NASSCOM EMERGE - Many information technology companies today, both big and small, "do their bit" towards improving the life of society's under privileged. While the occasional donation, blood donation camp or collection of relief material for disaster victims are all wonderful, the same initiatives can go a longer way if they are organized within a structured long term framework.

It was precisely this motive that triggered the creation of the iCare programme at Noida and Indore-based Impetus Technologies. iCare consists of Impetus employees and their family members who want to work together to contribute in the areas of education, community and social development.

"While there had been activities in these areas even before iCare started, we wanted to move from ad hoc to focused initiatives. This way we hope our execution will be more organized and we hope that money will also be raised more consistently," says Pooja Sehgal, Associate Director, Marketing & Communications, Impetus, who is also one of the founding members of iCare. According to Pooja, iCare will work along two channels for extending assistance -first, by extending direct financial support, and second, by providing access to time and resources.

Impetus employees who are members of the iCare initiative from both Indore and Noida offices meet formally at least once a month over a video conference link to discuss the current agenda. In some ways, iCare has been a down-up initiative, with its birth driven not just by the company's management, which is more typical, but also by employees. The initiative is also currently completely funded by employees and the money raised through fund raisers, though Sehgal says that they are in the process of agreeing on a formal budget with the Impetus management. There are also plans to register a formal trust under the same name.

At Impetus, iCare is not part of a corporate KRA matrix - to the contrary, when queried about the human resource benefits of CSR initiatives, Sehgal said that the company had not really looked at this perspective. The company's management has however been supportive especially when it came to time commitments by employees. "They have been very flexible", says Sehgal. "Employees are allowed to take out time for iCare - this is encouraged, for example, by allowing employees to work on iCare programmes during work hours." Says Rajeeva Gupta, V.P. - Engineering, "We formed iCare to do our bit to alleviate problems that the marginalized sections of the society face. At Impetus, we always encourage our employees in rendering active support to the underprivileged and help during times of national calamities or other mishaps."

Impetus focuses on :
Orphaned and homeless children The elderly Marginalized sections of society Victims of Natural Disasters Key activities of the iCare program

Education is a huge area of interest given that children are one of the target segments for iCare. As part of its focus on education, iCare organized a workshop on English Speaking for the students of Government High School, Vijaynagar, Indore and donated books for various professional entrance exams. Three students of that institute cleared the PET or Pre-Engineering Test and were placed in recognized institutes and another student cleared P.M.T or Pre Medical Test. iCare has provided these students with a full scholarship that will enable them to complete their studies. iCare has partnered with Noida based orphanage 'Grace Care' and adopted five children from this orphanage, and is currently supporting their education. Ongoing activities at Grace Care, including a recent art and craft camp, are part of the iCare calendar.

"We hope to create a more comprehensive calendar," says Sehgal, now that they have a formal structure in place.

Published for NASSCOM EMERGE Newsletter - Issue: 15

Find this article at:
http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/09/24/creating-organizational-%e2%80%98impetus%e2%80%99-for-csr-initiatives/


For more information, visits www.impetus.com or write to info@impetus.com.