Why We Partner
In early 2021, PSYDEH was selected as the only nonprofit in Latin America for the Tata ProEngage volunteer program through our multi-year partnership with Chezuba, an Indian social business using an online platform to link professionals all over the world to virtual volunteer opportunities with nonprofits like PSYDEH.
Tata Group is one of the largest Indian multinational conglomerates with 100,000+ staff worldwide, including a strong presence in Mexico. Tata Sustainability Group set up Tata Engage to institutionalize volunteering across the Group, invite Tata colleagues, their family members, and retired Tata employees to associate and engage with important causes and create a positive impact on the lives of many. Today, Tata Engage has emerged as a vibrant platform that kindles, nurtures, and channels the volunteering spirit at Tata and amplifies outcomes. Tata ProEngage, the group’s part-time skill-based volunteering program, pairs volunteers for extended periods and on their personal time with NGOs. Volunteers work in teams and use their business and personal skills and knowledge to address problems identified by NGOs.
Where We Focus Our Efforts
Through two different cycles so far, we focus problem-solving collaborations on business issues. For example, PSYDEH continues to put in place what we need to live our five value propositions, including intentional transparency, where “[o]ur … goal is to be as transparent as possible by thoughtfully communicating to local and global partners what we do, why, to what end, and with what resources.”
Here, and because we’re not yet flush with the financial resources we need to hire a full-time accountant, not to mention a 3rd party accounting firm to do annual financial audits, we pursued a win-win collaboration with Chezuba and Tata ProEngage in 2021 when they linked us to an India-based financial expert with one of Tata Group’s businesses on a challenge we submitted for consideration, “Financial planning (review the internal financial report and organizational budget and suggest ways to professionalize documents (and processes for maintaining up-to-date content)”.
Why it is a Win-win Partnership
Tata wins in at least two ways. This initiative shows how they are making a positive impact, including pairing a high-performing employee volunteer with PSYDEH to help us address an organizational problem. Second, their professionals are given the opportunity to collaborate across cultures and continents.
For its part, Chezuba deepens its partnership with PSYDEH, including by helping us to secure more of the resources we need to offer more value on their platform. They also forge needed social capital between its corporate and NGO partners, while also earning income from a corporate partner.
PSYDEH wins by building cachet as a unique Mexican grassroots nonprofit capable of creating a win-win with a global outfit like Tata. We also inch ever closer to our goal of becoming a sustainable operation by receiving valuable donated in-kind professional services (one resource stream) in the form of how we best manage and communicate about resources use. This, in turn, helps us to secure more investments from institutional and individual donors (second and third streams), as well as increase trust with local women and community partners.
