Fellowship: Sanju KumarSamrudhi Microfinance Society

wecareindia.org

Abhinaya Narayanan, Sapan AgarwalDevdatta

Outline

• Overview of Samrudhi and its Progress• Current Difficulties• Wecareindia.org proposal to overcome those

difficulties– Proposal details

• Budget requested• Recommendations

Project Description• Location: Gulbarga District Karnataka• Area (urban/rural): Rural• Primary Focus: Provide loans to the poor.• Project Type: Microfinance Society• Amount Requested (US$): $2660.00 to $5720 • Purpose of Funding Request: Develop Kiva like

website to support Samrudhi Microfinance Society

Vision to Scale the Organization

Progress to DateStarted in 2007, supported for 3 years by Asha

Requirements for Self Sustainability

• Need to issue 100 lakh/year in loans– Have staff for 150 lakh portfolio and have identified

potential loan recipients• Current portfolio– 30 Lakh (22 in 2010 and 14 in 2009)

• Syndicate Bank agreed to lend 25-50 lakh, but have not closed yet– Due to Microfinance scandal a couple years ago, banks

slow to lend• Want to raise 25-50 lakh through wecareindia.org

Wecareindia.org

• http://www.wecareindia.org/Borrowerdetails.aspx

• Why not use Kiva?– Indian banking regulations prevent foreign

investors• Site will only work for Indian citizens

– Save on overhead charged by other sites• Investors get 7-8% return, borrowers charged

18%

Promotional Methods• a. Online Promotion: We would work towards link building/ link

exchange, search engine, forums, article directories, classified, social networking (face book, twitter, linked in) social bookmarking, directory submission and email marketing, online competition etc. We will have few committed volunteer to undertake this activity without affecting their routine work..

• b. Google Grant/Adword: We already applied for Google Adword grant (We have one for Asha Deepa). Once it is approved, we will have more space to optimize our site in the search engine.

• c. Off line promotion: We plan to have it promoted among corporate world through presentation, word of mouth etc.

• d. Events & Conference-We will showcase and set up stall in the various events, conferences and promote our site.

Site Visit Conclusions• On the whole, I would rate the work being done by Samrudhi as very good.

Their work has put many women on the path of better financial security. They have around 1500 members who would become loan clients as soon as they get the funds to give loans. They also have plans to expand their member base by surveying new villages. Mr. Kumar also told me that he wants to train women who are in the dairy business through Samrudhi to improve their processes so that they can expand their businesses.

• I found Mr. Kumar to be an intelligent and receptive person who has the capability of getting things done. Moreover, as he comes from the north Karnataka region, he has a sound understanding of the local circumstances which has enabled him lead Samrudhi successfully till now and to chart out its future plans. His enthusiasm towards his work is praiseworthy. He is also taking care of the Asha Deepa school of the Blind in Bidar and wants to start a chain of local centres that provide support classes for Mathematics and English for school children in Gulbarga.

• I therefore fully support Asha Stanford’s support of Mr. Kumar’s fellowship and would recommend further collaboration.

Payment Gateway Setup Rs.40,000 Rs. 40000 (we negotiated for this and finalized for Net Banking, Credit Card & Debit Card)

Hosting (VPS) Rs.45,000* Hosting in VPS environmentDevelopment Rs.35,000 We have already paid Rs.35k upfront as a token of

advance to developers. Total (INR) Rs. 1,20,000.00

Total US$ 2660.00

Immediate Budget

Payment gateway, Hosting and SSL costs reduced and so budget reduced to $5720

Original Budget

My Recommendations• We Fund $2700 and plan on renewing the fellowship next year for

$3300• Try to get AID Berkeley to fund the rest of the budget

– If that fails, we can let Sanju Kumar choose between Fellowship and the rest of this proposal

• Reasons not to fund– This is not an education project

• Our mission is to catalyze socio-economic change with education as the primary goal

• Improving the situation of a family will also improve the children’s lives• Asha has emergency relief efforts

– Progress is too slow• Website show’s Sanju Kumar’s dedication to overcoming challenges with the

banks– Site might fail

• The reward is successful is far greater than the money we’re risking– Potential to impact 1000’s of families