Adaptive Strategies & Approaches for Organisational Mission

Focus on designing and implementing strategies and approaches to achieve an organisation’s vision and mission based on institutional design principles.

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Fellowship 2025 Final Showcase (Digital Open Solutions (DOS) for Social Impact)Blog

1 April 2025

Fellowship 2025 Final Showcase (Digital Open Solutions (DOS) for Social Impact)

The CDSSI Fellowship Brochure 2025 details the fellowship program at the Centre for Digital Social Sector Initiatives (CDSSI), highlighting its objective to support professionals in developing innovative Digital Open Solutions (DOS) that address critical challenges in the social sector. The brochure outlines the fellowship structure, including mentorship, capacity building, and collaboration opportunities. It emphasizes the final outputs of the fellowship—scalable and replicable DOS developed by the fellows—aimed at driving digital transformation and social impact in diverse thematic areas.

U&I: Nurturing Empathy for EffectivenessCase Study

2 March 2022

U&I: Nurturing Empathy for Effectiveness

U&I is a volunteer-driven charitable organization based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. It provides non-formal education to underprivileged children in 25 cities around India, through a network of over 2,300 volunteers. The casestudy engages with the ways in which conscious design can nurture structures, spaces and processes that enable the integration of an organization’s mission and volunteer model with the leadership’s core principles of empathetic care and authentic relationships. It provides an opportunity for learners to reflect on how designing for empathy can produce tangible programmatic impact, develop in-house leadership and build a self-sustaining organizational culture and volunteer ecosystem.

A Typology of Organisations in the Indian Social SectorPaper / Report

2 August 2022

A Typology of Organisations in the Indian Social Sector

The Indian social sector is vast and growing, but existing typologies fail to capture its diversity. Most research focuses on Western economies, where social enterprises differ in structure and demands. To address this gap, we first review existing typologies of social sector enterprises. Then, we propose a hierarchical typology tailored to India, considering multiple characteristics. Finally, we identify key factors for applying this framework. This approach aims to enhance understanding of India’s unique social sector landscape.

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Case Study
  • 2 September 2022

National Centre for promotion of employment for disabled people: Dignifying the disabled

The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) is a not-for-profit organisation advocating for disability rights across India. Through research, campaigns, mentoring, and leadership development, it drives policy change for inclusion. The case explores how the founder’s deep commitment led to a social movement, culminating in a landmark 2016 law. Following the founder’s passing, NCPEDP sustained its advocacy efforts. It examines how a small organisation made significant strides in two decades, highlighting factors like perspective, cultural cohesion, strategic design, and governance. The case underscores how individual efforts can create lasting institutional legacies.
Paper / Report
  • 1 September 2022

Job Roles In the Social Sector

Over the last three decades, the social sector has become more professional, adopting for-profit values and HRM practices while growing in complexity. Despite its employment size, job roles and compensation remain underexplored, with academic literature fragmented and limited. This article fills the gap through a systematic review of 37 publications from 236 records. It analyses publication trends and key aspects of social sector roles, including job functions, career paths, role complexity, and compensation. By identifying research limitations, the review highlights areas for further study to improve understanding and documentation of social sector careers.
Blog
  • 24 November 2023

Why consider a career in the Development Sector?

The last 8-12 months have given me a fabulous opportunity to interact with a lot of young, bright individuals studying different streams in some of the best colleges in the country, working as fellows and staff in the many social fellowships being offered today and especially those who have applied to ISDM’s 11-month Post Graduate Program in Development Management.I realized that a lot of such interactions ended with a common question from the participants on why they should really consider…
Blog
  • 1 May 2022

6 Essential Soft Skills for Success in India’s Social Sector: A Must-Read Checklist!

In the dynamic world of India’s social sector, achieving success goes beyond the basic desire to make a difference. It requires a combination of hard skills and essential soft skills. We present you with a listicle that breaks down these crucial soft skills and provides you with a checklist for mastering them.1. The Power of TeamworkCollaboration is the cornerstone of success in India’s social sector. Unlike the corporate world, where solo endeavors are common, here, teamwork is non-negotiable. But it’s not…
Blog
  • 4 December 2023

