Aseema Charitable Trust Project Igatpuri: 2014 Proposal for Asha SF

1. Aseema Charitable TrustProject Igatpuri: 2014 Proposal for Asha SF Riddhi Goradia 4 April 2016

2. Overview • Quick Recap of Aseema • History with Asha SF • Current Proposal

3. Aseema’s core mandate is to provide quality education to street and underprivileged children MCGM Partnership (Mumbai) Support Centre (Mumbai) Rural Education Centre for Tribal Children (Igatpuri) Supports 59 students who spend their evenings constructively strengthening their academic and co-curricular skills Reaches out to 139 tribal children: • Sitabai Kavji Mengal Anganwadi, Jambhwadi village • Aseema Education Centre, Awalkheda village Reaches out to over 1300 children studying in the Pre-Primary to Secondary Sections at three municipal schools in Mumbai Current Proposal is for funding a class at this centre

4. Aseema is backed by qualified advisors, committed staff and a large and established donor base Led by qualified and dedicated trustees and advisors • Dilbur Parekh (Aseema’s Chairperson) – Former Legal Officer for APAC at the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Geneva, Switzerland • Justice P. N. Bhagwati – Former Chief Justice of India • Mr Mukul Pandya – Director, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania • Mr Behram Sabawala – CFO, Drive India Enterprise Solutions, Ltd. Committed staff comprising 170 people, aided by volunteers • Including teachers, social workers, counselors, helpers and administrators Donors include large corporate houses, trusts, individual philanthropists • eBay, G.E., HSBC, HP, Bajaj Allianz, Ericsson, Jet Airways • Childreach Intl, Create Foundation, Ekta Foundation, Give India

5. Aseema’s holistic approach has a record of success in providing quality education Aseema’s core mandate is to provide quality education to street and underprivileged children Life-skills Program Community Work Providing functional literacy and employable skills to children on the verge of dropping out Maintain close links with the communities and ensure parents’ active involvement in education + Product Division Counseling Centre Aseema aims to become self-sufficient through the sale of art created by students Well trained counselors help children address sensitive issues in a secure environment • Aseema’s second batch of students appeared for the S.S.C. Examination and secured a 93% result. • One of Aseema’s students was awarded a full scholarship to study filmmaking at Whistiling Woods International – a well known film institute in Mumbai • Five of Aseema’s Judo champions participated in the Junior National Selections, of which two bagged gold medals* = * From Aseema’s 2011 Annual Report

6. Aseema’s outstanding contributions have not gone unnoticed Working towards Sustainability Oct 2010 Runner-up at the Sparsha Contest The Innovation in Process Fellowship Oct 2009 Awarded to Aseema’s program in Stds. I and II at the Pali Chimbai Municipal School National Award for Raju & I Oct 2005 The National Film Award for Bets Animation Film at the 52nd National Film Awards Young Achiever Award for Social Work Dec 2003 Awarded to Head of Aseema’s Montessori Centre Woman of Substance Mar 2011 Airtel and the Continuing Education Training Centre Award Mar 2005 The Rotary Vocational Award Oct 2003 The Mancherjee Joshi Memorial Trust Award Mar 2002 The Diwaliben Mohanlal Mehta Award Jan 2002 The Goolestan & Rustom Billimoria Endowment Award Dec 2001 Awarded to Aseema’s Chairperson (Dilbur Parekh) for her outstanding contribution to the field of social service and in making education and health care available to underprivileged and street children

7. Overview • Quick Look at Aseema • History with Asha SF • Current Proposal

8. 2016 site visit – very positive but questions whether Aseema really needs (all of) Asha’s support From the 2016 Report ABSK is doing a very good job of teaching children. They use Montessori methods quite effectively. They are serving Asha's target audience, the underprivileged tribal children. What will happen if SF does not fund ABSK? Probably nothing. Aseema may not even notice it as it is only 1.3 % of the total funding received by Aseema. The surplus (income minus expenditure) generated by Aseema is about 9 times the contribution of Asha. - Tushar Shah

9. Overview Quick Look at Aseema History with Asha SF Current Proposal

10. Current Proposal • 2016 ask represents 11% increase YOY • Teacher and Support staff salaries accounts for a large increase YOY • Budget supports 37 children in the Pre-Primary section; ~$368 per child

11. Site visit observations from Tushar and Jyoti • ABSK is doing a very good job of teaching children. They use Montessori methods quite effectively. They are serving Asha's target audience, the underprivileged tribal children.  • Asha's funding supports Pre-Primary class Prithvi with 37 students. Each class is supported by an entity donor. They have a large number of well-known corporate donors. • The gender ratio is good, very favorable to the girls. • At ABSK, Punit Chandak is in charge. Sapana is the Assistant head. For 152 students, they have 10 teachers, 1 subject teacher, 2 social workers, 5 cooks, 4 gardeners, 1 sports teacher, 2 drivers, 2 watchmen, 6 Helpers. Further, staff members from HQ provide other services.  This is an incredibly large organization to teach only 152 pre-primary & primary students. No private or public school in India or in USA can afford the luxury of such a huge organization.  • One can question whether such a large organization for teaching only 152 pre primary & primary students is money well spent.

12. Site visit results-contd • Their annual cost of teaching pre-primary & primary students at ABSK is Rs 42,500 /student, very high by Indian standard. The cost per child at a typical • school for tribal children may be only 25% to 40 % of the cost at ABSK. • 8.1 Is ABSK meeting the goals of Asha? Certainly yes. They are providing good education to tribal children. • Has ABSK asked for funds? Yes. • Do they desperately need the funds? Probably not. • Are they using the funds wisely? They spend a very high sum for providing high quality facility, uncommon in the tribal area. • What will happen if SF does not fund ABSK? Probably nothing. Aseema may not even notice it as it is only 1.3 % of the total funding received by Aseema. The surplus (income minus expenditure) generated by Aseema is about 9 times the contribution of Asha. • A general question: I understand that although Asha may fund 100% for some projects, Asha prefers that the project partners have other significant donors so that Asha’s contribution is not more than a certain %. Should there be a lower % limit of Asha’s contribution so that Asha is not an insignificant contributor to a project?

13. Recommendation There is no doubt that Aseema does good work, and provides high quality education. I do struggle with supporting a very organized project that has seemingly endless number of donors and plans for growth. Based on Tushar’s recommendation as well, I believe that the project is doing very well financially with or without our support. His point is very valid- that while we like to be one of the many supporters of a project, we should also not be an insignificant donor- which is the case with Aseema. Asha’s overall funding represents only 1.3% of the total funding that Aseema receives. That said, I do want to reiterate that Aseema is a very well organized NGO that is doing good work advancing the cause of education. My recommendation is to have a phased approach with Asha funding 85% of the ask, and freeing up the remaining 15% is earmarked to support newer, projects that don’t have as much support from donors/corporates in India. I think we should continue to have such a phased approach over time, e.g. in 2017 we would fund 75% of the ask, and free up 25%. We can change the % mix should we find that there are more needy projects. In this way, we don’t penalize Aseema too drastically, but at the same time we start to shift our focus toward projects that need the most help.