Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working in the area of rural development can apply for HCL grant, which is a funding from HCL Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of HCL Technologies.
Nidhi Pundhir, director - CSR and Head of HCL Foundation, said the commitment this year for HCL Grant is ₹16.5 crore. NGOs can apply for projects in the areas of environment, education, or healthcare, all related to rural development. The applications will be scrutinised by sectoral, financial, and management experts. There will be field-level verification for selected NGOs. Short-listed ones will go to the jury from each category for final selection. Three NGOs will go for the final selection in each category. The winning NGO will get ₹5 crore for a five year project and the other two will get ₹25 lakh each.
In the last four years, the grant has committed nearly ₹35 crore.
ADVERTISEMENT
The HCL Foundation conducts seminars in different cities to sensitise NGOs on leveraging CSR avenues for sustainable development goals. This year, meetings were held in six cities so far and two more will be covered. In Coimbatore, about 120 people took part in the seminar on Friday.
“This is the sixth symposium that we are conducting nationwide and we hope this positively contributes towards the betterment of the rural areas through NGOs,” she said.