13 July 2020 15:28:56 IST

Ashoka and Harvard offer Covid response programme for non-profits

Opportunity for senior managers to reflect on organisation’s resilience and plan a post-pandemic future

The Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy, Ashoka University, has announced a new certificate programme for India's NGO leaders on Resilience Strategies for Non-profits (RSN) in partnership with Harvard Business School faculty on July 27, 28, & 29, says a press release from the University.

RSN is an opportunity for senior leaders and managers to reflect on their organisation’s Covid-19 response, assess its resilience needs, and reimagine its post-pandemic future. This interactive workshop is offered via three two-hour sessions over Zoom. Representatives from social impact organisations of any size and scope, with operations in India, are invited and encouraged to participate; space is limited to the first 200 eligible applicants.

Speaking about the new programme, Ingrid Srinath, Director, Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy, said, “Nonprofits in India face a perfect storm. A looming funding crunch even as demand for services skyrockets. Navigating the perils and opportunities this presents will take more than passion and commitment. Resilience Strategies for Nonprofits (RSN) will provide concrete advice and tools from sector leaders and world class faculty to guide critical decision making and planning at this critical time.”

No best practice cases

Further commenting on the course offering, V. Kasturi Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School, said “There is no precedent for the current crisis faced by non-profits. There are no textbooks or best practice cases we can pull off from our shelves to help us. We are in this together and can learn from each other in real time as we attempt to steer out of this crisis. In that spirit, this short three session program will draw on live case studies of non-profits in India, and through their experiences as well as those attending the programme, develop a body of tools and practices that may be helpful as we navigate through this situation.”

Registration is available online from now until 20th July, on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified candidates.

Faculty includes: V. Kasturi Rangan; Vikram Gandhi, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; · Neera Nundy, Partner & Founder at Dasra; Ingrid Srinath, Director of Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy.

On the Centre

CSIP is India’s first academic centre focused on enabling strategic and robust philanthropy for social impact. It strives to provide funders and civil society organisations evidence-based insights and knowledge products to grow their scale and impact, convene platforms for norm-setting and collaborative learning, and offer programmes that strengthen civil society capability and sustainability.