face to build a successful enterprise using technology.