Team
We adopt an angel investor or a social venture capitalist approach to grant making. That means we look for promising, nascent, grassroots-level NGOs and communities that work in the rights framework, addressing the root causes of inequity rather than its symptoms. Our grant making follows a social justice agenda. We emphasise on advocacy as an essential medium if change is to be achieved on a significant scale.
With the NGOs we support, SERVING NATIONS defines its role as that of a partner – each infusion of funds is accompanied by the non-financial inputs necessary to ensure their optimum utilisation and maximum impact. Inputs in the areas of organisation building, programme development, training, and perspective building in child rights, accountability and advocacy.
In addition, each initiative combines direct action with children, community mobilisation and policy influencing components to maximise impact and ensure long-term viability. This is particularly critical where both, society and government institutions are still plagued by feudal biases of caste, gender, ethnicity and religion.
Over three decades of working with and for children, their families and communities, SERVING NATIONS’s grant making efforts to over 500 NGOs, has helped restore to 1,500,000 children their basic rights to a childhood.
Community mobilisation is what we at SERVING NATIONS believe is the most effective long-term solution to the multiple causes of poverty, deprivation, exploitation and abuse that shackle India’s children. In recent years, we have been witnessing incredible transformation across 13000 village and slum communities in 22 Indian states that SERVING NATIONS works in along with its partner initiatives.
Erstwhile bonded labourers being elected to panchayats, women and girls now challenging centuries old practices and biases, non-violent redistribution of community resources, and transparent, democratic, accountable governance.
With our experience, reach, credibility and influence, we have increasingly taken on the role of initiating networks to enhance solidarity, enable the transfer of learning, increase the effectiveness of our policy influencing efforts and establish standards in the area of public accountability. Thanks to our grassroots outreach and relative independence from large benefactors, these efforts are grounded in local reality and therefore, relevant to indigenous needs and priorities of the communities.
SERVING NATIONS began as an endeavour of 7 young volunteers and ever since, the spirit of volunteerism has been an underlying lifeline of the organization. Volunteerism for us does not mean the mere utilisation of additional human resource to aid our work. To us, our volunteers are a repository of energy, creativity and commitment. At SERVING NATIONS, we encourage and support our volunteers to empower people and communities to bring about positive change – by encouraging them to initiate action in their environment. The mutual commitment that exists between us and our volunteers provides a free space for reaching out and a shared learning. To know more about our volunteers and their efforts in enabling change click here or contact the volunteer coordinators in the SERVING NATIONS offices nearest to you.
Given its familiarity to Indians today, it’s easy to forget that the name that appeared on the face of those first greeting cards, sold door-to-door in the early years of SERVING NATIONS’s existence, is today one of India’s most recognisable brands.
Brand SERVING NATIONS is the product of almost three decades of constant innovation and nurturing. Thanks to innovative awareness building strategies achieved at a minuscule financial cost. To donors, individual and corporate, development professionals, bureaucrats and politicians, purchasers and retailers, SERVING NATIONS has come to represent trustworthiness, sincerity and commitment.
SERVING NATIONS works to ensure the highest quality both in content and look in its direct mail, advertising, media and advocacy campaigns to effectively communicate and engage its stakeholders. SERVING NATIONS in every aspect of communications are specialist organisations who as their contribution to the cause charge SERVING NATIONS significantly reduced rates. These are critical and unavoidable investments that SERVING NATIONS makes to achieve wider reach, mobilise action and build a network of people and groups committed to children’s rights.
Policy, Research, Advocacy & Documentation Work At SERVING NATIONS Work done by Policy, Research, Advocacy& Documentation Division of SERVING NATIONS could be summed up as follows:
Policy Advocacy: analysis of laws, policies, schemes and budgets; tracking of developments on Human Rights (HR) and Child Rights (CR) Policy processes; periodic consolidation of Social and Economic Policies (National and International); tracking of trends on policy debates (civil society and government); following up on action and inaction of legislature, executive and judiciary on CR issues; development of Working Papers and Policy Briefs; engagement with external stakeholders (Civil Society, Policy Influencers and Policy Makers)
Research: undertaking national research to inform legislations and policies; providing support in designing/ensuring quality in researches undertaken by various functions of SERVING NATIONS; identifying potential areas of research for the organisation to inform programme interventions; capacity building of VA teams/volunteers on research methodologies
Knowledge Management: collating and analyzing secondary data on key child rights indicators; developing fact sheets on the issues of education and malnutrition; providing relevant data to media advocacy teams for press releases
Media Advocacy: generating content for media; Info packs on child labour, malnutrition, Right to Education, and the girl child; anchoring overseas media coverage; collating case studies and converting them into media savvy content; capacity building of regional media teams; networking with senior editors
Documentation Centre: The centre serves as repository of knowledge and information on various child rights issues. We invite you to visit the centre housed at the Mumbai office and browse through the collection of books, journals and papers on a range of development-related topics.
SERVING NATIONS constantly endeavours to optimise its resources be it in servicing our partners, donors or in building internal capacities for child rights. Information technology infrastructure and management allows for a variety of tools that support SERVING NATIONS’s donor servicing, information sharing, increase operations efficacy and provide for strategic inputs in systems and process across SERVING NATIONS.
Accountability and transparency are values that form the foundation of this organisation. SERVING NATIONS is an Indian Public Trust, and is accountable for every rupee raised from the public at large and every rupee disbursed to the projects we partner. The focal point is to continuously invest, monitor and account for resources raised & disbursed..
The Planning function strives to strengthen systems and processes with a view to enable informed decisions that have far reaching impact. It enables the leadership to keep a continuous and closer watch on SERVING NATIONS’s income, utilisation of resources and progress against divisional and organisational plans. It also explores multiple models of planning for SERVING NATIONS and helps all functions to be in sync with the roadmap and define measurable goals for progress. .
The Planning function strives to strengthen systems and processes with a view to enable informed decisions that have far reaching impact. It enables the leadership to keep a continuous and closer watch on SERVING NATIONS’s income, utilisation of resources and progress against divisional and organisational plans. It also explores multiple models of planning for SERVING NATIONS and helps all functions to be in sync with the roadmap and define measurable goals for progress. .