Table of Contents

• Capital is Rising, but is Capability Catching Up?
• Why Execution is the Real Challenge
• The Human Capital Deficit
• The Governance Gap
• Strengthening the Core: Building High-Impact CSR Teams
• Examples of Two Effective CSR Team Performances
• Bridging the Readiness Gap

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India has evolved into a significant change agent over the past decade. In FY 2023–24 alone, over 27,188 companies invested more than ₹34,909 crore across 59,633 CSR projects (National CSR Portal). According to India CSR 2025 by Give Grants, this number could grow to ₹1.2 lakh crore annually by FY35. With boardroom engagement deepening, CSR teams maturing, and a strong ecosystem of partners and intermediaries taking shape, the sector holds enormous potential to drive meaningful, long-term social impact for corporate houses.

Yet, recent research tells us a more complex story. While CSR investment continues to rise alongside burgeoning corporate profits, its impact is unquestionably decided by the teams and their captive talent pool — be it the boards that set priorities, the CSR leaders who shape vision into strategy, or the teams that transform plans into cognisable action. While funds are flowing, the question remains: do companies have the talent and structures in place to convert it into meaningful and sustainable change? This blog examines why high-performance teams, not merely capital, will define the next decade of CSR impact in India.

Capital is Rising, but is Capability Catching Up?

The introduction of the CSR mandate in 2014 was a watershed moment for India. It redefined ‘giving’ not solely as charity, but as a strategy. In the decade since, it has unlocked over ₹2.17 lakh crore for social development, which is expected to rise to ₹7.24 lakh crore by 2035 (Give Grants 2024 ). But while budgets have grown manifold, teams have not always kept pace. According to the Bridgespan report, Practices That Power CSR Talent and Governance in India (2025), nearly two-thirds of the surveyed CSR leaders rank ‘best-in-class talent’ among the premier three ingredients for CSR success. The challenge today is not about how much is spent, but how effectively it is spent — and that comes down to the strength, structure, and strategic clarity of the teams managing CSR grant allocation and on-the-ground implementation. The money tap is wide open, but the talent pipeline continues to remain constricted.

Why Execution is the Real Challenge

The inherent complexity of CSR concepts and the layered nature of social challenges demand more than financial allocation. They require strategic foresight, adaptive execution, and sustained engagement, all of which depend on the understanding and capability of the teams executing them. On the ground, many CSR projects in India continue to struggle with limited baseline data, short-term project cycles, and a tendency to measure success based on output rather than outcome. These are not just budgeting challenges; they represent fundamental gaps in execution and impact measurement — barriers that only CSR teams with strong on-ground knowledge, sectoral understanding, and relevant skills can overcome.

The Human Capital Deficit

One of the most persistent hurdles to more effective CSR is the shortage of skilled and focused talent. The Bridgespan report referenced earlier reveals that 82% of CSR leaders surveyed believe they need to hire or upskill their teams to improve effectiveness. Many CSR leaders juggle multiple roles, often with responsibilities outside of CSR, making it difficult to bring the strategic depth and focus that their work demands. 35% of leaders report challenges in hiring at the junior level, pointing to a limited talent pool and a lack of long-term career pathways within the sector. Nonprofit founders and fundraisers, who work closely with CSR grantmaking teams, often highlight their lack of sectoral understanding and sensitivity to its complexities, which are essential for bringing about social change. The CSR function today requires professionals who can seamlessly blend corporate acumen with social sector fluency, a rare and demanding combination.

The Governance Gap

Strong governance is foundational to impactful CSR but remains a weak link in many organisations. The Bridgespan report highlights that most CSR committee members lack a deep contextual understanding of the social sector or the communities they are meant to serve. Only 54% of CSR leaders in the survey feel that their governance bodies bring this critical perspective to the table. This disconnect leads to well-intentioned decisions missing the mark, highlighting the need for greater ground-level insight right at the governance level.

Strengthening the Core: Building High-Impact CSR Teams

To address these systemic gaps in teams and governance, the Bridgespan report outlines a clear development agenda covering three core areas:

Leadership

• Positioning CSR heads closer to the C-suite to enable weaving CSR right into the fabric of business strategy, while empowering them with operational autonomy for faster and more strategic execution.
• Investing in building leadership pipelines and offering real-world learning opportunities to equip leaders for long-term and sustained impact.

Teams

• Attracting and retaining motivated CSR talent by offering a clear purpose, visible career growth, and hands-on exposure.
• Going beyond formal training by tapping into internal expertise, peer networks, and nonprofit partnerships to strengthen cross-functional execution and trust-building in the field.

