All grant documents and other supporting documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia/
NVIDIA Foundation
High Impact Grant Program
Guidelines and Application
Name of Organization
Name of employee(s) that is referring and position
(donor, volunteer, board member, etc.)
Asha for Education, Silicon Valley Chapter
Shalabh Saxena, Volunteer
Non-profit organizations throughout the world have an opportunity to receive a $30,000 grant from the NVIDIA
Foundation. Applicants must demonstrate that the grant will be used to make a transformative and lasting impact
on the lives of the people they serve, either directly through a program or through improvement of an existing
process.
Please note, only organizations referred by NVIDIA employees will be considered for this program.
Organizations must have a current tax-deductible status from the Internal Revenue Service under Section
501(c)(3) or proof of fiscal sponsorship with a 501(c)(3) designation (for US-based charities) or comparable status
(for international charities).
Areas of Focus
We’ll consider applications from organizations that are focused on education, youth programs, health and human
services, the environment, art, health/medical research, or animal services. NVIDIA Foundation does not provide
funding for:
 Religious organizations (unless they can prove the program serves a secular audience)

Political organizations

Military organizations (programs for veterans who are home are accepted)

Organizations that discriminate based on sex, race, religion, disabilities, or political views

Capital campaigns or funding that will be used for improvements to facilities
Contact Info
Application questions:
Patti Pace, Corporate Philanthropy Manager, Business Services
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Tel: 650.450.5488 | papace@siliconvalleycf.org
Submit proposal to:
Rajani Gudlavalleti, NVIDIA Foundation
c/o Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Tel: 650.450.5538 | rgudlavalleti@siliconvalleycf.org
All grant documents and other supporting documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia/
Grant Application Process/Deadlines
 May 1 – June 1 - Submit your application (deadline: June 1, 2009, 5:00pm PST)
 June 2 – July 20 - NVIDIA Foundation nominating committee will narrow the applicants to a list of 10
finalists.
 July 20 - 27 - Employees will vote from among the finalists.
 August 6 – Grant recipients announced.
Submission Guidelines
In addition to answering the questions, please include with your application:
 Organization’s annual budget for the current year

Program budget (if request is for program), including how funds will be used (please provide additional
written detail on any budget items over $1,000, such as computers)

Most recent audited financial report. Include most recently completed fiscal year’s actual revenue and
expenses (un-audited) if not included in the most recent audit. If your organization does not have an
audit, include your Statement of Activities (Revenue and Expenses) and your Statement of Financial
Position (Assets and Liabilities).

Organization’s non-discrimination policy.

Proof of 501c3 status or proof of fiscal sponsorship with a 501(c)(3) designation (if US-based
organization).
Additional Guidelines







Please do not alter the application, or delete any of this application text to make more space for your text.
This Word document should be no longer than six pages when you submit it. The first two pages are
rd
instructional, the 3 is for Organization Information, and an additional three can be used to answer the
questions.
You may refer to optional supporting material, including photographs or videos, which add substantive
value to your application. These can be submitted as a link to a web site (preferred) or as an attachment
to your email.
The programs that are typically funded use the space that is given to them in this document, and take the
effort to tell a story about the problem and the impact their services provide. It is difficult to have a positive
feeling about an organization when it provides only one or two sentences as an answer to a question.
Please keep your total submission to no more than 5 megabytes. In an effort to decrease paper usage,
only electronic submissions will be considered.
Incomplete submissions will not be considered.
If your grant is accepted: We will require a brief mid-point report on your project, approximately 6 months
after the receipt of grant, and a final assessment once the program concludes.
General Guidelines
 You may only apply once in a 24 month period if your program is funded.

You may apply each year if your program is not funded.

Grants may be used for multi-year commitments.
Thank you for your application.
All grant documents and other supporting documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia/
ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
Organization Name and Address
Organization Web Site Address
Asha for Education
Silicon Valley Chapter
P.O Box 641741
San Jose, CA 95164-1741
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/
Full Contact Name and Title
Roopa T (Project Steward)
Shabbir Ghadiali (Project Steward)
Contact Telephone Number
Year Organization Founded
Roopa T Ph: 512-699-7154
Shabbir Ghadiali Ph: 425-698-9080
roopa.t.nath@gmail.com
shabbirag@gmail.com
Asha for Education (AfE): 1991, Asha for Education-Silicon Valley chapter (AfE-SV): 1998
Tax ID Number (if applicable)
77-0459884 [exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code]
Organization Mission Statement
Mission: To catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged
children.
Objectives:
1. To provide education to underprivileged children in India.
2. To encourage the formation of various local groups across the world to reach out to larger
sections of the population.
3. To support and cooperate with persons and groups already engaged in similar activities.
4. To raise the required human and other resources to achieve the group objectives.
5. To provide opportunities to individuals living outside India who wish to participate in Asha
activities in India.
6. To address, whenever possible, other issues affecting human life such as health care,
environment, socio-economic aspects and women's issues.
AfE-SV – the Silicon Valley chapter of Asha for Education is driven by passionate volunteers
who identify, raise/disburse funds to, and monitor/evaluate deserving projects from all
regions of India. AfE-SV supports 42 projects, in 13 states in India, touching over 450,000
people including children, in more than 3000 communities.
The project for which the funding is being requested is situated in a rural region of the Indian
North-Eastern state of Assam. The activities of this project are spread across 11 villages in the
Bodo region of Tamulpur, in Baksa district. The region has faced extreme neglect in terms of
development programs, and the political, social, as well as economic situation is further
exacerbated by incessant insurgency.
Asha Darshan http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=284 The project has 3
components: Educational Centers, Self Help Groups (SHGs) for women, and Mahila Shanti
Sena (Women Peace Corps).
The project manages 11 schools (including pre-primary, primary and middle schools) spread
across as many villages. The SHGs save money in small installments at nationalized banks in
the area, and in turn receive micro-credit loans to support their economic/entrepreneurial
ventures. The Mahila Shanti Sena, started to mitigate violence due to insurgency in the area,
also educates/empowers women on issues including domestic violence, health, family
planning and HIV awareness.
The project provides education through the 11 schools to about 1400 children and monitors
414 SHGs consisting of 6210 village women. The Mahila Shanti Sena centers have 300 active
members and their activities directly affect communities in 60 villages in the region.
Existing program. AfE-SV has been supporting this project since 2000
Contact Email Address
Number of people served by your
organization
Region where you are requesting
funding (answer only if the funding
will be used in a region different from
where your organization is located)
Name of program or project for
which you are requesting funding
Brief description of the program
Number of people served by the
program
Is this a new or existing program?
All grant documents and other supporting documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia/
1. Describe the problem your program is addressing, the goals of your program and specifically how
your program will address the problem(s).
Asha Darshan is located in a region with minimal employment opportunities which has led to migration of men folk to other
neighboring regions or even Bhutan and other far-flung areas for employment. The violence due to insurgency has prevented
women from travelling to find jobs. At the beginning of the project in 1998, development in this region was minimal and
basic necessities were hardly accessible to the population although the region was rich in natural resources. Insurgent groups,
mostly external have been tapping on the frustration of the local population to create violent disturbances, many times
recruiting local children in their activities. The goals of the project are to provide basic education to children to help them
become socially responsible citizens, create employment opportunities for women, mitigate insurgency driven violence and
engage the population in constructive activities. The fundamental goal of the project is to work with the people to create
awareness about their rights as citizens of the country and of non-violent ways of fighting for those rights.
To achieve these goals, Asha Darshan was started in 2000 and has since focused on creating SHGs for women,
vocational training for women and youth, schools for children and the Mahila Shanti Sena. Prior to this, the villages around
the area either had non-functional schools or no schools at all. The children were required to walk long distances to available
schools, because of which parents were reluctant to send their young children to schools. The non-school going children were
either forced into child labor or, sometimes, easily misled into joining violent activities influenced by insurgent groups. Asha
Darshan recognized this problem and started schools in the area. Earlier, employment opportunities for women were nonexistent and they were unable to travel to other areas for work due to the violence. The SHGs provide a platform for
organizing the rural women and to help them save small amounts of money per month. The credibility provided by being part
of such a system enable the women to access loans from nationalized banks to start small but profitable economic ventures.
The Mahila Shanti Sena addresses socio-economic issues of the village women, including insurgency driven violence,
domestic abuse, dowry, health and nutritional awareness, HIV-AIDS awareness, family planning, fight against alcohol etc.
There are now 11 schools, 414 SHGs and 100 Mahila Shanti Sena spread around 60 villages in Baksa district.
Furthermore, the area is strife with malaria, which is a deadly disease if not treated immediately and effectively.
Malaria has led to the death of many children in the area and the problem is severely compounded by the lack of government
hospitals and medicines. Asha Darshan has been active in educating the population for malaria prevention and has been
involved in distributing mosquito nets to families in the area. They have also been active in malaria detection and distribution
of medicine to tackle the disease.
 Please see video for a summary of Asha Darshan [http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/AshaDarshan_AfE.wmv]
2. Tell us about the team/person that will execute and support this program/organization, and their
qualifications.
The Asha Darshan team led by Ms. Biju Borbaruah consists of a total of 15 dedicated staff all working with the organization
and monitoring all the schools, SHGs and Mahila Shanti Sena.
Biju has worked with Rural Volunteers Center for a year and later with Tamulpur Anchalik Gramdaan Sangh
(TAGS). Tamulpur had become a Gramdaan block (donation of village land for community) influenced by Vinoba Bhave’s
Bhoodaan and Gramdaan movements. TAGS was established under the leadership of Padmashree Rabindranath Upadhyaya,
a Gandhian, to manage the community agricultural land. He also started the Shanthi Sena to address socio-economic
problems in the region of Kumarikata, Tamulpur, during the 1962 Indo-China war.
Biju, influenced by the work TAGS and Shanthi Sena was doing in the region, and determined to support the women
of the community, started the Mahila Shanthi Sena in 1998. Although advised not to travel to remote villages and forest
areas, Biju traveled extensively and influenced the community to join forces and started the SHGs after overcoming initial
mistrust (people suspected that she may be from the police/army). She identified the severe lack of schools in the region and
decided to start schools in 2000, for which she approached AfE-SV for funds, thereby starting our collaboration with them.
Biju advises different Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations in identifying areas to work with and trains
developmental workers in the region.
3. Please explain what the grant money will be used for (be specific). Also, indicate the number of
people that will be served with the grant.
The NVIDIA grant money will be used to fund developmental activities of Asha Darshan in 6 villages in the region of
Tamulpur, Baksa district. The activities include managing a total of 5 schools (attended by 389 children in total), 81 SHGs
(with 1215 rural women as members) and the Mahila Shanti Sena (of about 50 women in total) in the villages of Namati,
Garughutu, Singramari, Hajongbasti, Anthaibari and Devinagar. The populations in all these villages will directly benefit
from the NVIDIA grant. Specifically, the grant will cover the salaries of 14 teachers, mid day meal expenses and educational
expenses for the 5 schools in these villages. The grant will cover salaries for 6 Asha Darshan staff that monitor the schools,
SHGs, Mahila Shanti Sena, and also the health care and other developmental activities in these villages.
All grant documents and other supporting documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia/
4. How will the grant have a transformative effect on the people served by your program or
organization? What will be different for them as a result of the grant? How will this program create
long-term benefits that go beyond the immediate provision of services, for instance through enabling
self-sufficiency of those served when possible?
As referred to earlier Asha Darshan is situated in a rural region of Assam with very little developmental activities and much
insurgency caused by governmental neglect and frustrated population. For these reasons the area needs immediate attention
and support from developmental workers, NGOs, activists and funding organizations. The NVIDIA grant to Asha Darshan
would make it possible for AfE-SV to continue to fund this rapidly growing project. The budget requirement for the project
has increased almost exponentially since its inception in 2000. AfE-SV has persistently funded the project given the
importance of such an intervention in the area. The NVIDIA grant would substantially increase the credibility of this project
and would encourage the project to apply to other international agencies for funds.
Asha Darshan has been able to improve the living conditions of the people in a short time. Their programs have
motivated the members to educate their children, create jobs for themselves and increased the morale of the community.
Women have used the SHGs to start their own economic ventures like poultry, selling vegetables, mushroom farming, goat
rearing, pig rearing, fishery, weaving, purchasing thela (a push cart used to sell/transport vegetable, grains, water, etc.), etc.
Some groups have been involved in running weaving sheds and farming also. This has greatly improved the self-sufficiency
and the success would continue to encourage more rural women to come out and start their own economic ventures. The
project has therefore organized the women and made it possible for them to find means to be economically independent. The
empowerment of women would enable them to take decisions and better control their own lives and define their children’s
future. This is fundamental for the existence of any stable society with no inequalities.
It’s easy to see the long term benefits of educating children in this region. Engaging children in constructive
activities and educating them now would prevent their recruitment into insurgent activities later. It would also help create
employment opportunities, which are now altogether unavailable to the children when they are grown up. These activities of
Asha Darshan promise and have the potential to change the socio-economic conditions of this region entirely.
5. Do you believe your program can be replicated in other cities, regions or countries? If you plan to
replicate the program, how will you do so?
The structure of Asha Darshan can definitely be replicated in other such rural regions of India and even other
countries. The project addresses basic issues of the rural region in a very holistic and thoughtful manner, by encouraging the
community to participate in the developmental activities and empowering them to fight for themselves. A motivated group of
activists could replicate the same structure in other rural areas.
Asha Darshan itself has no intention of replicating in other areas of Assam or North-Eastern India since it does not
have the required bandwidth in terms of available staff and logistics. Also, AfE-SV as an organization with its limited funds,
would be unable to support multiple such high budget projects.
6. Please describe both the qualitative and quantitative success metrics of this program (be specific).
What experience have you had in the past with this or a similar program?
The progress of the project and its impact has been monitored by AfE-SV for almost 8years now. We have seen
tremendous increase, from almost zero to about 1400, in the number of school going children since 2000. This has been
mainly due the work of Biju and Asha Darshan staff who have positively and effectively influenced upon the community, the
importance of education/literacy. The mid day meal program which was introduced in the year 2006 increased attendance in
the schools and reduced drop-out rates, besides of course providing a nutritious meal to the children whose parents may not
be able to afford the same on a regular basis. This program has been widely successful and one school has been taken over by
the local community, while two schools are now run by the Government (under the Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan scheme).
The number of women participating in the SHGs has also steadily increased. Since the program started in 1998, a
total of 6210 women have organized themselves into 414 SHGs in 60 villages. The women are convinced about the benefits
of such groups and have been saving small sums of money with their groups for many years now. The savings have steadily
increased enabling the women to have financial security for emergencies. About 100 SHGs have been able to take small
loans with low interest rates, from local nationalized banks, which was not possible without the SHG backing. They have
been using this for economic ventures, health issues or other emergencies. This has prevented local money lenders from
fleecing the rural women of their money by demanding very high interest rates. This micro-finance system has become very
successful and popular, such that the men folk in the region too want to be part of the SHG network.
The Mahila Shanti Sena, now with 300 members, has also grown to have a big influence on the population in the
region. The peace marches conducted by the Mahila Shanti Sena members has been an extremely effective method of curbing
violence in the area. The village women encouraged by Mahila Shanti Sena have fought domestic violence and have been
able to curb it effectively. The Mahila Shanti Sena members have been able to stop sale of alcohol in few villages and find
All grant documents and other supporting documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia/
alternate jobs for previous alcohol shop owners. They have also been very active in educating the community on the using
