Fund the second year.
Almost nothing we do is novel. What is unusual is the insistence on paying for maintenance, measuring late, and publishing the results whichever way they go.
Six steps, in this order.
Choose the district before the programme
We pick places where the need is high and the local administration will actually work with us, then decide what to run there - not the other way around.
Agree the plan with the panchayat
In our integrated districts, a three-year plan is agreed with the elected village council and we fund against that plan.
Budget the running costs at the start
Maintenance funds, stipends, repairs and electricity are committed on day one, not hoped for later.
Appoint a named local person
Every site has someone accountable and paid - a lab teacher, a water caretaker, a site steward. Unpaid extra duty stops quietly.
Measure at the point of failure
Twelve months for placements and connectivity, twenty-four for water, three years for trees. Not on opening day.
Publish whatever it says
The figure goes in the annual report whether it rose or fell, and stays there in bad years.
The things we will not do, including for money.
Every one of these has cost us funding at some point. They are still the rules.
We do not fund a launch without its upkeep
If the budget covers hardware but not repairs, stipends and electricity, we do not do the project. That is the single most common reason good work dies in year two.
We do not count a village we visited once
A camp is not a presence. A state appears on our map only where we have staff or a long-term local partner.
We do not photograph people to raise money
No image or story of a person we work with is published without informed, revocable consent, and never of a child in a way that identifies them.
We do not substitute our plan for a village's
Where a panchayat's priority is something we do not fund, that is a legitimate answer and we say so rather than redirecting them to our targets.
We do not campaign or proselytise
Donor funds are never used for political lobbying or to promote any religion. Our programmes are open to everyone in a village regardless of faith, caste or politics.
We do not over-commit
For grants beyond what we can deliver well, we would rather partner with a larger implementer than take the money and under-deliver.
What we believe.
Fund the second year
Anyone can cut a ribbon. We budget maintenance, stipends and repairs at the point of installation, because the projects that fail almost never fail on day one.
Publish the bad numbers
Survival rates at three years, retention at twelve months, referrals actually confirmed. We report these even when they are worse than we hoped, because a sector that only publishes successes teaches nobody anything.
The community decides
Where a panchayat's priority is not something we fund, that is a legitimate answer. We do not substitute our own plan for a village's.
Do what only we can
There are better nutrition organisations than us. There are very few foundations that can put a working link into a flooded district in twelve hours. We lean into that.
Nobody is a photograph
We do not publish images or stories of the people we work with without informed, revocable consent, and never of a child in a way that identifies them.
Ask us which programme is performing worst.
We will answer, and tell you what we changed as a result. If an organisation cannot do that comfortably, do not fund it.
