ABSTRACT
After seeing children playing badminton with broken slippers and cement pipes at the residential school for underprivileged children in India, two architectural undergraduates Nancy Charaya and Pooja Rai were inspired to build a safe, fun and low-cost playground for them using recycled scrap tires. The positive impact that the duo saw on the solidarity of the local community spurred them to set up a non-profit organization Anthill Creations to build more playgrounds for the disadvantaged children in the slum of other Indian cities. Their first project of building a low-cost playground in the slum area of Bangalore had attracted the strong support of local social activists and companies with corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. While the model of engaging companies with CSR programs seemed to have worked well in Bangalore, should Anthill Creations replicate this model in their next target city of Delhi? Should it find existing Bangalore partners with operations in Delhi to forge similar forms of alliance there or should it join a local incubator to tap on its network of sponsors and partners in exchange for some of its equity? This case discusses the issues of scaling up a not-for-profit organization and strategic responses for entering new markets.
