My Nonprofit Reviews
Mani
Review for Asha for Education, Los Angeles, CA, USA
I am a retired University Professor. Prior to retirement I had decided to devote good deal of my retirement life to empowering less fortunate poor children of India through education since many had helped me get to where I am today. Then my wife (also a retired professor) and I discovered Asha a couple of years ago. It is a wonderful organization just the right fit for us. I saw first hand some projects in Tamil Nadu last year and knew then this is what I wanted to do.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
It is a wonderful experience to be involved with others who are like minded. It is an extraordinary feeling to know that you are helping some poor children you have not even seen with their education. The dedication of others energizes you!
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
Assign well defined responsibilities to select volunteers. Insure office holders are responsible to the coordinator. Establish an administrative chart of some kind for efficient functioning at the chapter level.
What I've enjoyed the most about my experience with this nonprofit is...
That all resources go to the projects involved. Meeting different Asha volunteers has been very energizing.
The kinds of staff and volunteers that I met were...
There is no staff. Mostly student volunteers. Some are dedicated and some others simply wandered in and out.
If this organization had 10 million bucks, it could...
change the lives of quite a few unfortunate children by giving them better schools and children.
Ways to make it better...
In an "all volunteer" organization efficiency suffers since no volunteer is answerable to any one! A solid semi-permanent core would help. In some sense we need a small administrative vertical component instead of all flat.
In my opinion, the biggest challenges facing this organization are...
Permanency of volunteer base of students. I expect a substantial number of volunteers to move away from Asha once they cease to be students. It will be difficult to run any organization with a large turnover.
One thing I'd also say is that...
Inspite of some of my misgivings, the fact Asha has been around for 18 years and raised more than $18m is very compelling. Majority of people must be doing things right!!
How frequently have you been involved with the organization?
About every week
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2009