Governance:

• Engaging governance members in CSR strategy, partnerships, and advocacy efforts.
• Establishing advisory boards with external experts and deepening their understanding through field immersions and community

Examples of Two Effective CSR Team Performances

High-performing CSR teams don’t happen by accident. They are built around key capabilities and mindsets that combine sectoral insight, adaptability, data-driven execution, and a strong focus on talent. Here are two examples.

• The MANSI Project by Tata Steel Foundation The Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI), operating in rural Jharkhand, has significantly reduced infant and maternal mortality rates. This long-running program has a dedicated team that understands the intricacies of the local health ecosystem, has successfully built a strong community trust, and meticulously trained and supported ground-level workers, leading to sustained behavioural change and improved health outcomes.
• The Clean Water Initiative by Astral Foundation In the water-scarce village of Hiwali (Maharashtra), Astral Foundation’s CSR team enabled the first-ever piped water access since Independence by constructing a 2.7 km pipeline, a deep well, and storage tanks. The initiative impacted over 300 residents and 1,500 livestock, significantly reducing waterborne illnesses and improving school attendance. Clear team roles, close coordination with the community, and support from senior leadership led to swift and transformative execution, addressing a critical need in the process.

Bridging the Readiness Gap

Despite growing ambition and funding, most CSR teams lack the right knowledge, mindset, and skills to set up systems to create the capabilities the social sector truly needs. Key areas, such as monitoring-evaluation-learning (MEL), strategic communications, digital enablement, and systems thinking, often remain inadequately represented or outright misunderstood. This results in disconnected initiatives, misaligned stakeholder expectations, and curtailed impact. CSR professionals require a nuanced understanding of the social sector’s complexity, encompassing its histories, power dynamics, systems, and communities. Without this grounding, even well-funded programs struggle to deliver sustainable change, precisely where structured leadership development can be a game-changer.

Recognising this, India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS) has developed programs that help corporate professionals build the mindset, knowledge, and networks needed to navigate this space with confidence, while strengthening the skills required to lead with purpose. The ILSS Leadership Program is designed for individuals transitioning into or advancing within the social sector, including those already working in CSR functions. Complementing this, The ILSS Board Leadership Program equips senior leaders and board members to bring greater strategic depth, governance rigour, and sectoral sensitivity to the organisations they serve. These programs offer an integrated learning experience that combines exposure to development challenges, cross-sector perspectives, and immersive learning, enabling professionals to bridge the gap between corporate intent and community reality with nuanced clarity and absolute conviction.

The success of CSR isn’t just about giving more; it’s about understanding better and solving smarter.

About the Author

Tapoja Mukherji
Senior Manager – Marketing and Communication

Tapoja Mukherji is the senior manager, communications at ILSS, leading the organisation’s communications efforts to ensure its message is conveyed with clarity, impact, and resonance across platforms. With two decades of experience in publishing, content writing, and editorial leadership, she previously served as the senior editor of TTIS, a leading children’s weekly from The Telegraph, Kolkata. She has a strong background in storytelling and editorial management, specialising in crafting impactful narratives, proofreading, and copy editing. She began her career as a high school teacher before transitioning into media and communications, where she discovered her passion for shaping narratives and engaging audiences.

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These early endeavours built a legacy of businesses contributing to social good and supporting the country’s development needs, decades before CSR giving was made mandatory under Section 135 of the Companies Act in 2013. For instance, ITC’s e-Chaupal has been providing farmers access to information, technology, and market linkages since 2000. Similarly, Mahindra Group’s Project Nanhi Kali has provided educational support to underprivileged girls for nearly three decades, since its launch in 1996. Notably, echoes of the early corporate focus on education, health, and rural upliftment can be found to this day, with education and health typically receiving 30% of total CSR funds (Sattva’s State of CSR in India 2014 – 2021).

Since the implementation of the legal mandate in 2013, CSR giving has been on a steady upward trajectory, becoming one of the largest sources of funding for social causes in the country. It is estimated that over 29,500 companies have cumulatively spent nearly `1.22 Lakh Crore on CSR as a result of the Government’s CSR mandate. In the last five years alone, CSR spend has grown by 52%, with a sizeable number of companies spending more than the mandated amount, which continues to increase year on year (Sattva’s State of CSR in India 2014 – 2021). According to Give’s dus spoke India Inc Report, the next decade will see CSR being a catalyst for impact, with annual spends of over INR 1 Lakh Crores. In this context, it is critical for social impact organisations to leverage this growth by forging mutually beneficial partnerships with the corporate sector.

However, given the relative recency of the CSR funding mandate and the evolving maturity of the field, there are some challenges that need to be addressed. Through consecutive batches of The ILSS Fundraising Program, nonprofit leaders and fundraisers have expressed struggles such as complex compliance requirements, funding being limited to projects at the cost of other strategic and organisational capacity needs, and the emphasis on quantifiable metrics which may not fully capture the essence of the organisation’s mission or on-ground work. When asked about their thoughts on CSR, participants of the Program used the terms ‘transactional’, ‘restricted’ and ‘stressful’, to describe their experiences with CSR funding. This is a clear indicator of the friction in CSR-grantee relationships and signals the need to build more trustful relationships based on mutual understanding and shared objectives.

