Application Invited for Wipro’s Seeding Programme for Educational Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)

About the Organization:

Wipro is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. It is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. In 2013, Wipro separated its non-IT businesses and formed the privately owned Wipro Enterprises.

Wipro’s Seeding Programme for Educational CSOs:

Wipro’s Seeding Programme for Educational Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) supports the creation and development of new educational organizations that can contribute meaningfully to Indian school education; by supporting committed and capable teams and individuals who share their vision of good quality education being available to every Indian child, through a 3-year Founders’ Fellowship – to set up effective educational NGOs, in geographies of their choice. 

Objective:

The Programme’s objective is to select capable & committed individuals and teams and facilitate their long-term and effective engagement with issues and challenges of Indian school education, by helping them set up stable organizations; and to do this at some scale i.e. seed about 10 organizations/year

Some Guiding Principles of the Programme:

Demonstrated Capacities and Commitment:

• The program supports individuals or teams who have already demonstrated certain capacities and sensibilities for, as well as serious commitment to, the social/education sector through their past engagements (usually, through at least 2-3 years of full-time engagement with education or allied developmental issues)

Clear Organizational Objectives:

• The programme aims to facilitate development of stable educational CSOs that can engage with school education in the long-term; and thus will have clear ‘organizational’ expectations from individuals and teams it supports.

Engagement with Within Class/School Issues:

• While issues outside schools/classrooms (such as those related to community, nutrition/health etc.) are decidedly important for effective education, we believe that to create effective educational NGOs that can have systemic impact, the founding team must usually be willing and able to engage directly with the children and teachers and ‘within-class/school’ issues (such as curricular and pedagogic)

Focused Approach:

• Education requires some degree of specialized knowledge and effective educational NGOs are often willing to go deeper in a few educational domains/disciplines (as opposed to being generalists who attempt to address all educational issues at once or play the role only of mediators (for e.g. by providing readymade content available to a set of schools)

Balanced Teams:

• If organizations have to develop and sustain over the long run, it is important to have balanced teams of partners/co-owners who while on one hand have allied sensibilities and interests (which geography to work in, which educational domains to focus on, which demographics to cater to etc.); on the other hand, are also able to provide constructive feedback to each other and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Seeding Programme DesignL

Wipro’s Programme for Seeding Educational CSOs has 3 Stages:

Select

• Selecting capable and committed individuals is a key focus of the programme; and it does this primarily through a network of partnerships with academic institutions & fellowship programs and their alumni.

Seed

• They provide up to 3 years’ seeding grant to teams/organizations in the form of Founders’ Fellowship to up to 3 founders per organization; to provide them financial flexibility to fully dedicate themselves to their ideas and cause.

Support

• An effective support structure, they believe, is critical for the learning, effectiveness and sustenance of early stage organizations. They endeavor to provide this around three axes: subject matter expertise in the domain of school education, organizational capacity (HR, legal, finance etc.) and meaningful networking with other organizations working in the same domain.

Selection Criteria:

Selection of Fellows would be based on the following weighted parameters. Please see the FAQ section for more details.

Individual Level Criteria

• Prior Work Experience, Education & Skills
• Demonstrated Social Concern
• Commitment to the Initiative
• Organizational Perspective
• Geographical Familiarity
• Progressive and Systemic Perspective
• Openness to Learn and Share

Team / Organizational Level Criteria

• Team Balance and Strengths
• Engagement with Core Curricular Issues
• Soundness of Organizational Development Plan

For more information please check the Link