Reports
March 2026
Bachat Banaye Bhavishya: Impact Report FY24-25
A comprehensive impact evaluation of the financial and digital literacy programme implemented by Samhita-CGF, with support from Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. This report presents findings from a pre-post study conducted with rural women participants across 80 villages in Kakori, Bakshi Ka Talab, and Malihabad blocks of Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh. It examines how the programme shifted participants' financial behaviours and practices across key dimensions — including adoption of formal banking, use of budgeting tools, savings habits, insurance uptake, access to credit, digital payment usage, and household income — and assesses the depth and durability of knowledge gains following the programme cycle.
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December 2025
Reimagining Creditworthiness: How Pre-Credit Scores Can Transform Financial Inclusion
This article explores the workings and benefits of the Pre-Credit Score (PCS), a public good developed by Samhita in collaboration with 360 ONE Foundation. The PCS is a powerful, inclusive tool that assesses the credit worthiness of new-to-credit borrowers, enabling them to access formal credit and making it easier for formal finance institutions to tap into a new segment of borrowers with limited risks.
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December 2025
360 ONE Foundation: Midline Report 2025
A comprehensive midline assessment of the Credit-Guarantee Programme implemented by Samhita, with support from 360 ONE Foundation. This report looks at data from the midline to review project progress, with a specific focus on how the women entrepreneurs in Gujarat utilised the credit-guarantee backed loans they were provided with, repayment data and trends, and the impact of the credit on their incomes.
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June 2024
REVIVE Alliance - A Learning Report
This report documents the achievements and learnings from REVIVE and Returnable Grants as we set out to reimagine how we support the improvement of livelihoods of low-income communities going forward. The report provides impact assessment details for the various interventions, especially the Returnable Grants. The findings thus highlight our learnings from the journey so far, and how we all can collectively use these insights to create impact at scale.
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January 2024
Deepening The Responsible Business Agenda
The insightful report delves into the realm of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives within the Indian pharmaceutical sector, advocating for a transformative shift toward embracing a comprehensive Responsible Business framework. It signifies a pivotal exploration poised to reshape industry practices, emphasising a broader societal impact and ethical commitment within the Indian pharmaceutical landscape.
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March 2022
Women At Work In New India: Narratives of Pandemic-Induced Struggle, Hope, Resilience, Adaptation and Aspiration
Samhita-CGF, commissioned by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in India, undertook a study that analysed the pandemic experiences of thirty women workers and entrepreneurs across professions in India. The findings and recommendations of the study are presented in this report.
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January 2022
Indian NGO Fundraising “Bright Spots” Report
This report, developed by UC Berkeley's Morry Rao Hermón in collaboration with Samhita, studies ten Indian NGOs that have excelled at raising money from individual donors, and profiles three in depth: Light of Life Trust, SNEHA, and Teach for India. It draws out ten guiding principles behind their success, from asking for money unapologetically to building a genuine "culture of philanthropy" across the organisation. An added COVID-19 update reflects on how the fundraising landscape has shifted since the report first published, and what these Bright Spot organisations learned along the way.
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October 2021
CSR Trends & Opportunities in India
This research report maps the CSR landscape in India, as experienced by Japanese, Indian and MNC companies, as well as implementation partners (NGOs and Social Enterprises).
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March 2021
Creating a Truly “Social” Stock Exchange
This report reviews 7 SSEs from Brazil, Portugal, South Africa, Jamaica, UK, Singapore, & Canada to provide the most comprehensive analysis so far and offer suggestions for India's Social Stock Exchange.
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December 2020
Corporate Engagement in Women's Economic Empowerment
This report examines the nature of support for women's economic empowerment CSR activities of companies listed on India's BSE 100 index.
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December 2020
India Giving Benchmarking Report
An in-depth survey of Samhita GoodCSR's network of 2,800 nonprofit organizations about their funding sources, resource development methods, donor engagement strategies, and efforts to build a base of life-long donors.
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December 2020
Beyond Business – Contributions to Social Initiatives
This report maps the role of and impact created by Indian pharmaceutical companies through their social initiatives while simultaneously charting out the future of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the sector.
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October 2020
Transforming India
Samhita’s study, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, examines two years of India’s CSR law and offers a roadmap for companies, NGOs and government to make CSR more strategic, measurable and collaborative.
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October 2020
CSR in WASH
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has galvanized a number of companies to implement projects across the country. Despite this, very little is known about the approach, nature of interventions and the gaps in implementation. In an attempt to generate evidence-based data that can guide companies and help them make informed decisions about CSR programs, this study analyses existing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programs undertaken by companies. The report aims to understand major trends, highlight gaps and suggest potential solutions for stakeholders involved in the sanitation ecosystem.
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October 2020
Chasing the Virus
As we continue to get back to functioning in the 'new normal', we wanted to bring your attention to the situation on ground and share some insights based on facts that belie our growing sense of relief and inclination to now look beyond the virus. Although we are witnessing a reduction of active COVID-19 cases in metro cities, the fight against COVID-19 is far from over as it spreads in the smaller districts. We have published a research report, Chasing the Virus, to help you make an informed decision on where you can make the most impact with your support in the fight against COVID-19.
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March 2020
Creating the Hygiene Culture: Impact of Dettol School Hygiene Program [2014-2020]
This report assesses the Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme (2014-2020), which reached 13 million children across 8 states, and finds a 54% rise in handwashing practice, a 14.6% fall in diarrhoea and a 39% drop in school absenteeism.
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October 2019
New Frontiers in CSR
Companies need to evolve from Compliance-driven CSR → Strategic CSR → Catalytic CSR. This report explains different models under catalytic and takes a case study approach to demonstrate its execution, effectiveness and ability to amplify impact.
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December 2018
Making the Case for Corporate Action in Water
While corporate interventions are made through four approaches (CSR, business, sustainability and shared value), this study examines the role of the corporate sector from the three perspectives that have the strongest relationship between business and societal good – CSR, sustainability and shared value. This report aims to understand the rationale of corporate interventions in water, highlight the catalytic role that water can play in development, identify the barriers to collaboration and make the case for corporate action in water through investment, collaboration and collective impact.
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October 2017
Enhancing Capabilities, Empowering Lives
Analysing the skilling and livelihood CSR programmes of India’s top 100 companies by CSR budget, this study, developed with UNDP, Godrej, Ambuja Cement Foundation and DHFL, maps gaps across the training value chain and sets out a roadmap for companies, implementation partners and intermediaries to move from counting trainees to improving job outcomes.
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October 2016
CSR in Education
Education remains one of the most popular causes for companies. School infrastructure and scholarships receive maximum support whereas issues such as pedagogy, early education, community awareness etc. remain unexplored. However, there is a silver lining – companies are beginning to think more strategically about interventions in education.
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