Addressing these concerns requires understanding, commitment and action at both ends. Nonprofits, for instance, must recognise the constraints CSR funders are bound by. CSR giving operates within a strict regulatory framework. The 2021 amendment to the Companies Act governing CSR giving requires companies to submit detailed annual disclosures and applies monetary penalties for non-compliance on mandated spends. Further, decision making is dependent on CSR committees with budgets exceeding INR 50 Lakh requiring the approval of the Board. Projects with larger budget sizes also require mandatory impact assessment by an independent agency. Consequently, CSR giving tends to focus on established organisations and projects that have the requisite tax certifications and charitable status, and a track record of measurable on-ground impact. While this can seem challenging for nonprofit organisations in the short term, particularly those in the early stages of their existence, it also presents an opportunity for strengthening organisational efficiency in the sector. Ensuring compliance and necessary documentation, and creating robust and transparent financial reporting systems help build the right foundation and trust with other funders. Similarly, establishing credibility through clearly articulated impact metrics and outcomes is crucial for the organisation’s longer-term success. In fact, the sector at large would benefit from stronger frameworks for impact measurement with robust methods of measuring progress, including on less tangible parameters.

On the other hand, the time is ripe for CSR funders to evaluate how their grantmaking strategies can evolve to broaden the scope of their impact and support nonprofits to be more strategic and sustainable. As mentioned earlier, CSR funding has historically been concentrated in a few thematic areas, such as education, healthcare and livelihoods, presenting limited opportunities for nonprofits to address other critical needs. In a recent survey with alumni of The ILSS Fundraising Program, of the 18% of nonprofits who stated that they do not receive CSR funds, 40% work in non-traditional domains like research, media, ecosystem strengthening and leadership building. In contrast, Give’s dus spoke India Inc. report stated the intent and willingness of CSR leaders to fund innovative projects, ecosystem-strengthening research, and organisational development of NGO partners. This presents hope for such nonprofits to benefit from the expanding pie of CSR funds. The openness to funding new impact domains, coupled with efforts to make grantmaking more collaborative, trust-based and transparent, are steps in the right direction for CSR and nonprofits to collectively deliver significant impact on the ground.

In addition to grant funding, corporate giving presents other strategic opportunities that benefit both the company and partner nonprofits. CSR contribution has been moving beyond grants to holistic engagement models of innovative non-fiscal partnerships. Leading among these trends is corporate employee engagement. This can take the form of voluntary initiatives, leveraging the technical and process expertise readily available in companies. For example, at Accenture, CSR projects are treated like any other business consulting assignment with employees involved in co-creating roadmaps and solutions for their partners. Such programs can be particularly useful in improving organisational efficiency of the nonprofit. Additionally, many corporations offer matching gift programs which match the donations made by their employees to eligible nonprofits. This expands the donor base for nonprofits and increases visibility. In 2018, danamojo collaborated with GivingTuesday to host a month-long matching campaign awarding`51 Lakh in matching funds. Nonprofits can also partner with corporations on cause-related marketing campaigns and leverage the company’s resources for wide scale visibility for their work. This strategy boosts the company’s reputation as a socially conscious enterprise and drives sales for them, while raising funds and awareness for the cause. For example, Akshay Patra partnered with Ching’s Secret to raise funds through the ‘India ki Hunger Bajao’ campaign featuring Ranveer Singh.

Evidently, purposeful partnerships between nonprofits and CSR funders can unlock immense resources to solve our toughest development challenges. The 2013 Act made India the first country in the world to have a legal mandate on CSR giving. With our storied history of corporate-nonprofit collaborations and encouraging trends in the field, we now have the golden opportunity to drive disproportionate impact through these efforts.

About the Author

Meenal Manolika
Senior Program Manager

Meenal Manolika is a social sector professional leading projects focused on capacity building, strengthening communities, and knowledge dissemination, with emphasis on fundraising for social change and advancing gender equity. At ILSS, she works with the Centre of Excellence – Fundraising, leading the India Fundraising Conference and developing knowledge resources to strengthen fundraising capabilities in the sector. Previously, she was with Sangat, a South Asian feminist network, where she designed and implemented capacity-building programs, campaigns, and cultural interventions for gender justice. Meenal holds a Bachelor of Engineering from BIT, Mesra and has worked as a software engineer for Verizon Data Services India. She has also been a Young India Fellow (2015-16) at Ashoka University.

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