Notes and Minutes of the Advisory Council meeting held on 31st July 2016

Quarter ending – June 2016

Day: Sunday; Date: 31^st July 2016; Place: Conference call

Participants:

Ms Shanthi Iyer, Mr Rajeev Grover, Ms Bindumalini Krishnan, Mr V G Krishnan, Mr Abhaya Behera (could not join), Ms Usha Rangarajan

1. Status Update – Numbers updated as of 31^st July 2016

Number of Districts Covered – 34

Number of Partners signed up – 18

Number of Beneficiaries funded – 191

Money collected as donations – Rs.12,00,193

Money disbursed to beneficiaries – Rs. 15,82,901

2. Status of IT Exemption – 80G and 12A – 12A registration is completed and it opens up several corporate funding opportunities for ShikshaDaan.

3. Corporate funding and other opportunities: Indian companies with CSR funds can now channelize their funds through ShikshaDaan. We have already initiated conversations with certain corporates, and also with buddy4study.com to become their Charity partner. With 12A in place, we can also apply for validation by Charities Aid Foundation which helps us to raise funds through their platform and multiple channels.

4. Yatra Coverage: Between June and July, we have covered six districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

We met with about hundred students and families of handloom weavers and explained to them over two meetings about ShikshaDaan and buddy4study scholarships, and also shared with them important points that would help them get more employment opportunities. We also roped in Mr Krishnan Subramanian from Madurai who would assist these students in their skill development initiatives. Mr Venkatesh Narasimhan, Managing Director of CoOptex, Chennai and his team members at Madurai and Dindigul played an important role in this entire initiative of meeting with handloom weavers and their children. This initiative as an immense potential to grow into a national scheme.

We also met with the Estate Manager of Lockhart Tea Estate in Munnar and made an attempt to meet with and address tea plantation workers with their children but the proposed meeting could not materialise.

Other important meetings during this trip were with the Director of Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Institute of Textile Technology and Management and Director of Indian Institute of Handloom Management, Salem where we proposed scholarships through ShikshaDaan and buddy4study.com. The resort manager at Club Mahindra in Thekkady was kind enough to let us address about 40 of his staff members regarding ShikshaDaan and our initiatives.

We also met with the founders of buddy4study to apprise them of our feedback basis our meeting with students from the handloom weaving community in Tamil Nadu. Also discussed the next steps with them post 12A registration with the IT department.

5. Impact of ShikshaDaan work: the agreement between English Helper and Sevalaya to provide English course curriculum to 1148 students of Sevalaya has been approved. The program is set to begin on Aug 3, 2016.

6. ShikshaDaan scholarships through buddy4study platform: For the twenty scholarships that we have offered through their platform we have received hundreds of applications through their portal. The scholarships are valued at Rs.25000 each, with a total value of Rs. 5 lakhs per year. The entire process of evaluating and selecting the final 20 students who get the scholarship this year will be completed before the end of August 2016.

7. Evolution of the ShikshaDaan value delivery model:

Over the last one and half years, on the basis of our Yatra, and meetings with stakeholders and the insights thereof, our value delivery model has consistently evolved. Will be adding a slide with a clean copy of the latest model as part of our standard deck.

8.  Other important points raised and responded to in the meeting:

Usha – Can we sharply define our target population ? disabled, women etc. What sort of profile is ShikshaDaan working with.

Response: our focus continues to be providing scholarships to meritorious and deserving students who want to pursue their higher education, beyond 10^th std, irrespective of disability, community, boys/girls etc. Funding from ShikshaDaan is for education that leads to employment.

Beyond providing scholarships, ShikshaDaan is also being a catalyst as explained in the above model.

Rajeev – about ensuring that 85% of the funds received during the year into ShikshaDaan account should be spent within the same financial year.

Response : we do understand the significance of this clause (as mentioned in our 12AA approval note from the CIT E). We are conscious of this and will ensure that we adhere to this, every financial year. We have enough partners who would be happy to receive funds and utilize the same appropriately.

To the new model of value delivery: all the members responded positively to the new model of value delivery by ShikshaDaan.

Financial Planning: Shanthi in particular wanted us to present in an excel format the financial requirements for the current FY and also start this as a process every year.

Response: Great suggestion and yes, happy to prepare, plan and share.

Help in reaching out for funding: Bindu requested the Margadharshis to help and support in fundraising.

Response: Even as the Margadharshis are eager to help and support, all of them requested a note or a ppt that would help them in this. Rajeev has also shared with us a list of questions for which we need to have compelling answers.

Next steps

1. Pursue corporate CSR funding opportunities directly and through buddy4study.com to enhance scholarships opportunities and impact in future.

2. Get CAF certification and validation and go for more funding options and channels.

3. Complete the process of selection and funding of ShikshaDaan scholars through buddy4study platform.

4. Evaluate options regarding 80G reapplication and move accordingly

5. Sign the partnership MoU agreement with buddy4study

6. Prepare the goal oriented financial planning document

7. Share with Margadharshis ppt. and/or note that would help them in fundraising for ShikshaDaan Foundation.