There were two clear design approaches. One – adopt an area and try to drive change in all aspects. Two – support existing initiatives and intervene to help address challenges that impede their success or scale. Obviously the third approach is to do both. We consciously chose to support current initiatives because there is a lot of good work already being done by self help groups, NGOs, the government, as well as public and private sectors. Project owners bring a unique passion and commitment to the causes they have taken up. In overcoming barriers they come up against, there is enormous opportunity to quickly extend the social impact they make possible.
Our experience from projects within a domain cluster, will be extended to other projects, helping surer design through delivery and course corrections.
The seven current project clusters are in the areas of Leadership Capacity Building ; Farm-to-Fabric (organic khadi) ; Farm-to-Table (organic foods) ; Scientific Agricultural Training ; Education ; Community Health ; and Grass roots Relief. Across C1 through C7 in the LO are seven holistic living dimensions spanning education ; vocational training ; lifeskills ; community integration ; health & nutrition ; livelihood ; and recreation & wellbeing. The current projects housed within clusters directly help build working models in some of these areas, while in others, there are indirect linkages. Over time every brick in the LO will be represented by specific projects. The LO framework provides a big picture view of need-gaps to be addressed.
Inception funding of Mission Samriddhi is from Polaris Foundation & AAUM Trust, a family trust of the Arun and Manju Jain and their two children Arushi and Uday. The initial corpus is being used to extend grants and loans to projects onboarded aligned with relevant interventions to enable their growth and sustainability plans. In the individual capacity, Mission Samriddhi members have made contributions to specific projects as well. Over time Mission Samriddhi will receive funding from Individual and Corporate donors seeking to contribute to holistic community development in general, and in some cases to specific programmes. Donors will be reassured that their financial support is being well utilised and that governance and ethics frameworks are in place. As and when Mission Samriddhi market place (The Goods Train) is launched, 80% of revenues from sales from this e-commerce platform will be ploughed back to creating a recurring revenue stream.
There are some major heads that require fund flows : project support ; honorarium to council members ; marketing ; administration expenses ; and capital expenditure. Donors will be made aware of fund utilisation requirements and will be given a choice as to where their contribution can be leveraged.
Funding will be managed by the Trustees Council (refer organisation structure) that comprises the AUMM Foundation ; Institutional Donors ; Private Donors ; Trusts, Foundations and Grants, Fund Management and Programme Panel. The list of donors will be updated subsequently on this page subject to their willingness to be publicly acknowledged.
Implicit in the 8 design pivots described earlier on this site is ‘implicit trust’. This is measured good faith backed by sensible protocols that qualify projects for support, from on-boarding and review of proposals, through periodic progress reviews and social impact tracking. Project nomination requires the support of three council members. Review of the the project as-is and the proposal for support is considered by the Project Council and the Business Plan, Technical, and Incubation panels.
Mission Samriddhi celebrates the good work already initiated by individuals and organisations seeking to make a powerful and positive impact in their chosen field. In some cases the project owners need strategic intervention to sustain or grow their efforts. In others, they are not looking to scale, but instead want to contribute to and learn from a learning network of like-minded people.
The overarching LO describes the vast space and the brick-level composition of areas where projects can influence development. This is our canvas. However, our initial focus will be in the seven current project clusters and expanding their geographical reach. This will help us leverage learning from current projects into similar projects in other regions, and build a community of domain experts, and an ecosystem that evolves faster and stronger together.
Constituent panels within the Project Council (Proposal Submission & Review ; Business Plan Evaluation ; Technical Evaluation ; Procurement ; Incubation ; Business Monitoring ; Social Impact Assessment ; Integration) work with Project leads to work on projects from onboarding through their ongoing support. Each panel essentially describes key elements of the guiding and monitoring process. Once a quarter Mission Samriddhi Summits are an opportunity for projects to showcase their work. Project-specific progress is monitored individually and in collaboration with other councils in the organisation structure (Advisory ; Trustees ; NGO/SHG ; Marketing Federation) and the secretariat. The rigour of project reviews and documentation ensures transparent records of actions, learnings, decisions and planned milestones.
The UN-inspired matrixed organisation structure draws in resources to support projects at key process stages. Very early into the evolution of this young organisation, it became clear we should not attempt to re-invent what projects are already skilled at. Instead, the organisation structure should provide them the support required while setting in place a larger eco-system that draws on external expertise and directional wisdom.
Each of the seven project clusters currently activated are populated by numbered projects. These projects have their own leaders. The rest of the organisation is an active resource that rallies around these projects, providing inputs required at an elemental level. Working in small teams of 3 – 6 people to address challenges, the necessary agility is built into our operating system.
