What does a venture design house have to do with a not for profit? Well if we look at it from what it taught us, it was plenty.
The task at hand was to help Chakshu Foundation rebrand in a manner that reflected their manifold growth over the years (the foundation started in 1993) as also reflect their forays into wider interventions since then. They also felt the need to build a new website that could deliver on design and impact.
This was an opportunity for all of us at our Venture Design lab to be of service, to an organisation that was doing so many things right by so many people who needed it. And in this process, learn some lessons for life. The impact space, truly has no preconditions of size and often is defined by codes that are unique to it. We felt that the foundation was doing splendid work and here was an opportunity to strengthen the brand's engagement with key stakeholders both internally (associates and teams) and externally. Our belief is that rebranding is just not a name and identity change. It goes deeper across people, processes, service and experience. It had to resonate with beneficiaries, donors, volunteers, partners.
An inspiring tale that started it all
Circa 2016, we met the youngest 89 year old marvel. Nirbhayji, founder and patriarch of the erstwhile Chakshu foundation, now EmpowHER India, is a man of smiles. We met him along with his team and board members who run the foundation with a zeal that is viral. The twinkle in his eye and gentle demeanour, hides steel. Some of that steel made him the President of the Birla group during his corporate career. And when the stories around the foundation and its journey had run their course, one couldn't help but feel inspired. For here was an impactful venture making a difference to real lives, and not chasing nebulous valuations. This had its heart in the right place. What started off as an intensive personal mission for the core members had transformed into an impactful foundation making a difference in places where it truly matters.
Chakshu had started with eye care in 1993, but possessed a larger vision over the longer run. Vision, further and surer than sight.
Chakshu's journey began in 1993. They started with free eye care and medical camps across villages in an effort to improve health care. And hence the name. Over the years, their work grew in strength and spirit, and so did their activities and areas of intervention. By 2011, they had opened a school, medical centres, started vocational & skills training and launched more than 150 self-help groups in villages across Maharastra. Since then they had also launched the micro-entrepreneur program and started the “Let’s build toilets” initiative, building dignity for the communities they served across villages.
And soon came to a crossroads
By 2016, SKS Chakshu Foundation was at a crossroads. Their interventions had magnified to WaSH, Education, Legal Services, Micro-lending and more. There was a need to grow, multiply efforts, manage generational transition and views about how to go about doing this. It was also a time when the foundation was being structured for more impact. They were on the verge of transitioning to a more professional structure, younger members were taking the lead and there was a palpable need to keep the vision going.
The great thing about engaging with stakeholders who have only one vested interest i.e. "doing good" is what sets apart the not for profit and social transformation organisations. They are realistic and practical folk, they do plain speak and are disarmingly candid about their fears and with their differences of opinion.
How would one manage this change?
Did the answer then lie in a rebranding effort, that reflected their transition? Did the answer lie in reimagining Chakshu for 2016 and beyond? Did it call for only a design intervention or was it deeper? Our many meetings with the core teams, our subject matter immersion threw up several questions. That led us to several answers.
We had multiple rounds of meetings with various stakeholders both within as also those consulting the organisation. And we knew that this churning of views and opinions would have all the answers hidden beneath, about the road ahead.
Understanding the theory of change.
There was excitement in part that this change was to manifest itself in a brand new brand, an updated narrative while there was an uncertainty about how far would this push them from the original vision. Would a design thinking firm and application of management principles unsettle the good work that had been put in? Some questions were thrown about and we are sure in hindsight, some remained unasked but existed nonetheless. Balancing young energy and ideas from the passionate champions in the team with the need for caution expressed by the veterans, was delicate. As venture designers we knew this task had several layers to it and we kept our approach close to what true venture design should be - honest and based on reality, carrying all stakeholders along. The road is slower but surer, always.
when he surprised us all, by being the change he wanted to see.
Through many discussions and months spent on defining the strategic plan, the reveal day dawned. It was time to share what we believed would be a suitable road to take. There was a need to stay close to the values and purpose that we helped the foundation articulate and call out as clearly as it could. But there were changes recommended that touched upon several core things. The biggest surprise was when Nirbhayji gave the big nod to the need to embrace a new road, or should we say a renewed road. He was the first to bless the proposed roadmap. He was as excited as a child plunging himself into the discussions, idea sessions with gusto. And that gave us both courage and faith. For we had the 89 year old champion who started it all as the principal cheerleader. The core cast of Chakshu foundation and the board members, all fine ladies and gentlemen driven by purpose and good were stellar. Thanks to Utsav, Shefali, Jyotirmayee, Gulab, Rashida, Sneha and so many of the passionate members who made this engagement a wonderful chapter to cherish.
Today, as we speak, they are responsible for 40+ villages and have more than 2000 empowered women driving the process of social transformation therein.
Mapping the journey
A new brand, a renewed organisation was an option, but then it had to tread carefully and it had to go right down to the surface, especially in the impact field where everything is right down to action and results, for the margin of error is zero. This meant adopting a course and strategy that not only did justice to the impactful journey of 23 years but also that the attempt to reinvent, ensures that it doesn't disturb the very reasons for its sustenance. One had to build the same faith and conviction in its new avatar.
The strategic plan
One had to ensure that this reinvention went right through the organisation and the brand. It had to connect across generations and relate strongly with its beneficiary and donor touch-points. The first steps were intensive workshops to define the refreshed brand's vision, mission and values plates.
And then we moved to drawing up a strategic engagement plan.
Design thinking, across the interaction journey
Impact centred thinking had to thread its way through the brand design, website, content, communication, conversations and the most sensitive - its contact points with the beneficiaries - thousands of women who believed in Chakshu and how so wonderfully it had brought change into their lives. We did a few open discussion forums, ideation sessions and laid bare the brand reinvention process in as simple a manner as possible. The idea was to be completely frank and transparent about what the path ahead meant.
Content development
The team spent time both curating as also creating content, that would help build the right narrative and account of empowHER's journey. This included photography, videos, people-bytes, capturing vignettes around their work.
While the narrative and identity was being worked upon, the North Pole remained the same.
The new name has two parts – empower + HER. The accent on Her India with HER in caps simply cajoles the viewer to see it necessarily from the perspective of women in India and her villages. That she is the central catalyst and thus character needs to be in focus. The new identity visually followed suit. The vermillion tikka (a symbol of eternal femininity, quiet power and grace in India) and the power on button that denotes power, energy in today's times.
Design and technology followed design thinking
UX, UI here were impact centred. As a solid entity that served the communities across more than 45 villages, the website couldn't afford to be not productive at any point. It had to tell its story of impact, narrate its theory of change as honestly as they did on ground.
Kathagram - conceiving a community storytelling forum for sharing experiences and raising funds
Honest “storytelling around sharing and giving” and right from the horse's mouth was necessary to spread awareness and build resonance. Kathagram was conceived not to be about charity but for being a community forum to share inspiring stories on empowerment, sustenance, enablement, happening through EmpowHER's work across the many villages. Who better to speak about impact of the foundation, than the beneficiaries.
Social conversations for impact, for action
Possibly the most powerful channels of conversation for reaching out to agents of change, people for impact are the social channels that bind communities together. EmpowHER India shares its journey, its challenges and overcoming them through stories of impact.
Our gratitude to the wonderful ambassadors of EmpowHER India, Nirbhayji, Shefali, JC, Utsav and the smiling catalysts of change for taking us aboard on their wonderful journey. It was a privilege to be a part of this team. To be of service.