INFORMATION PACK

(Read carefully before proceeding with the application for grant)

About the programme

HSBC Skills for Life (S4L) is a five year INR 100 crore commitment by HSBC India that will focus on
employment linked skill development of disadvantaged youth, upskilling of teachers and educators, and
women’s empowerment through financial education and livelihood enhancement.

Under the umbrella of this programme, the Bank and the Swades Foundation have forged a five-year
INR 50 crore partnership to skill thousands of disadvantaged youth across the country and indirectly
impact and inspire many others.

For 2019, the programme has ear-marked INR 12 crore to be disbursed as grants to NGOs for projects
that skill youth and link them to employment opportunities. Grant available to one project ranges from INR
25 lakh - INR 75 lakh for duration of 12 - 18 months. For more information, please visit
www.swadesfoundation.org/hsbcskillsforlife

Across the previous three grant cycles (i.e. 2016, 2017 & 2018), we have approved grant of over INR 33
Cr to 68 NGOs across 21 states.

The HSBC S4L programme will adopt a phased and detailed due-diligence process to select proposals.
An independent Advisory Committee will select the final grantee organisations.

The programme reserves the right to communicate reasons for rejection of application to the applying
organisations.

Grantee organisations whose projects have been approved for funding will be contacted via e-mail within,
a fortnight of the decision (in September 2019).

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Skills Sector targeted through this programme

According to human resource and skill requirement reports commissioned by the National Skill
Development Corporation and authored by consulting firm KPMG, India will need close to 109 million
skilled workers over the next decade across 24 identified sectors by 2022.

The programme identifies with need in 9 priority sectors/ industry and proposes to support project in

Automotive Retail
BFSI Telecom
Electronics Transportation & Logistics
Healthcare Tourism & Hospitality
IT & ITES

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply for this grant, the organisation,

 Must be a registered not for profit entity in India (Society, Trust or a Section-25/ Section-8
company)
 Must not be a corporate trust or corporate foundation
 Must have a valid FCRA registration
 Must have a valid 12A/ 12AA registration
 Must have a valid 80 G registration
 Must have annual reports and audited financial statements for the last 3 years
 Must have filed Income Tax returns for the last 3 years
 Should not have any pending criminal/ FCRA cases against it (or its key members) in court
 Must have at least a three-year track record of implementing skills training projects and have
been working with disadvantaged youth in that specific geography.

And the proposal submitted,

 Must benefit disadvantaged youth, defined as,

o Age: Youth in the age group of 18 - 30 years (this outer limit will be relaxed by 5 years for
youth with disabilities).
o Economic profile: Is classified as (a) BPL (below poverty line) by Government of India
and/ or (b) belongs to a household with an annual household income of less than INR
200,000 per annum.
o Location: Situated in urban or rural areas.
o Education/ experience profile: Is out of school and currently neither in formal
employment (excluding self-employment) or training. Youth who are self- employed will
be eligible provided they fall in the socio-economic profile defined above.
 Should be of a duration of 12 to 18 months.
 Must request for a grant between INR 25 lakh and INR 75 lakh. The total grant requested
should not exceed 20% of the organisation’s income/ turnover in the previous year (ie; FY 2017 -
18).
 Expenses towards capital/ infrastructure should not exceed 15% of the grant requested and
should not be towards construction/ renovation of buildings/ training centre or purchase of land
or property. The proposal should leverage existing infrastructure (land/ building/ etc) and existing
training content/ modules.
 Administration costs should not exceed 10% of the grant requested.

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  Proposal should focus on linkages with industry for training and placement; at least 70% job
placement is expected from the project.

Kindly note, 10% of the approved grant will be retained by the Swades Foundation towards third party
Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E).

For example; If you are requesting INR 60 lakhs grant, then you will have to include in your budget, INR
6 lakhs (ie; @10%) to be retained by the Swades Foundation for the third party M&E. The remaining 54
lakhs can be budgeted across Capital costs, Operations costs & Administration. However the following
restriction apply,

 Capital Expenditure : a maximum of INR 9 lakhs from the grant can be allocated (ie; @15% of
60 Lakhs)
 Administration : a maximum of INR 6 lakhs from the grant can be allocated (ie; @10% of 60
Lakhs)

The above restriction applies to budgeting from the grant requested and not on the contribution made by
you or other funders for the project.

