Asha for Education

Project policies

Project Selection

1. Asha will work with only non-sectarian groups having no religious and political affiliations and which do not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, religion or sex.
2. The projects must be planned, managed and sustained by the group itself with little outside help.
3. The project must improve the general socio-economic welfare of the community.
4. The benefits of the project must be fairly distributed.

Project Monitoring

A. Documentation –

1. For a new project, a central (web) page needs to be created and the proposal should be posted in the Central page before funds can be sent.
2. Ensure that the project proposal on the public page is current and matches with the funding request. For multiple installments, the total amount should not exceed the proposed budget.
3. Have atleast one conference call between the project steward and project partner every 6 months (preferably in presence of multiple volunteers from the supporting chapter) with the call details/minutes being posted in the project’s central page.

B. Site Visits –

1. Site visit should be done by an Asha Volunteer for a new project.
2. For all projects, an annual site visit is recommended. A site visit is required atleast once every 18 months for projects in the vicinity (50 km) of any major city (population > 10,00000) in India by a known/reliable source at the discretion of the chapter and atleast once every 24 months for rural projects.

C. Project Funding Approval –

1. All members of the chapter need to be intimated about the meeting in which funding decisions for a project are to be made. Minutes of the meeting and a call for additional votes should be sent out to the members (via emails etc).
2. Minimum of 50% of those voting should approve the decision to fund the project. (Chapters are encouraged to have a higher approval % to avoid funding ‘controversial’ projects)
3. For Asha India chapters that run their own projects, there is an inherent conflict of interest that the approving chapter and “project partner” are the same. So, for cases where an Asha India chapter requests a fund transfer to Asha Trust, the disbursal must be approved in an Asha-wide call with the meeting invite sent out at least 3 days in advance and waiting a minimum of 3 days after the meeting minutes have been circulated to Asha-wide lists before the funds can be sent.

D. Other Guidelines –

1. Keep the central project page updated with the latest project steward and project partner information.
2. Funds can only be disbursed to NGOs with a current,valid FCRA. Note that the FCRA permission expires every 3 years and needs to be renewed.
3. For FCRA prior, the amount sent to a specific project should be less than the amount in the Prior approval.
4. No project specific donation should be collected for Projects that did not obtain FCRA or FCRA prior yet outside of India. Indian chapters can collect funds (in INR) for non-FCRA projects.

E. Relief and Rehab Funds

1. Asha has, as a part of the Treasury policies, set aside a fixed sum to support relief and rehab efforts for projects affected by calamities.
2. Asha supports Relief and Rehabilitation Efforts due to disasters under these circumstances –
   1. The event has caused considerable damage to the project stakeholders (project infrastructure, teachers/workers or student families) or surrounding areas.
   2. The relief and rehab proposal has been vetted and approved by the chapter that supports the project.

Project Termination

1. If there is a discontinuation of funding (due to funding constraints or not being able to find stewards etc), the chapter needs to inform the project partner at least 6 months in advance before the expected time of disbursal unless the project partner violates Asha’s principles.
2. Update the status of the project, descriptions on the project page and any other relevant documentation to the central projects page for records.