Minutes of the Asha-Madison meeting with Professor Ashok Bhargava at his house: Mon, 31 July 2000 Attendees: Ashok, Murali, Subbu, Kamal, Anita, Brain, Harit, Ganti, Vineeta, Anu [After a great dinner prepared by Prof Bhargava :) ] INITIAL DISCUSSION: - The meeting started by trying to identify its purpose: (a) Asha wants to widen its Madison base and identify interested supporters among Madison residents (b) Get to know what are Ashok's goals and what Ashok is looking for and (c) acquaint Ashok with details of projects that Asha-Madison is considering funding. - Ashok said that he has been involved in development issues and funding development projects for nearly 30 years and that he is always interested in supporting and raising funds for organizations like Asha - The discussion then moved on to the specific projects that need funding: the Vivekanadana Foundation and the 100-Block Plan. Ashok mentions that one thing to look for in a project is a tangible "thing" that needs funding, that makes raising money for it an "easy sell". He gave an example of raising money for buying desks for a girls' school. As opposed to "pie-in-the-sky" projects with less tangible aims for which funding is difficult. Subbu and Murali replied that our previous projects (Little Stars and Swanirvar) had this "easy sell" property but not the newer projects we want to discuss today. PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS: - Anita described the Vivekananda Foundation (VF) project: the VF is a federation of 10 separate NGOs that are committed to development. One of those NGOs is currently focusing on improving the state of education in govt-run schools in rural Karnataka. Corruption is rampant with the principal/hostel warden and cook and other govt employees working together to pocket school funding, teachers are absent for long periods and so on. This is spite of US$150M funding for primary education in karnataka through foreign loans (claimed by the VF proposal). The VF aims to remedy this by sending a social worker to stay in each of 50 rural schools. This worker will be paid by the VF and will operate with freedom thanks to an agreement between the VF and local administration. The social worker will stay in the hostel with the children and will try to involve the local community to increase accountability and reduce corruption. All social workers will go through a rigorous selection and 3-month training program. They will be given the opportunity to specialize in specific areas such as health-care, education and so on. The VF is looking for 1 year's funding of 50 workers @ Rs 1,500 per month. Total cost is around $600 per worker => $30,000 total. Asha-Boston and Asha-Madison are currently considering the proposal. If Asha-Madison does fund VF, it will fund about 10 social workers => $6,000. - Kamal described the 100-Block Plan from Balaji Sampath and the TNSF: During an earlier all-India literacy campaign, a large volunteer base was accumulated. The TNSF (and others) are now trying to exploit this volunteer base by training and deploying them on a large scale. The 100-Block Plan is an ambitious, nation-wide program that targets 100 blocks for a period of 5-7 years. The plan aims to implement several development programs in each block: education/savings/ micro-credit/women's empowerment etc. A small-scale "prototype" of this plan is already up and running in a few districts. Their education-related plans are to implement alternative model (Tulir) schools in 50 blocks and to provide universal primary education centers in 50 blocks. The programs implemented in a block would depend on the needs of that block. VF - ACCOUNTABILITY: - A major point that Ashok emphasized throughout the meeting was that of accountability. How does one make sure that the funds that were raised have indeed reached their intended recipient and are being used for the intended purpose without any major "leakage" due to corruption? He gave us several anecdotes about his experiences with raising money for an eye-clinic in Uttar Pradesh and coming back to the accountability point, asked us how we can be sure that the money raised will not slip into someone's pocket. This is essential if donors are to be convinced to part with their money. A checklist for a "fundable project": - "sound" project idea - no leakage - checks on progress (i.e., whether the money had any effect) - local involvement (very important) - Ashok then moved on to the VF project specifically and asked us how could we ensure that the social worker does not become corrupt and operate with the warden and principal? After all, that is easier and more profitable. - Subbu said that we are trusting the NGO's reputation and its selection process. This NGO has been funded by Asha(-Boston) before. - Ashok said that a system of checks and balances is still needed to convince an outside observer that the money is being used appropriately. He mentioned the time when money was being raised ot buy desks for a girls' school and that involved a lot of checks through the Rotary Club's local involvement. The leakages were present but manageable and limited. - It was suggested that we have a direct contact with the VF to check on progress. Brain mentioned that he will try visiting them when he goes home to Bangalore (soon). - Ashok also wanted to know how the social worker would "latch in" to the community? Anita provided a long list of proposed activities that the worker would use to interact with and invove the local community. - Ganti mentioned the recent success of an NGO in Rajasthan which increased accountabilty of panchayat officials by using local involvement to make panchayat financial records public. Involving the local community is the KEY to making any kind of social development program effective (by reducing corruption). - Vineeta mentioned that what we provide is a donation rather than a loan, and in spite of being small, can be significant while a loan would carry with it the burden of repayment. - Ashok says that after 30 years of funding development, he has come to the conclusion that voluntary fund-raising may be marginal but it has the opportunity to be a catalyst (like the various Foundations: Ford/Rockefeller/McArthur) - Ashok also mentioned that any project that submits a funding proposal should indicate how much it is staking in the deal. If they are not risking anything in the project, then how can donors be convinced to donate money? After some discussion, it was concluded that the Vivekananda Foundation are indeed staking a lot in this project in terms of the effort required for selection and training of the candidates. They need to assign a value to this stake. - Ashok tried to list the pluses and minuses: - Pluses: + the NGO has a reputation + they have credibility, though they are "naive" - Minuses: - Need a system of checks and balances on the social worker - Need to assign values to their investments so that they can quantify their stake in the project - Ashok said that if we want to be serious about fund-raising, then we should consider the project as a product to be sold. It must have a slick 5-min presentation of the benefits, the risks, the checks, the balances and the investment required. Progress reports and so on. Donors will be impressed by this. - The VF discussion concluded by the consensus to get in touch with Melli of Asha-Boston and clarify the concerns raised above. Also to get direct contact information of the VF for quickly clarifying future concerns. - Regarding the 100-Block project, Ashok found it too fuzzy and amorphous. They could benefit by making it a little more concrete, give people something to hold on to. E.g., Adopt-A-Block? Adopt-A-Village? However, Ashok did acknowledge that while it is easier to raise money for more concrete "sellable" projects, that does not mean that the more ambitious and less tangible projects should not be funded. On the contrary, we should make it a point to support such long-term projects. FUND-RAISING: - The discussion then moved on to fund-raising in general: - Ashok offered his house as a venue for fund-raisers (if we give him 6 weeks notice for contacting people) - We informed Ashok of the various fund-raisers we are currently using: Work-An-Hour (Asha-wide), the bi-annual newsletter and the Shobha Natarajan concert in September - Ashok pointed out that yard work for Madison families could raise a substantial sum of money (at the standard hourly rates) as well as raise the level of local involvement as one gets to know the local community. Concert tickets, newsletters and Asha publicity could also be done.