CONTRIBUTE
Through Action Research & Convenings
LEARN
Leveraging online curated and created content
BUILD
Personal and Organizational Capability
CONNECT
Through City Chapters
As a country, India has ambitious targets vis-a-vis the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2030. To accelerate progress towards these goals, we need to build the capacity of all ecosystem players: the Government, Civil Society, Organizations, Funders, Donors and Corporates. Aritra, the leadership accelerator program (incubated and run for 3 years by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Phicus and Dr. Reddy’s Foundation) for senior social sector leaders has reinforced the need for capacity building in the areas of leadership, organization and partnerships. All impact organizations will need focused support and capacity building to help them rebuild and pivot during and post the pandemic.
In response to this context, IIMB and Phicus Social Solutions have signed a memorandum of understanding with an intent to collaborate to bring to the social impact sector, Visaara – The Learning Hub For Change Makers.
Visaara aims to build the capability of NGOs, Social Enterprises, Foundations, CSR, Government departments and Changemakers at large across our country. Visaara's vision is to build empowered communities, strong and sustainable social impact organizations and capable leaders through learning, research and facilitating connections.
The core purpose of Visaara is to strengthen capability for social impact.
The intent of the learning hub is to bring to key audiences’ quality local and global content, both created and curated, with a strong application orientation. Myriad players are working towards the country’s SDGs, including the Government, Civil Society Organizations, Social enterprises, Funders, Donors and CSR teams of Corporates. Visaara has been created to help impact organizations and stakeholders build their own capabilities, the capabilities of their teams, organizations, communities and the larger ecosystem, thereby helping them achieve social impact as they have envisioned it.
Visaara has a 4-pronged purpose; to create / enable -
Visaara consists of the following elements:
People are the heartbeat of social impact. Visaara offers specifically designed and created / curated role-based learning journeys for critical actors in the impact space. We will address all key roles in the social impact ecosystem spanning social enterprises to Government to NGOs and Donors / Investors / CSR on the one hand, and covering CXO to front line workers. These will be offered as pure online learning journeys and for a few roles, also as blended learning programs.
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Visaara will create and curate a vibrant set of online content spanning - Webinars offered by IIMB faculty, Podcasts with Industry experts, Case studies showcasing successes and learnings, Research reports, MOOCs offered by IIMB and much more. For your ease, these will be presented both thematically as well as aligned to specific roles to make your access more intuitive. These resources are freely available for everyone, with a free account.
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There is a serious lack of relevant research in the impact and development spaces which bring to the fore an India perspective. Visaara will address this in two ways - through fundamental research which will bring forth models and frameworks and action research which will showcase field-based learnings. This research will focus on the following themes - Leadership, organization building, institution building, networks and collaborations, integrated impact models and models for scaling social impact.
A key leverage point for the Aritra participants was the extensive network of people that the program plugged them into. Visaara will serve as the bridge to bring together various actors in the impact space - for mutual problem solving, growth collaborations, expertise and advice, hyperlocal engagements and so on. Two solutions anchor Visaara connect - Connects with experts and City Chapters. Visaara launches with the Bangalore city chapter with many more soon to follow!
Visaara will bring together various actors in the impact ecosystem through focused convenings which aim to synergise and showcase varied viewpoints on critical issues which impact all of us / are of topical concern to us who work in the social impact space. It is our goal to influence relevant policies thereby helping all players amplify social impact.
Technology will be leveraged significantly to make content easily accessible by all users, no
matter where they are based in India. Content will be available in a multitude of
methodologies including videos, articles, podcasts, webinars etc.
For specific customised programs, the pedagogy will be blended, with a combination of
online and offline (classroom based in-person) sessions at IIMB.
Everybody who plays a role in the social impact sector, be it NGOs, CBOs, Social enterprises, government, CSR, Foundations, philanthropists and funders, Think tanks, Enabling / support organizations can access the Learning Hub and gain knowledge and perspectives, aligned to their needs.
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Professor, Org Behavior & HRM
Chair - Digital Learning
vasanthi.srinivasan@iimb.ac.in
Professor, Strategy
gprabhu@iimb.ac.in
Professor, Org Behavior & HRM
Chair, Centre for Teaching and Learning
Chair, Centre for Management Communication
IIMB Chair of Excellence
souravm@iimb.ac.in
Founder Director - Phicus Social Solutions
vandana@phicus.org
All content hosted on Visaara is available free of cost, with a simple registration account
giving the user access to the content. Some specific customised content may be charged
and the fees for the same will be displayed on access.
Please access the website www.visaara.org to get a sneak peak into the Learning Hub. We
will shortly communicate the official launch of the learning site where Visaara Content will be
hosted. Await this space soon for an update!