The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation on Friday said four non-profit organisations have been selected to receive grants from Facebook through Facebook Pragati - Tech4Good, Shakti An Empathy Project, India and Bharat Together and Skilled Samaritan Foundation.
Selected from among a pool of 1,326 applications, the four non-profits are early-stage women-led non-profit startups focused on boosting women entrepreneurship through the adoption of digital skills and tools, a statement said.
Based on their organisational maturity, IABT and Skilled Samaritan Foundation have been selected for incubation and will receive grants of Rs 15 lakh each, while Tech4Good and STEP have been selected for acceleration and will receive grants of Rs 50 lakh each.
Tech4Good works towards providing open source technology solutions to non-profits and has so far enabled these for over 500 such enterprises across India.
Shakti An Empathy Project runs an incubator programme for women-led social enterprises with a special focus on those based in tier II and tier III locations across the country.
India and Bharat Together (IABT) builds the capacity and skills of young girls in Uttarakhand to make them self-reliant as entrepreneurs, while the Skilled Samaritan Foundation enhances the skills of women entrepreneurs in the marginalised population in Uttar Pradesh by providing them with design inputs and access to markets.
Facebook Pragati, an initiative to boost women entrepreneurship, was launched in 2020 in partnership with The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation.
The programme aims to provide entrepreneurs access to tools, mentorship, and resources to help overcome some of the barriers they face to build a successful enterprise using technology.
"We have always been committed to improving the gender divide on the internet. We believe that when women and youth have the skills and technology to improve their lives, they can unlock economic and social value for themselves and their communities," Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook India, said.
The potential to support and transform the lives of women entrepreneurs are boundless, and Facebook Pragati's aim is to promote innovation and economic growth, he added.
In addition to the grants, each of the non-profits will get access to mentorship as well as help in further fundraising and building second-tier capacity within the non-profits.
"The/Nudge's faith in the power of technology to deliver and amplify impact has been further strengthened with all the tech-enabled pivots seen in the non-profit space to deal with COVID. We also believe that with just one in five MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) being run by women, India is losing out on the globally proven superiority of women-led business," Akshay Soni, Managing Director of The/Nudge Accelerator, said.
The role of The/Nudge CSI in the Facebook Pragati initiative spans from choosing the organisations through a six-stage process, offering mentorship through some of India's most admired leaders, and connecting the organisations to a network of funders and experts to help accelerate the path to scale.
The/Nudge CSI serves as an incubator and provides a complete capacity-building ecosystem for the startups to grow.
