Case Study: CSR Program Design for a Leading Football Academy

Client Overview

Our client is a non -profit focusing on empowering young footballers, especially girls, by providing elite training, education, and holistic development while fostering a lifelong passion for the sport

The academy sought to secure funding from corporate donors but required tailor-made, CSR-compliant projects that met the rigorous standards of corporate social responsibility laws.

ThinkCap Advisors (TCA) was engaged to provide CSR consulting services and social sector consulting support to bridge the gap between the client’s grassroots sports initiatives and the specific requirements of the corporate sector.

Approach to CSR Program Design

TCA began by conducting a comprehensive review of the academy’s past activities and successes in women’s football and related activities. This process involved several key steps to ensure the academy’s work resonated with potential funders:

• Mapping activities to Schedule VII and SDG goals: 

TCA mapped existing activities to Schedule VII thematic areas and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as Gender Equality (SDG Quality Education (SDG 4), and Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3).

• Creating Activity-to-Impact Pathways

TCA structured the academy’s work into clearly defined CSR projects by establishing direct linkages between activities, outputs, outcomes, and long-term social impact. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were defined for each project, enabling measurable reporting for corporate donors.

Multiple independent projects were created across thematic areas, allowing corporates to support initiatives aligned with their CSR priorities.

Program Enhancement, as part of its consulting approach, TCA suggested including additional activities under various projects to make each project more robust and sustainable with clear exit strategies for funders.

Pitch Deck Strategy and Outline

TCA advised the client on creation of professional pitch deck designed to highlight credibility and clear investment benefits for corporates. The recommended outline included the following key elements:

• Organizational Profile and Credibility: Highlighting the organization’s mission and demonstrating strength areas such as expertise of leadership team, program team.

• Thematic Focus Areas: Categorizing the academy’s work into multiple focus areas aligned with CSR laws

• Evidence of Success: Demonstrating impact created in multiple thematic areas along with highlighting success stories and achievements of the organization

• Highlighting all CSR projects in different thematic areas that could be undertaken by corporates

• Defining CSR budgets for distinct projects with clear bifurcation of capex and opex costs

Development of the Logical Framework Analysis (LFA)

To help the client meet monitoring requirements, TCA developed comprehensive Logical Framework analysis for every project designed. This document serves as a data-driven matrix for donors to track the project's progress against intended outcomes.

The key components included putting down measurable performance indicators for activities, means of verification and risk and assumptions that may impact the projects.

Result

Through this structured social sector consulting intervention, ThinkCap Advisors transformed the academy’s grassroots football initiatives into scalable, compliant, and high-impact CSR investment opportunities. The client emerged with:

• CSR-ready projects aligned with statutory requirements

• A compelling pitch deck for corporate engagement

• Clear impact measurement and reporting frameworks

This enabled the academy to confidently engage with corporates and position itself as a credible long-term CSR partner.

About ThinkCap Advisors

ThinkCap Advisors (www.thinkcapadvisors.com) is a consulting firm that uses industry expertise and domain knowledge to help organizations and their teams solve problems and achieve business impacting results.

Our team members, comprising of professionals with extensive experience in Big 4 firms and large multinationals, are subject matter experts and their advice is backed by in-depth research, years of experience and deep understanding of the prevailing market scenarios.

As a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consulting services firm,ThinkCap Advisors provides end-to-end CSR advisory services. Our sector experts, comprising of chartered accountants and professionals from  social sector background, assist companies in meeting their CSR obligation by hand-holding through all stages of  CSR life cycle.

Work Areas:

-          Tax & Regulatory

-          Social Sector

-          Consulting

-          Technology Solutions