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Ma Foi plans to bring CSR programmes to Middle East

The initiatives — which are far more advanced than the simple donations to charity that once typified CSR programmes — focus on education, employability, non-governmental organisation (NGO) capacity building, and women's empowerment.

All these are highly applicable to the Middle East where the company has four offices — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman and Bahrain. Another office in Saudi Arabia could be opening soon.

"In the Middle East we would like more volunteers and donor support," says Rajan, speaking with Khaleej Times. "We would like to launch the employability initiatives here in more depth, especially for the nationals. We also have programmes specifically tuned for industries that we would like to launch here. We would also like to look at sections of the disadvantaged and work with them." He would also like to introduce a CIOSA model in the Middle East, he says.

CIOSA stands for the Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy and the Ma Foi Foundation, set up as the company's CSR wing in July 2006, extends its community welfare programmes through this and the Sornammal Educational Trust (SET).

Rajan, who is himself from a poor family, established CIOSA in 2002, as "a confederation of organisations acting as a mutual support forum for NGOs". It brings together NGOs, companies and individuals for mutual learning, sharing and the collective espousal of social causes, explains the company literature. Ma Foi established SET, which sponsors under-privileged students, in 1996.

"My father was a worker in a match factory and we lost him very early," says Rajan. "Through investments in society, I grew. Many people invested in me, so when I grew up and invested in a career, I wanted to invest in others".

For this reason, Ma Foi, like an increasing number of companies worldwide, believes that CSR is "not just about dishing out money with a cheque book" (to good causes), but that it is about "meaningful empowerment". Three per cent of the company's profits are committed to the Ma Foi Foundation each month and all employees commit a certain amount of their salary as well. Ninety per cent of the foundation's revenues comes from this source, he says.

In the case of MA Foi's CSR programmes, not only do the recipients benefit directly from the money donated — whether it be students receiving study scholarships or women being empowered by the setting up of micro-enterprises - but the value of the original contribution is effectively multiplied. This is, for example, because graduates are encouraged to sponsor and, mentor, other students, while women empower other women through their self-help groups.

Rajan says that in Chennai, where Ma Foi Foundation is headquartered, it is helping close to 7,000 women in the slums. These women are grouped into self-help groups of between 12 and 18, helped by 20 Ma Foi Foundation staff, and are then trained to set up micro-enterprises, of which there are now about 400 in Chennai.

Ma Foi has also established a school in Chennai, for about 750 underprivileged students, ranging from kindergarten to the 10th standard. To date, about Rs15 million (Dh1.3 million) has been invested in the project.

Although not specifically defined as CSR, the Ma Foi academies for career training, 100 of which are dotted all over India, have "a CSR component," says Rajan. "We work with educational institutions and charge the candidates a much lower fee than we would otherwise charge," he says. Placement rates of about 90 per cent have been achieved. Ma Foi has plans to establish these academies in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Oman.

One of the benefits Ma Foi has derived from its CSR programme is in changing the way the organisation is perceived. Rajan describes Ma Foi as "a company with a heart," and says that, increasingly, it is being perceived as such. "There is a certain social contribution that has been getting recognised."

He adds: "In India people were not used to going to recruitment companies, but that is changing in a way. We have got quite a lot of coverage in the media speaking about what kind of initiatives we are doing."

However Rajan also says: "Doing our job is also CSR. To meet the discipline and rigour with which we perform our role is the first step in CSR. The second step is to go beyond that and offer the skills, expertise and resources to society, not through our work, but directly."

CSR is where the profit-making goals of corporations collide with their desire to do "good works". Overtime it has evolved to become less about direct charitable giving and more about aligning a CSR strategy with an organisation's longer-term goals. Ma Foi's initiatives are certainly testament to this.

The question now is whether people are growing, or will grow, cynical that corporates are pursuing CSR initiatives merely to grab headlines. Rajan thinks not. "Many people have a similar mindset. I'm sure if you are doing something for the good of society people will look at CSR positively."