The National Foundation for India has instituted fellowship for voluntary sector workers and community leaders in memory of Bharat Ratna Shri C.Subramaniam, Founder Chairperson of NFI.
 
NFI believes that pro-active social leadership and community participation has the potential to bring about substantive social transformation. Many community leaders do excellent work to address local issues and spend long years working at the grassroots level despite modest salaries and daunting work conditions. The civil society sector draws its strength from and depends on their vast experience and depth of understanding of issues at the grassroots.
 
C. Subramaniam award encourages mid-career community leaders and voluntary sector workers community leadership to mobilize civic action and enable the most marginalised to access their rights and entitlements. It provides opportunities to selected candidates to enhance their leadership qualities and enhance motivation and understanding on contemporary issues.  It creates a network of individuals and institutions to increase the support base available to those working in isolation under difficult circumstances.
 
Besides giving them a cash award, NFI facilitates an annual leadership orientation program, designed for reflection by the fellows on issues of leadership, qualities of social leaders and the relevance of leadership in constructive work.
 
In 2021, NFI has awarded 15 committed community leaders from the manual scavenging community and those helping to organise sanitation workers across India. Through these awards, NFI plans to cover community leaders across all states of India and also planning to increase the number of awards next year.