BRLF Conducts ‘Prabodhan,’ an Online Course to Build Institutional Capacities for NGOs on Financial Management

Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF), an independent society under the Ministry of Rural Development, has opened up enrollment for the next batch of their online webinar series “Prabodhan” for NGOs on Statutory Compliances, Finance, Accounts, and Grant Management to build awareness and provide handholding support.

This webinar series comprising 9 sessions of two hours each spread over eight weeks, focuses on the following objectives:

• Educate NGOs on regulatory and statutory provisions in a fast-changing landscape facing charitable Institutions.

• Empower NGO teams-key functionaries and finance staff with regulatory compliances now being (a) digital and (b) faceless

• 360-degree overview to help action ‘on the desk.’

In the last 15 months, since the roll-out of Prabodhan, BRLF has conducted 11 batches of the course, reaching out to more than 1600 NGO staff. For more information about the course, Visit- Website: https://www.brlf.in/prabodhan/ 

Speaking about the course, CS Sharad Bhargava, Chief Operating Officer (Finance), BRLF, said, ‘The not-for-profit sector today faces the increased burden of statutory compliances with the regulatory landscape becoming more challenging and demanding for NGOs in the country. Most compliances are now online and faceless. The small and medium-sized NGOs face maximum heat in coping with this dynamic situation.”

“These organizations are also the ones with fragile institutional standing despite the great work they do on the ground. Such organizations urgently require handholding support on compliances as evidenced from audit findings and interactions, signaling strong latent demand for capacity building of key NGO staff on issues around statutory compliances, finance, Accounts and Grant Management,” he added.

While speaking about the collaboration, Gagan Mehta, Partner Support Officer, Welthungerhilfe India, mentioned, “In the last two years, the statutory and regulatory landscape in the country for CSOs was changing rapidly with new rules & regulations that came into force under various statutes. In this regard, it was felt imperative that the network CSOs associated with Welthungerhilfe India should be aware of these changes for ensuring maximum compliance and for approaching the institutional donors and CSR with an enhanced understanding and preparedness for developing a more meaningful partnership.”

Further, he mentioned, “With this objective, Welthungerhilfe & ShareOn in collaboration with Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF) organized a 9-week webinar series “Prabodhan-a finance education initiative” from 13th July 2021 to 7th September 2021. The webinar series was joined by CSO-Organization’s head and Finance heads from around 45 CSOs all over India. The CSOs representative lauded the initiative w.r.t providing clarity and building the capacities for accessing CSR funds/developing partnerships in the changing landscape & regulatory framework for CSOs in India.”