Toyota Kirloskar Motor launches SALT to train and empower nonprofits

India’s rapid progress and emergence of manufacturing sector has turned tables and caused focus to shift to compliance of CSR regulations and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030, thereby encouraging patterns of social sector funding. Sensing this shift, Toyota conceptualized SALT (Social Academy of Learning) to develop conscious and effective leaders to deliver largescale social change.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, in its sustained outreach to create a better ecosystem in the area of CSR, announced the launch of the SALT by Toyota. With this programme Toyota aims to further build the capacity of NPOs, ensure quality management, work excellence. The first five-day residential cohort of the Social Academy of Learning by Toyota was organized from 2^nd -7^th February, 2020 at the Toyota plant in Bidadi with the support of KPMG India and Common Purpose in India.

SALT was conceived to develop NPO leaders to become more entrepreneurial, strategic and high-performing in order to create large-scale social change. The pilot programme aims to be an opportune platform for senior leaders of NPOs to express their challenges, explore best practices and develop capabilities by leveraging the strengths of sector experts and peers from within the group. The sessions will explore areas such as project planning, tax and regulations, branding and communication, sustainability and monitoring and evaluation which ultimately results in an effective delivery of a project.

At the end of the training, NPOs will benefit from a result and process oriented session along with a thorough assessment report that allows them to evaluate themselves and their organization, thereby helping them position themselves in the market.

Vikram Gulati, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility & Public Relations, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “NPOs have played a vital role in educating community and making the community responsible for maintenance of facilities in our CSR interventions. SALT is our attempt to reach out to relevant organization who make a significant impact. Rather than focusing on a single project that may have minimal impact, we aim to improve the quality of delivery of a large number of NPOs which we hope will make a difference to a wider group.” 

The gap analysis report would be submitted to these organizations to improve the processes at their end. The respective organization will submit the implementation report which will be evaluated and recognized as per their performance.

CSR has been the integral part of Toyota since its inception, from 2001 onwards. TKM was recently awarded 10^th position in CSR & Sustainability by The CSR Journal. According to the report ‘Responsible Business Rankings’ this recognition commemorates Toyota’s efforts under Corporate Social Responsibility in creating a socially responsible and sustainable society through its Sanitation projects.