Drishtant Promotes ‘Skill Sharing’ for NPOs

MUMBAI: Non-profit organizations (NPOs) often cannot access corporate quality skills due to constraints of scale, budget and information. Drishtant is a platform for professionals from socially conscious companies to share skills with non-profits for significant impact.

“Drishtant is a bridge that connects professionals who wish to share their skills with non-profit organizations. It is facilitated by socially conscious companies to make a significant impact.” Ruchi Kumar informed INDIACSR.”This is a space to do your own thing, in your own time, for the cause you feel most about – without leaving your comfort zone.” she added.

Drishtant promotes ‘Skill Sharing’, in which professionals extend their support to the social sector in kind – using their professional expertise or by doing something they are really good at. The range of services that could be shared includes workplace specializations like accounting system review, business planning, growth strategies, IT and communication, graphic and merchandise design, etc. or personal talent  like writing and composing music. It makes use of the core strengths of professionals, and aligns with their individual passions.

It is a cash-efficient and effective way to embed CSR into business since it makes use of the core competencies of partner companies. Employees get to polish their skills and develop leadership even while making a meaningful contribution to the causes they choose to support. This type of volunteering is different from traditional employee volunteering which involves activities like distribution of food, clothing,  books, planting trees or cleaning drives.

Ruchi Kumar is an alumnus of the Masters in Social Work program at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She is leading strategy and operations at Drishtant. At TISS, she received the NTPC Gold Medal to the Best Student in Social Work and was recognized as the Best Student in Community Organization and Development Practice in 2008-09.

Ruchi has been part of several development projects in Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand.

She has worked on a range of issues including child-friendly elementary education, integrated rural development and women’s empowerment as part of the Usha Martin’s CSR. She was a software engineer at Infosys after her undergraduate degree from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi.