Project 1% as the name suggests includes each of us pledging 1%.  We pledge 1% of our incomes, time and energy to helping worthy causes.. because we believe that small things can often be the big things. We meet virtually monthly to channel the resources to a partner of our choice. That’s it!  (Perhaps, our favorite part of project 1% is  how easy it is to explain)

The logistics:

• People: A few of friends got together to share 1% of our income. We are close to 15 of us, but our active population is a bit lower.
• Charities : We chose a few charities we ll donate to (see Charity choice) & the cause within the charity to fund. This took a few iterations and may change further. Roughly we plan donate up to 2000 USD per charity per year.
• Funds: We collect some funds centrally (we have a central bank account) and others are transferred directly to the charity. Check country specific logistics to ensure everything is done legally. The transfers are done either quarterly or annually – fewer transactions means lighter logistics.
• Reporting: We meet the charity virtually via skype/hangout call & have a fun conversation with them periodically. This is the only form of reporting we like.
• The process is fairly simple. At this point – I coordinate the logistics, but we’ve been taking turns based on personal workloads.

How we chose our partners:

• We were certain that we wanted to support charities that helped underserved children. This narrowed our scope a bit – but then we reached out to charities (through network, google searches & cold calls).
• When a charity piqued our interest, we spent some time talking to them and understanding their work. When possible we also tried to meet them in person. We wanted to ensure that a long standing relationship could be sustained virtually.
• We also went for a variety of charities as opposed to concentrating on just one. This we believed would help us learn more about making a difference.
• Given the small size of our donations – we chose to help charities that are currently on their growth phase.

The partners we donate to:

• SOS Children’s’ Village: a year’s education for a child
• Project Khel: Sports based life-skills course for 50 children
• Vidyarambam: English classes for 40 kids in Chennai (Shweta’s observations)
•  Bridging the Gaps (partially sponsored) – a sport-art camp for 120 underprivileged kids to learn about leadership, gender equality and many other things. (My observations on transforming lives)

This goes across our donation philosophy. Read more here.

Why this is awesome?

• It’s a constant reminder that we have a responsibility to share
• It’s super light weight, yet a constant source of inspiration
• It’s a great way to stay in touch with friends

What can you do?

• As you can see – this is simple. Happy for you to take this along and run with it your group of friends. Reach out to team@help2grow.org or vikram@help2grow.org and we’ll be happy to help.
• If you would like to join us – we need to be sure that you get comfortable with us. As you can see, we run based on each of us trusting each charity partner. We do this because we want to share, not to be commercial (at least not yet). At this point, due to legal reasons we can also only work with you if you have an Indian bank account.
• Want to take this idea & expand it. Please go for it J Let us know if we can help.

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Crossposted on Help2Grow’s blog here.