Project Execution:

‍Foodshaala is a newly established, quickly growing organization and as her director Raadhika explains: “You can imagine, managing kitchen operations is difficult. We started with a few meals a day, but now, there are so many transactions, especially those with small local vendors. It makes it difficult to map everything properly.” Without a financial background, Raadhika tried her best, but she realised without the help of professionals it was very difficult for her to make a proper budget plan and continue further.

With their years of experience in finance management, Coomie and Bhawna were a perfect fit to help Raadhika. At the first meeting, they discussed the areas Raadhika needed help with in detail in order to create a list of tasks to be accomplished and plan accordingly. “The volunteers really took the lead. That was what I was looking for. I just said what I needed and these professionals gave me suggestions and different options on how to work on it.”

As Coomie mentions: “Bhawna and I had the same area of qualification, but different experience and knowledge to share, so I think that really helped in completing the project. She took the lead of the project and each of us did what we had to do as planned”. Bhawna took care of the financial aspects of day-to-day operations and Coomie worked on related Standard Operating Procedures, budgeting, focus on improving financials, so they both could work independently. Both of them recollect that the NGO director was very proactive and receptive. Since Raadhika decided not to spend money on professional software, Bhawna helped her with Excel templates to manage their finances without spending money on software.

The project deliverables went beyond Raadhika’s expectations: “My goal was to get the basic financial sheets in place, but because of the volunteers it went beyond that. They were guiding me and advised me on other related areas such as assets, salaries, stock register, provided best practices list and policies regarding procurement etc.”.

‍Challenges faced:

‍Since the project was executed during a pandemic and the operations of the NGO were halted, Bhawna explains that they couldn't completely check if they had set up a proper accounting system, because the NGO couldn’t gain any hands-on experience.

Some of the use cases were not possible to show as the activities were paused. To partially mitigate the problem, the volunteers at least trained Raadhika as much as possible and provided a list of best practices so she can deal with later challenges.

Raadhika also confesses: “There was an initial hiccup at the beginning, as I wanted the volunteers to sign an NDA [non-disclosure agreement]. You know, I was sharing my financials. That is sensitive. However, the volunteers were hesitant to sign it.” Eventually, Raadhika also understood their point of view and hesitance and decided to go ahead despite her initial fear. Mutual trust prevailed. “Eventually we managed it smoothly and I’m so glad we went ahead,” she adds.