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In 2014, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure was made mandatory for all Indian companies after crossing a certain threshold. The move revolutionized the non-profit sector. The sports ecosystem, too, benefited, with Olympic sports included under the list of eligible CSR activities. One such non-profit sports entity – GoSports Foundation – is an excellent example of how to attract CSR investment for sports in India.
Founded in 2008, GoSports has created and curated programs backed by leading corporates, contributing immensely towards India’s medal tally in the Olympics and Paralympics. But as GoSports CEO Deepthi Bopaiah reminds Sportskeeda Business of Sports in this exclusive interaction, it is not about the medals, but rather “enabling sports excellence” that drives her organization today.
Girls for Gold program with Infosys
Ms. Bopaiah spoke to us following the successful launch of the ambitious Girls for Gold program, in collaboration with Infosys Foundation, earlier this month.
After beginning its fundraising journey with the help of “just friends and family,” GoSports has indeed come a long way, gaining the trust of reputed partners. Besides Infosys, GoSports counts Aditya Birla Group, IndusInd Bank, Sony Pictures, AT&T, and HDFC Bank among its many allies.
Highlighting the significance of Infosys’ CSR endorsement, Ms. Bopaiah notes:
“Everyone would love to have Infosys Foundation or Infosys on the list of partners who support you because [it] means you’ve cleared due diligence, you have credibility…Infosys is known to put India on the world map and I think the alignment is about putting Indian athletes on a world map.”
Initial fundraise vs. recurring investment
A former banker, Ms. Bopaiah learned all about governance and money management from her time at HSBC. “You should know till your last paise where the money is going,” Ms. Bopaiah says, stressing the need to also work in the non-profit sector with the same diligence and professionalism that is often restricted only to commercial ventures.
CSR today is all about compliance, and while passion can get you the initial round of funding, recurring money is based on “your reporting [and] your ability to share the impact,” feels Ms. Bopaiah.
200 athletes across 12 programs
GoSports currently assists a whopping 200 athletes with financial aid across 12 programs. An exhaustive framework is followed to evaluate the beneficiaries, whether they be individual athletes or academies.
Citing the successful examples of badminton players HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, Ms. Bopaiah says:
“When we pick up an athlete we have a 100 day process that we follow…because [we] don’t pick an athlete and drop them next year. We are working at least minimum eight to ten years.”
CSR funding is not about the medals
Ms. Bopaiah concedes that the number of medal winners will always remain high on the priority list of donors. But as far as GoSports is concerned, CSR funding pitches are geared towards highlighting the larger impact achieved by such initiatives.
Shedding light on GoSports’ CSR fundraising process, Ms. Bopaiah says:
“When we go to corporates, I am not saying we’ll get you 10 medals and 20 medals…I tell them that your money is not coming to sport…your money is coming to change lives of these athletes…your money is coming towards livelihood. We are just using sports as a vehicle.”
'Women in Sports': High ROI
On a seemingly contradictory yet pragmatic note, though, the five sports identified under the Girls for Gold project – badminton, boxing, weight lifting, shooting, and table tennis – have all been selected “based on historic data in terms of champions that have been created.”
Ms. Bopaiah highlights how ‘women in sports’ achieves one of the highest ROIs in terms of CSR funding. There’s no doubt that with projects like Girls for Gold, enabled by institutions like GoSports Foundation and Infosys, this positive trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