Ecosystem Study: Benchmarking talent management in Indian social sector

The study on Benchmarking Talent Management in Indian Social Sector, seeks to understand how the Social Impact Sector approaches ‘talent’ and ‘compensation’ to help key stakeholder groups address the challenges around organisational talent. The research aims to examine ‘what is’ in terms of the current talent management practices in the sector and attempts to lay the foundations of ‘what it ought to be’ in terms of the principles or norms that need to be developed for the emerging sectoral ecosystem.The…
Blog
  • 1 June 2024

Does India’s Social Sector Need Better Management

Young people, students especially, often ask me, “What should I study to best prepare for a career in the social sector?” My answer has been, “Pick a course of study that plays to your strengths and aptitude because the social sector needs every skill-set imaginable.” Over almost 23 years in the sector – as a fundraiser, grant-maker, campaigner, researcher, academic, activist and, yes, manager — I’ve had the immense good fortune to work alongside great talents with degrees in engineering,…
Blog
  • 17 March 2023

Development Management: New Possibilities Of Growth

Development space is desperately looking out for people who understand the sector and are able to contribute in constituting world class, impactful, sustainable social organisations using mantras of leadership and management relevant to the development sector.While the Indian civilization dates back to at least 6500 BC, India as an Independent nation is only 72 years old. As we complete 72 years of independence, it is a good time to step back and see how far we have come.In 1947, India…
Blog
  • 16 November 2023

Decoding Skill Vs Will: Prerequisite For Development Sector

Not an IIT, IIM degree, but it’s the right mix of skill and will that a development sector aspirant should mandatorily possessA fulfilling career in the social sector necessitates the right mix of academic knowledge and practical experience. Academic knowledge, gained through formal education, provides a strong foundation of theories, concepts, and research methodologies that can inform and guide one’s work in addressing social issues. This equips professionals with the analytical skills to understand the root causes of problems and…
Blog
  • 4 January 2024

Deciphering the Depth vs. Width Dilemma in Social Organisations

The Pervasive Dilemma in Social OrganisationsSocial organisations in India find themselves at a critical crossroads, entangled in a dilemma that defines the scope and impact of their work. The struggle to balance depth and width in addressing complex social issues is a common narrative among passionate social entrepreneurs. As they navigate the intricate web of challenges spanning education, health, livelihoods, gender, child protection, and nutrition, a fundamental question emerges: Should organisations cast a wide net, attempting to address multiple facets…
Blog
  • 16 January 2024

Controversial or not, women and countries need menstrual leave policies. Here’s why

Menstrual leave is a type of leave where a woman has the option to take paid leave from her employer, if she is menstruating and is unable to go to work because of this. The concept of menstrual leave supposedly started in Japan in the early 20th century. History has it that in the 1920s, Japanese labor unions started to demand leave (seiri kyuka) for their female workers. By 1947, a law was brought into force by the Japanese Labor…
Blog
  • 23 February 2024

Career in Indian Social Sector: Equip yourself with the right skills through PGP-DM

Introduction:The urge to find meaning and purpose in one’s work has led to a significant shift in societal priorities in recent times, with an increasing number of individuals attempting to match their employment with social issues. The social development sector has grown significantly because of this increase in interest, as illustrated by the budget’s substantial increase, which for 2023–24 in India alone reached an astounding Rs 8.28 lakh crore ($100.77 billion). The absence of efficient management in the development sector,…
Blog
  • 7 May 2024

Building Capacities for Implementing Organisations and Donors in a Changing World

The landscape of social impact is rapidly evolving, driven by the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of global challenges. Issues like climate change, poverty, and inequality demand collaborative and multifaceted solutions that transcend the limitations of traditional philanthropy. Data from the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) reveals a burgeoning impact investing market, reaching an estimated USD 1.164 trillion in assets under management as of 2022, signifying a growing appetite for investments that generate both financial returns and positive social and environmental…
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