truCSR

  truCSR Insights & Advisory 📊 CSR Impact Assessment Rules: When Is It Mandatory? A practical guide to impact assessment requirements, readiness and governance for Indian CSR-obligated companies Reviewed for legal-practical relevance up to 21 September 2026 CSR impact assessment helps companies understand whether their social investments are creating meaningful and measurable change. While routine monitoring tracks activities, milestones and expenditure, impact assessment evaluates whether the project achieved its intended outcomes and created a difference for beneficiaries or communities. Under the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014, impact assessment is mandatory for certain companies and qualifying CSR projects. For other companies, it remains a useful governance practice for improving project design, accountability and future CSR decisions. 🔍 1. What Is a CSR Impact Assessment? A CSR impact assessment is a structured evaluat...

truCSR Insights & Advisory 🔄 CSR Project Lifecycle: From Planning to Impact Assessment A practical governance guide for Indian CSR-obligated companies Reviewed for legal-practical relevance up to 21 September 2026   A successful CSR project does not begin with fund disbursement, and it should not end when the allocated money is spent. Effective CSR management requires a complete lifecycle approach covering need identification, project design, partner selection, approvals, implementation, fund utilisation, monitoring, reporting and impact assessment. For Indian CSR-obligated companies, this lifecycle discipline is also a governance requirement. It helps the Board, CSR Committee, CSR team, finance function and implementation partners maintain visibility over whether CSR resources are being used for eligible activities, approved objectives and measurable outcomes. Lifecycle view: Identify need → Design project → Select partner → Approve and document ...

  truCSR Insights & Advisory 📊 Excel vs CSR Management Software: When Should Companies Make the Switch? A practical governance and reporting-readiness guide for Indian CSR-obligated companies Reviewed for practical relevance up to 8 September 2026   For many companies, CSR management naturally begins with Excel. Budgets are tracked in spreadsheets, NGO updates arrive over email, documents are stored in shared folders, and reports are consolidated manually for internal reviews and statutory disclosures. This approach may be adequate for a small CSR portfolio with limited projects and partners. However, as the number of projects, implementing agencies, locations, approvals, fund flows and reporting requirements increases, Excel often stops being a simple tracking tool and becomes a governance risk. The real question is no longer whether Excel is useful. It is whether Excel can continue to serve as the primary system of record for a CSR function that requi...