Ganga, the CEO of a mid-stage social enterprise in Nagpur, finds herself at a crossroads today. For the last eight years, she and her team of 15 have been working relentlessly to promote sports talent from within local villages. However, of late, she has been pressured by the members of her leadership advisory board to focus the available and limited financial resources only on high-performing athletes. This decision, if taken, will shake Ganga’s and her organisation’s core belief of offering equal opportunities to all children and nurturing their potential over time. As she continues working with aspiring young athletes, this decision feels like making a choice between delivering immediate, measurable results versus staying true to the core principle of working with empathy and fostering long-term opportunities for all children.
Similar to Ganga, the work of a social sector leader often entails empathising deeply with the communities they serve, while simultaneously ensuring that resources are efficiently allocated. This balance is not just an essential leadership quality, but it is also the cornerstone of achieving meaningful, long-lasting impact in the social sector. Let’s understand the meaning and application of the concepts of compassion and efficiency in the social sector.
Understanding compassion as the driving force in social purpose organisations (SPO)
‘A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things that renew humanity’.
In this quote, Gautam Buddha defines compassion as a quality to embody deep empathy, the ability to truly understand and share another’s feelings. Compassion demands a rare combination of self-awareness, humility, and a connection to a larger purpose beyond oneself. It thrives in genuine human connection: in active listening, empathetic dialogue, and creating safe spaces where individuals feel seen, heard, and valued.
Several SPOs keep compassion at the core of their mission and vision in order to bring large-scale changes in society. Organisations such as the Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) address the critical issue of malnutrition by ensuring that children from under-served communities receive at least one nutritious meal daily. This, in turn, also improves children’s attendance, concentration, and overall well-being in government schools. Goonj is another such example of an organisation that focuses on dignity over charity by ensuring recipients are not mere ‘beneficiaries’ but partners in the process. Goonj focuses on prioritising community-based solutions that are rooted in empathy and a deep understanding of the needs of vulnerable populations.
Compassion is the invisible thread that connects a leader’s passion for societal change to the perseverance needed to overcome inevitable challenges. However, compassion alone cannot create change. Without operational efficiency, strategic thinking, and creative problem-solving, even the deepest acts of empathy and compassion can fall short of delivering meaningful impact.
SPOs need efficiency to drive results
With organisations often struggling to find committed and long-term funders, creating effective and scalable operational structures becomes imperative. Long-term funding often comes with a clear expectation of maintaining transparency along with measurable impact. High-impact organisations are often seen streamlining their processes, such as taking measures to reduce administrative overheads, avoiding duplication of work to improve effectiveness and results, etc.
Continuing on my above example of Akshaya Patra Foundation, ever since 2000, APF has leveraged technology to serve millions of children through its mid-day meal program, making it the world’s largest not-for-profit initiative of its kind. Its state-of-the-art kitchens employ advanced technologies like blockchain, AI, and Microsoft Dynamics and are setting global benchmarks in efficiency and quality. Using these efficient processes helps APF to enhance traceability, i.e. enabling end-to-end tracking of food ingredients from sourcing to meal preparation, inventory management, donor transparency and quality assurance. Operating 75 kitchens across 16 states and two union territories, APF reaches over 2.2 million beneficiaries in 23,000+ schools and Anganwadis. In 2024, APF partnered with Delhivery to track meal distribution in real-time, optimising routes and resources to enhance delivery efficiency.
Goonj, on the other hand, works tirelessly to convert the discarded urban materials into valuable goods that can be utilised by communities in need. They support the rural communities by helping them identify and address their local needs and then distributing these valuable goods within those communities. This participatory approach ensures that resources are used effectively for impactful projects while fostering a sense of ownership with the local community. By establishing hubs in multiple cities across India, Goonj operates on decentralised models, hence allowing optimisation of logistics, reduction of transportation costs, and ensuring faster and more effective distribution of resources. Moreover, their well-organised processes for collection, sorting, and distribution ensure minimal wastage and timely delivery of resources. By integrating technology for tracking donations, managing inventory, and streamlining communication across its hubs, Goonj successfully creates meaningful, scalable, and sustainable impact while maintaining a low operational footprint.
Balancing compassion with efficiency: Practical strategies for leaders
In the social sector, relying solely on compassion or efficiency without balancing the two can lead to significant challenges. Leaders and teams who operate entirely on empathy and emotional drive risk compassion fatigue and burnout, as the constant exposure to others’ suffering can drain one’s own emotional reserves. On the other hand, leaning too heavily into efficiency due to funders’ demands of measurable outcomes might overshadow the real human needs at the core of an organisation’s mission. Hence, striking a balance requires open communication with donors, advocating for flexibility, and aligning funder priorities with beneficiary realities. Leaders must ensure that while processes become more structured, the organisation’s ethos and commitment to empathy remain intact.
Here are some practical tips to help social sector leaders achieve a balanced approach that integrates compassion and efficiency:
- When facing competing priorities, it is essential for social sector leaders to keep the mission at the heart of decisions and use it as a guiding star to anchor all the decisions.
- Resource allocation needs to be strategic in terms of identifying high-impact programs and reallocating resources from low-impact initiatives to scale the programs that perform well.
- Fostering regular and open communication is another mark of effective leaders. By regularly engaging with teams and understanding their challenges and perspectives, social sector leaders can help design programs and initiatives centred around the principles of human-centred design.
- Leveraging digital tools like data analytics, CRM platforms, and digital fundraising tools come in handy to help leaders automate processes like donor engagement. Integrating these technologies, social sector leaders can better focus on creating impactful programs that truly meet the needs of their communities.
Balancing compassion and efficiency is not just a skill but a defining trait of impactful leadership in the social sector. Social sector leaders must balance emotional sensitivity with skills to implement large-scale solutions effectively. Creating equilibrium and harmony between the heart (compassion) and head (strategy) empowers leaders to create lasting, scalable change without losing the heart of their mission. At ILSS, we invite leaders like Ganga for our flagship Leadership Program to gain insights into the skills needed to navigate these nuanced decisions with courage and conviction.