Completing the Application form

The application pack formats contains the following documents,

A. Organisation Profile
B. Project Summary
C. Project Proposal
D. Project Financials
E. Curriculum

Please complete each section as per the expectations laid out and adhere to word limits where
specified.

An NGO can apply for multiple projects. However, each such project will be considered as a separate
application and will have to be submitted through the online process, repeated for each.

Key documents to be attached along with the application pack

The following documents (scanned in PDF) are mandatory along with the Application pack (Part A, B, C,
D & E). Please ensure that you do not miss any document as that will be considered as incomplete
application and disqualified.

1. Registration certificate
2. MOA/ Article of Association/ Trust Deed
3. PAN card in the name of the organization as mentioned in registration certificate
4. FCRA certificate
5. 12A/ 12AA certificate
6. 80G certificate (not mandatory)
7. IT return for last 3 years
8. Audit Report (Form 10 B) for last 3 years
9. Audited financial statements for last 3 years
10. Form FC 6 filed with Ministry of Home Affairs for last 3 years

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 All documents above must be scanned at an optimum resolution to ensure that the total of all the
documents must be less than 20 MB.

All documents obtained as part of the application process will be solely used for the purpose of evaluation
of the organisation’s eligibility to receive the grant. The documents will only be shared with KPMG for
evaluation, and will not be used for any other purpose. No sensitive information will be shared or
published in public domain.

How to apply?

The application has to be submitted ONLINE using the form available on the website only. Last date of
application is January 21, 2019. To apply, please use the link available at
www.swadesfoundation.org/hsbcskillsforlife

An online form with brief details about the organisation and the project is to be completed. The
Application pack and supporting documents will have to be uploaded to the form to complete your
application.

Please make sure, you have the completed application pack (compressed as one .zip/ .rar file) & the
scanned PDF’s of all the supporting documents (compressed as one .zip/ .rar file) before you proceed
with the online form for applying.

Please note, applications sent via email will not be accepted!

Grant Approval Process

1. Application submission
The application submission has to happen using the form available on the website. The last date of
application is January 21, 2019.

2. Screening of applications received

KPMG, our screening partner will primarily evaluate each application received at two levels

The above process will result in list of top ranking applicants who may be contacted for any further
information. A due diligence check and field evaluation visit will be undertaken by KPMG to these top
eligible applicants. However, while on field, if a shortlisted applicant is found to be not suitable then the
next ranked applicant will become eligible

This screening process will result in the top 40/ 50 applicants.

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3. Presentation to the Advisory Committee
An Advisory Committee comprising of eminent corporate leaders and sector experts (click here for details
on the Advisory Committee members) has been formed who will review shortlisted applications and
approve projects for support.

The Advisory Committee will receive an information docket on each of the top shortlisted applicant a few
weeks in advance of the meeting and will meet to discuss and finalize the disbursement of INR 12 crores
to around 25 NGOs.

The decision made by the Committee will be binding and final.

4. Signing the Implementation Agency (IA) agreement

An IA agreement will be signed between the Swades Foundation and the approved grantee NGO, post
which the grant will be released (in tranches).

5. Capacity Building M&E workshop

A capacity building workshop for all grantees by the M&E partner will be conducted to introduce the M&E
framework and the reporting guidelines.

6. Project Begins
Considering the time required for the detailed screening and evaluation of each applications received, we
anticipate the projects approved in the 2019 grant cycle to begin implementation from November 2019.

Please note the communication timeline from the Swades Foundation to the applicants of the
2019 grant cycle.

To all applicants confirming receipt of their application within two week of closing the
February 2019
application deadline.
Only to the shortlisted applicants who will be visited by KPMG for due diligence and
April 2019
field evaluation.
September 2019 To the applicants who are approved to receive grant from HSBC Skills for life in the
2019 grant cycle.

End of document.

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