Genesis

"Sustainability, social equality and the environment are now business problems. And corporate leaders can't depend on governments to solve them." - Peter Senge, founder of the Society for Organisational Learning (SOL). Senge's principles find an echo in the ideologies behind Smile Foundation formed in 2002 by two investment bankers who, along with 8-10 like-minded corporate professionals and technocrats, decided to finance, handhold and support genuine grassroots' initiatives targeted at providing education and health to underprivileged children. In the process, Smile Foundation has become the first ever grantmaker and changing the face of millions of lives.

People Behind Smile

Smile Foundation is managed by a Board of Advisors which comprises of individuals from diverse backgrounds and expertise. The body is formed for a period of one year and a few independent members with eminence and reputation are nominated each year. Members of this board meet once every quarter.

The Board of Advisors advises the Trustees of Smile Foundation, taking inputs from the Executive Committee.

Our Model: Social Venture Philanthropy

Every successful venture needs a ‘delivery model’.

Smile Foundation introduced an innovative delivery model probably for the first time in the development sector and named it ‘Social Venture Philanthropy’ (SVP). The model is inspired from a successful business concept widely known as ‘Venture Capital.’

Similar models are always followed in the business world, that too successfully. SMILE thought, then, why can’t it be followed in the development sector?

This delivery model of Smile Foundation has a multiplier effect, particularly in the optimum distribution of resources. In other terms, the strategy involves providing seed money for the project, expansion, professional guidance, training support, capacity building and even counselling on productivity and efficiency enhancement.

The focus has been on four key aspects: scalability, sustainability, accountability and leadership.

The SVP model seeks consciously to broad-base investment in the belief that this will maximise reach and optimise returns. Instead of confining attention to a single project and a limited number of beneficiaries, the model helps reach out to and strengthen a large number of like minded individuals and organisations countrywide.

The delivery model named SVP has helped Smile Foundation reach out to an exceptionally large number of beneficiaries, primarily children, than it would have done with any conventional model prevalent in the sector so far.
The most important gain of SMILE’s delivery model is reaching to the un-reached without wasting a fraction of the resources.
Success of the working model named “SVP’ is not bound to any particular region or territory.