RTI (Right to Information Act of the Indian Government). This has led to many women filing RTI applications with the local
government and even getting clarifications from the government in a few cases. This has enabled the community to tackle
corruption and inspired them to fight for themselves through non-violent means.
7. Will you be collaborating with other organizations or agencies on this program? Who are your
collaborators, and how will this be accomplished?
AfE-SV is not directly collaborating with any other organization on this project. However, our project Asha Darshan has
received funds from many organizations including Association for India’s Development (AID: for vocational training),
Department of Science and technology (DST - Govt. of India). DST has recently provided a grant of Rs.19lakhs ($38k)
towards buying new modern looms which will be used for vocational training of at least 100 women in the immediate future
and manufacturing of textiles for marketing.
Asha Darshan has a very influential presence in the North-Eastern states of India and collaborates with other
developmental and women’s projects. Asha Darshan is one of the biggest such developmental projects in the North-Eastern
region and the team regularly visits other projects and provides inputs that help their work. Also, members of other projects
visit Asha Darshan for training in specific activities like forming SHGs.
8. Do you need additional funding beyond NVIDIA’s donation to accomplish what you have described
above? If so, how much and how do you intend to obtain this funding?
AfE-SV is looking to support a budget of $94,000 for this financial year for Asha Darshan. The requirement is therefore
$64,000 in excess of the NVIDIA donation. AfE-SV has been running a highly successful marathon program for many years
now which has been our main source of funds to support all our projects, and is confident of raising the rest of the funds
through that or similar mechanisms.
9. How sustainable is this program both financially and with regards to staffing? Can this project
continue after the initial funding from the NVIDIA Foundation has been used?
The SHG part of Asha Darshan is quite self-sustained. The financial support required is to provide salaries for the primary
monitoring staff only. The project is attempting to move towards a model so providing these salaries from the local SHGs
themselves. This is still early days of this attempt, and may require some time before this goal is achieved. Regarding the
schools, Asha Darshan has been pro-active in trying to get the local government and Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan to fund the
educational expenses, mid day meal program and also completely take over the schools. The project has been successful with
the government taking over two schools, after observing that the schools were running very efficiently. The communities in
the villages have also stepped up to support the schools and have even taken over one school. The villagers have helped with
construction of most of the school buildings by supplying materials and even contributing labor. The community also
contributes a small sum of money when possible apart from donating rice and other small items.
AfE-SV will continue to support the project and will also work towards securing other grants for the project in the
coming years. We are also hopeful that with time the government will take over all the schools, which is the biggest
component in terms of funds required. Biju has been working with the government to achieve this, although one has to
approach this problem carefully given the insurgency issue. She has also been trying to work with the Bodo Territorial
Council which has recently taken up the governance of Baksa district.
10. Please ask the NVIDIA employee that is referring you to provide a brief (4 – 5 sentences max)
explanation as to why they believe your organization should be considered for funding. This is
optional but submissions that feature a thoughtful referral will be more highly scored.
Asha for Education, is a non-profit, volunteer driven organization dedicated to bring socio-economic change in India. While
most efforts are focused around the education of underprivileged children they also work on holistic solutions for
communities. Asha is an apolitical and secular organization and strictly works only with like-minded organizations. Asha is a
non-hierarchical, fully volunteer driven organization and everyone who is interested in contributing towards the
underprivileged is welcome to participate in their activities and decisions as equals. Asha Silicon Valley is a zero-overhead
organization and every dollar received as a donation goes directly to the projects in India. This is a very rare scenario in the
world of 501(c)3 non-profits. Asha’s interpretation of education is broader than the strict sense of literacy and they work on
skills that help children and individuals stand on their own feet and earn a livelihood as well as lead a wholesome life as
socially responsible citizens. Asha carefully scrutinizes its projects and monitors/evaluates them by personal site visits at
least once a year.
Many supporting documents/links along with the grant documents are all online at:
http:/www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/grants/nvidia
Please peruse those to learn more about Asha Darshan.