Further resource mobilisation is required to support some of the role definitions in the organisation structure. This process is underway. While Mission Samriddhi must remain a lean organisation, more skilled team members (permanent ; task-specific ; consultative) will come on board to drive the growing number of projects we choose to support within each cluster.
Its easy to get caught up in a circle of disappointment, accusations and distrust. The premise of Mission Samriddhi is that we will build on the good work people are doing. And there is good work being done by NGOs, individuals in their private capacity, the government (at central, regional and local levels), and the private sector. Through the projects we support, we will celebrate and focus on the good.
We have no agenda other than to seek ways to improve the impact of the projects we support, and to grow our understanding of how we can contribute to holistic community development. This is our journey. It will be a long journey and undoubtedly face several hurdles along the way. UnMukt thinking teaches we conquer the five frictional forces of Doubt, Ego, Conflict, Anger, and Fear. We must nurture the five forces of growth – Skill, Experience, Perspective, Idea and Alignment. And on a third dimension the three potentially draining elements we must watch out for are Vulnerability, Appreciation and Limiting Beliefs. Design for holistic community development begins with preparing the design mind. Sign up for UnMukt sessions conducted by the School of Design Thinking to learn more!
Intellect Design Arena and the Polaris Foundation are founding associates. Other associates include Industry bodies, Project enterprises (refer project clusters) and related NGOs, Central / State government / local administration associations related to project planning and implementation. Private sector participation is also associated with specific projects. A detailed list of participant organisations will be updated subsequently on this page.
The long term ambition of Mission Samriddhi is to have made a positive impact on holistic community development through the development of working models demonstrated in projects within project clusters. These working models will be scalable and provide clear indicators for design-through-deployment, along with integrators to plug into a large learning grid that encourages growth through transparent sharing of information and connecting the dots.
To begin with, ambitions will be individual project goals focussed. At the next stage, goals will involve extending project learnings to other projects in the same domain in other regions. In the foreseeable future it might not be possible to populate each and every cell described in the LO with active projects. Our long term commitment to holistic community development will see us get there in time.
Some projects will require near term support, others will require extended support. Once plugged into the larger Mission Samriddhi, all participants are a valuable resource who can contribute to the greater good.
The extreme step of withdrawal of committed support or disassociating from a particular project will be the direct result of breach of faith or impropriety of any sort. There is always the unfortunate possibility that people we associate with do not conduct themselves as we thought they would, and do not behave as per the agreed charter of governance and ethics. Review of such situations and decisions to sever association will be quick and the decision communicated as relevant. Project leads, Council heads and the Secretariat will be involved and kept informed. Proceedings will be documented for future reference.
Mission Samriddhi provides exciting career opportunities. Take a look at the current project clusters and the specific projects listed within each. Each project is in effect a start up incubation enterprise that requires full lifecycle support. You will find that in most cases, growth is only limited by the human capital available to actively steer achieved ambitions to reality. Mail info@missionsamriddhi.org to introduce yourself and share why you you think you can make a difference to Mission Samriddhi. Find out more about full time, part time, and voluntary contribution opportunities.
Donations to Mission Samriddhi are tax exempt under Section 80G and sub section 80GGA. Before donations are accepted, donors will be invited for a discussion on Mission Samriddhi and a review of our guiding design principles. Donors can chose to contribute to the general corpus (where we provide clear indicators on fund usage allocations), or towards specific projects. Donors will be requested to allow public recognition of their contribution to encourage others to participate as well, and will also be provided to option of anonymity.
Contributions to the concept of Mission Samriddhi can come in many forms. You can contribute with expertise and skills ; support a listed project we are currently working with; suggest projects we can support (within the LO frame, and more immediately within listed project clusters) ; connect us with others involved in similar areas ; provide financial support ; join fund raising efforts ; apply to join the team in a full / part time / volunteer capacity.
Given the scope of our vision, there are many ways in which like-minded people can associate with Mission Samriddhi You might approach us with some thoughts about how you’d like to be involved. You might on the other hand, share your strengths with us, and leave it us to see how best to engage with you. The first step is to reach out and say you’d like to be a part of this initiative!
The general secretary, core council, and council heads govern the overall Mission Samriddhi (refer the organisation chart). Project leads associated with particular projects work with the various panels in the project council on project level governance.
In the near term, social impact measures will be in the context of success of individual projects we are supporting. Over time, we will seek to extend the sphere of influence over many more of the elemental bricks in the LO that support holistic community development.
Across the various projects, we will actively track the following success measures : Individual project milestones achieved ; Continued social impact ; Scale ; Replicability and growth of verticals ; Team development ; Growth in participation ; New project onboarding.