Looking to scale up? Take a cue from this non-profit!

When Safeena Husain founded Educate Girls—an NGO that mobilizes communities for girls’ education in rural India—little did she know that her efforts would pay off so well.

Eleven years down the line, the organization has been able to reach nearly 6,000 schools in the villages of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And, the number of students impacted stands at a whopping 2 lakh!

Part of its success is owed to the ‘Scale-up’ Program—a deep-rooted mentorship initiative offered by the Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF).

Since Educate Girls offers learning kits, popularly known as ‘Gyan ka Pitara’, the members initially found the distribution of the same as a critical business challenge. They thought that a more seamless distribution channel would help them expand their program.

“We wanted to reach almost 2 lakh children with our learning curriculum. But our kit weighed almost 16 kg. How would we distribute so many of them? That’s not a skill set I had as a non-profit,” says Safeena.

With the intervention of MIF, however, Educate Girls learnt something entirely different.

“When we met the Educate Girls’ team, we realized that the challenge was not on the logistics front but the procurement front,” highlights Nirlay Sheth, Head, Customer Service, Marico Ltd, and Mentor, MIF Scale-up Program.

The MIF team then worked closely with Educate Girls for the knowledge transfer of best practices. This, in turn, led to a reduction of the cost of the learning kit by nearly two-thirds!

Educate Girls now saves Rs. 1.5 crore per year, thereby being able to impact 20,000 additional girls.

Now, that’s something commendable!

Watch the video to know more.

The NGO’s story has been captured in the second episode of ‘Mentorship Matters’—a video series that showcases how 4 unique organizations like it have benefitted from the Scale-up Program. Under this, young businesses receive the right kind of guidance that helps them grow at a much faster pace—and all at a nominal fee!

If you know of innovations that could benefit from the Scale-Up Program, write to mif@marico.com.

For more such innovative stories about the Scale-up Program, stay tuned to the Mint Facebook page.