Fellowship: Sanju Kumar
Samrudhi Microfinance Society
wecareindia.org
Abhinaya Narayanan, Sapan Agarwal
Devdatta
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 Date
Started 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.
Original Budget
Payment gateway, Hosting and SSL costs reduced and so budget
reduced to $5720
Immediate Budget
Payment Gateway Setup
Rs.40,000
Rs. 40000 (we negotiated for this and finalized for
Net Banking, Credit Card & Debit Card)
Hosting (VPS)
Rs.45,000*
Hosting in VPS environment
Development
Rs.35,000
We have already paid Rs.35k upfront as a token of
advance to developers.
Total (INR) Rs. 1,20,000.00
Total US$ 2660.00
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