Criteria for supporting an initiative:

• Focus on children
• Focus on nascent initiatives – grassroots or urban
• Priority to projects in areas where no other projects / facilities exist
• Vision, commitment, approach to work of the project partner
• Project concepts should empower the community in which they work, the parents, and ultimately make an irreversible change to the lives of children

Process for selection and appraisal

• Fill or send an application as per our format covering details like the objective of the initiative, the partner’s background, experience on the field, financial details etc.
• Our team screens and short lists these applications
• A pre-funding, evaluation visit is conducted
• An Internal discussion on the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats
• Recommendation by the Development Support team at region and head office levels
• Approval by our Board of Trustees
• Commencement of partnership

Monitoring and evaluating of the initiative

• Our Development Support team visits each project on a quarterly or half yearly basis.
• Meetings with the staff, parents, children and the community with whom the project works.
• Assessing the project’s training & information support needs as well as its achievements.
• Submission of quarterly, half yearly and annual reports.
• Annual evaluation, budget and plans for the next grant period are initiated by our team.

Review of project finances

• A team of professional chartered accountants (Account Aid) assist us in financial reviews and audits of the projects.
• Along with Account Aid, we identify projects where our funds are at risk due to poor financial management or mismanagement of funds. These high-risk projects are closely monitored.
• Frequent financial reviews on bookkeeping and maintenance of accounts are carried out at the projects.
• An external project audit is almost always mandatory at each project.
• Project partners are encouraged to discuss their budgets and expenditure with their core teams and the community with whom they work, for greater social accountability and transparency.
• Our team makes quarterly or half yearly field visits to asses progress of each project.
• Disbursals to projects are made quarterly or half-yearly based on reviews done.