HCL Grants for Indian NGOs

HCL Grant Adds Two More Categories This Year
Health and Environment added besides Education
Call for Entries Open

Dear Change Leader,

As you would probably know, HCL Grant<http://hclgrant.hcltech.com/>, is an initiative by HCL Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of HCL Technologies<http://www.hcltech.com/>, for recognizing the rise of The Fifth Estate – the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) which are formed and led by the citizens of this country. The Grant supports such change agents that reach out to marginalized, isolated and underdeveloped rural communities, and achieve sustainable socio-economic development.

In its first year, HCL Grant identified the best NGOs working in the area of rural education. From a pool of over 400 NGOs who applied for HCL Grant, six finalists were selected. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the Honorable President of India, awarded the first HCL Grant Award of Rs.5 crore to Going to School, an NGO which currently covers over 1,300 schools and is impacting 1,50,000 children every week, with imperative life changing skills through their design-driven approach and learning material, in remote villages of Bihar.

For the second season of The Grant, HCL Foundation is inviting applications in the following three categories:

HEALTH:

Complements state efforts towards achievement of the Goals under National Health Mission and aims at supporting innovative, scalable models that would help the nation meet its targets faster than planned, in rural India. Gender transformative projects ranging from providing equitable & universal access to health for all, equitable access to clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene facilities to all, prevention and elimination of water borne diseases, are all in the radar of HCL Grant. Given that the country needs substantial push on these health indicators, maternal, adolescent, child health and nutrition, eradication of communicable diseases, while reaching out to the most unreached and the underprivileged, is the primary focus of this Grant.

ENVIRONMENT:

Sustainable Environment conservation by supporting the National Missions under Climate Change, ranging from providing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy to all, combatting climate change and its impact, protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystem, wetlands and other water bodies, combatting desertification, deforestation, land degradation and biodiversity loss, combatting pollution and promoting sustainable use of non-renewable resources, in the rural belt. The Grant focuses on direct action that leads to long term impact, achieved through lasting behavioural change towards conservation of environment, the flora and the fauna, as well as strengthening of the state systems towards a common goal of instilling cross sectoral shared responsibility towards protection of environment. Gender transformative and inclusive approaches will be a key consideration to make it to a winning idea.

EDUCATION:

The Grant is focused on Right to Education for All, by upscaling initiatives that strengthen Elementary, Secondary and Higher Education as well as Adult Literacy. The Grant essentially considers scalable and replicable education models that promote lifelong learning opportunities through skill development and confidence building, including digital literacy for all. Gender transformative education initiatives that lead to girl child and women empowerment through education are central to this Grant. The project should be designed around equitable, inclusive and quality education approach, thereby strengthening state systems and attaining sustainability in rural development.

In each of the above mentioned categories, an amount of INR 5 Crore will be awarded to the winning NGO, selected through a robust evaluation process consisting of  multiple levels of assessment, including field level due diligence. The winner will be announced in February 2017.

The last date for receiving applications for HCL Grant is September 15th, 2016. To know more and apply, please Click here. http://hclgrant.hcltech.com/#Apply

Best regards,

Nidhi Pundhir
Director CSR - Lead HCL Foundation

For queries, please write to hclgrant@hcl.com<mailto:hclgrant@hcl.com