• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Chintu Gudiya Foundation

Bringing Smiles – Transforming Society through Philanthropy, Technology and Volunteering

  • What We Do
    • Blog
  • Who We Fund
  • Projects
  • Grants
  • Financials
Project Tech4Dev

Tech4Dev NGO Feedback

You are here: Home / Blog / Tech4Dev NGO Feedback

twitter sharing button Share this on Facebook

Tech4Dev NGO Feedback


August 6, 2019 by Rahul Kanvinde
Leave a Comment

Lobo and I met three of the 2018 Tech4Dev grantees last week (the week of June 2nd ). The meetings were for getting feedback on their experience within the Tech4Dev collaborative, in general, as well as on their experience with their respective software partners. All three meetings were kept to around thirty minutes and were kept informal and conversational. All of the grantees were sent a list of questions the day before; however, the questions were to serve as a guide to thought and not a list to compulsorily stick to.

We met two grantees – Anarde and Toy Bank in Mahim and the third, TISS, in Sion (after some running around to find the correct Café Coffee Day; apparently there are three very close to each other!). All three shared great feedback on the solutions the software partners are building for them, on the nature of the interactions, and on the whole Tech4Dev experience. While they were satisfied with the solutions being built, there were a few insights that could greatly enhance the process, going forward:

  1. Communication is key. The initial communication between the grantees and the software partners has scope for improvement. There were a few instances of lack of clarity on timelines and a period of silence between conversations that the grantees felt could have been avoided. A weekly update call or email between the grantee and the software partner would be a good starting point.
  2. It is necessary to have very clear role definitions and articulation of responsibilities between the grantee and the software partner at the start of the project. This will enhance co-working towards the solution.
  3. Grantees and software partners could do with more research on each other before even the first meeting. Grantees could be provided with references to past similar work done by software partners, other organizations for whom they have built solutions, and a general list of capabilities. Software partners could try and understand what the grantees do, what they believe in, what impact the grantee interventions are expected to lead to, by exploring the grantee websites or even talking to the grantees about their work before starting conversations on requirements and solution needs.
  4. There can be a difference in perspective between the grantees and software partners that needs to be understood and navigated through with sensitivity. Both need to be aware that while the grantees often think in terms of sensitivity to the cause and even ideology, software partners often come with a systems and processes mindset.
  5. There can be more ways of the grantee cohorts to know about each other and about each other’s work. Also, in case of shared software partners, would be a good idea to have a channel of communication between grantees too.
  6. While the software partners build solutions for grantees, the grantees themselves would like to be more tech-savvy not just when interacting with the Tech4Dev partners, but also otherwise, when interacting with or engaging other IT vendors in the future. Some hand-holding or support by Tech4Dev in building this tech-savviness would be appreciated. While there were other operational points of feedback, they were mostly contextual to the grantee and to the solution being built. The overall points above can be considered for generally enhancing the Tech4Dev experience.

Category iconBlog Tag iconTech4Dev Project Updates

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recommended reading

    More conversations with our NGO Partners

    Last week (the week of 2nd Sep) we talked with the rest of the cohort 1 grantees – Lakeer, The Read Project, Hasiru Dala, HAQ, and Spandan – about their experiences with Tech4Dev and with their respective software partners. We had talked with the rest of the grantees earlier and a blog post detailing highlights

    September 17, 2019 by Rahul Kanvinde

    Nov partners’ meet: Highlights from days 2 & 3

    The Tech4Dev Partners’ Meet was held over three days, from 10th Nov – 12th Nov in Pune. Lumen was present on the second and the third day of the Meet and also helped in facilitating a few sessions. The two days were a mixture of discussions around the management of the Tech4Dev grant for NGOs as well as over technological

    November 26, 2019 by Rahul Kanvinde

    Cohort 1: Conversations with software partners

    Just as we had had conversations with NGO partners this month, we also had feedback conversations with Software Partners within Tech4Dev. As with the NGO partners, these conversations too revolved around the software partners’ experience with the development projects being undertaken for the NGOs as well as with the Tech4Dev process as a whole. Following are the key insights from

    September 30, 2019 by Rahul Kanvinde

Tags

#Tech4Good 66A analysis analytics architecture ASHWINI Avni conference Coronavirus COVID-19 crm-platform dataexplorer design research Discounts freespeech FundImpact github badges Glific Google governance hasiru dala ideation internetfreedomfoundation Jan Swasthya Sahyog Koha Koha Challenges Koha configuration Koha features Lastmilesupport library medha-stpc openchs opencity opendata open source Partnerships sesta Social Change Software Team Collaboration tech Tech4Dev Project Updates whatsapp Work from Home Yenepoya

Categories

  • Blog
  • Essays
    • 2015
    • 2016
    • 2017
    • 2018
  • Focus Areas
    • Organisations Funded
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • India
      • Open Source Software
      • Other
      • Philanthropy
      • Sanitation
      • Sports
      • Women Empowerment
    • Tech Work
  • Projects
  • Pune 2018 Unconference
  • Tech4Dev Project Report
  • Uncategorized

Footer

  • What We Do
    • Blog
  • Who We Fund
  • Projects
  • Grants
  • Financials

Copyright © 2021 Chintu Gudiya Foundation. All rights reserved. | Photo Credits