Compliance Review & Certification

Each session was full of learning with clear takeaway. We had a lot of learning from the sessions such as:  Legal aspect in terms of engaging a foreign volunteer, how to write an elevator pitch, compliance, customised grant proposal, building creative communication material and effective follow up, communication across different levels of organisation. We did not feel like giving up a single time. Our advice to NGOs doing it – Go through this process to enrich understanding and enhance credibility.

CAP’s Compliance Review Certificate announcement came at a time when Deep Griha was going through a period of change, and it has greatly benefited us. We were fortunate to have a board member attend the workshop on governance with us As a result of CAP’s suggestions, he has been driving a change within the Board. The CCC programme led us to work on a governance policy, which in turn led us to consider the importance of recruitment of new members, revisions to the MoA to keep up with changing needs of the board, orientation of new board members and periodic review among others. The CCC programme created a space for us to follow through on putting processes down on paper as well as implementing suggestions that would help the entire team with regards to clarity on several HR & volunteer aspects. The process brought along both challenges and rewards, with us wanting to give up on more than one occasion. Collecting and coding required documents as per the checklists was one of the toughest things throughout the process. Despite having all the material, converting them into hard copies that could be submitted was a challenge. Also, in the case of new policies, getting the relevant teams’ buy-in and ensuring participation made the deadlines a challenge. The teams were working on policy development and implementing recommendations besides day-to-day functioning which meant we as a team were stretched thin on more than one occasion. Our advice to an organisation would be to roll your sleeves and get ready to dig in deep over the duration of the review. Ideally an individual or small team to lead the process would help.”

The entire programme was engrossing, interesting and a good learning. Some learning about the ability, working of our team/organisation to deliver:  Great team work, departments need to know/learn more about other departments, importance of timelines. The most difficult part of the programme was maintaining the timelines along with our workload. To those would want to join the programme, our advice would be – A must for all organisations that wish to ensure not only compliance but to learn & know the importance of having appropriate/useful policies for board & team members and it helps to have a review of all the important/necessary documents, which is so important. We were keen on largely two areas: Governance & HR. But I am glad that we went through the entire compliance programme, as it pointed several aspects related to communications, strategy and several other aspects, which we had not thought of. The guidance given by Noshir & Meher was excellent. We would strongly recommend this programme.

We joined the CAP compliance programme because we wanted to set up systems for different functions and be guided by the rules as we go along. Since we have been more of a people-led than a process-led organisation, we felt that this would be most important for us. The one challenge we faced was to get all the information together, as it required a lot of co-ordination among different teams. Three key learning about compliance that our organisation gained:  Ensuring that compliance guides all that we do, the need to regularly update our process manuals, getting all the saathis (employees) on the same page regarding compliance. The most stimulating part about the programme was getting to know about compliance and its many aspects, and meeting people from other organisations and understanding their position on compliance. The most difficult part of the programme was getting the compliance documentation in place. If you are planning to join the programme, we would advise that the compliance programme is very useful and should be taken up. It can really guide an organisation as it moves ahead, not just today but also in the times to come.