Case Study: Hand in Hand, India

2.) Evaluate HiHs approach. What did it do differently from other organizations (and how)?

Basically HiH didn't want to just give some financial aid to India, without controling where the money
really goes and will it be spent in the best and most effective way, like some other organizations did.
They wanted to really try to solve the problem.

They identified the main points on which they have to work in order to really make a difference and
positive changes in this society, and they made a system. The first smart move was to hire an expert in
natural sciences Dr. Kalpana Sankar as its chief executive officer (CEO). A published author with a
doctoral degree in natural sciences from Stanford University, Sankar brought a wide range of
experience to the organization, including development expertise from the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). After an evaluation of HiHs approach, Sankar pinpointed the need
to expand HiHs services to attack the root cause of child labor, which she identified as the familys
necessity to generate additional income.

She quickly realised that it's not enough to tackle some issues, like child labor problems in isolation.
They needed a systematic approach to deal with the root of the problem. One problem never comes
alone, so they realised they also have problems with families which were struggling for basic needs.
There were also enviromental isuess, education issues and many other. The only way to really make an
impact in this country was to make a system and to make that system work for everyone, including
people in remote villages which were often excluded from healthcare, education and employment.

They didn't want just for HiH to be the best NGO, they wanted it to be the best company. 4 Keys to
success in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors, were hiring the right people, developing an
organization structure and processes to facilitate the interaction of functions within the organization,
and watching metrics closely. HiH Organizational Structure and Programs HiH was registered in India
as a public charitable trust. Its activities operated through the HiH Trust, which administered the
microfinance and child labor elimination initiatives, and the SEED (Skills and Environment
Education) Trust, which administered the Citizens Centers, environmental, and education initiatives.
Between these two trusts, HiH had 2,000 full-time staff members, 2,400 part-time employees, and
17,500 volunteers.5 HiHs vision was a world free of extreme poverty and child labor,6 which it
worked to achieve through improved education, employment, income generation opportunities, and
empowerment. Because of the multifaceted nature of poverty, HiH sought to implement its five main
program areas simultaneously, via an Integrated Community Development Project
3) Evaluate HiHs portfolio of products and services. What would you change? Are the various
services offered by the organization complementary?

First of all, the diversity of programs and services that HiH organization offers is what is different
from other organizations. Services that the organization complementare and depend on one another.

To assist the poorest and most marginalized groups in gaining access to improved healthcare, HiH
organized medical camps in villages. At these camps, women and children were examined, received
vaccinations and, if necessary, were transported to government hospitals. HiH also educated residents
on health issues such as HIV/AIDS, alcohol consumption, family planning, personal hygiene, and
nutrition

According to this portfolio of health services, we can conclude that the organization is not focused on
only one target group of population, but also on adults and young people of the population who are
faced with a lack of fulfillment of basic living needs.

As for the educational program, it is based on providing servers for the preparation of children who are
not enrolled for enrollment in government educational programs. HiH worked through a number of
programs, including transit schools, residential schools, creches (day care centers), and a child
sponsorship program. HiH was careful not to create parallel structures to the public school system, but
rather to identify and fill gaps by funding extra teachers, forming summer camps, and organizing
parent-teacher associations.

The third part of the services offered by this organization are services and programs related to the
environment, environmental initiatives.,the largest of which was a solid waste management project.
This project included household trash collection, segregation, transportation, and processing. Inorganic
waste components were sorted and sold to industry, and biodegradable waste was processed into
organic manure in vermin-composts and sold to farmers. Through the solid waste management project,
marginalized groups were offered employment opportunities at the same time that the local
environment in poor villages was improved and soils were rejuvenated.

In my opinion, this program could also be added to the afforestation program that would have the
same twofold effect as in the case of solid waste management.

The Civic Centers Program is focused on improving information and raising awareness about the
digital world (access to computers, computer courses, Internet).

This program could also include a foreign language learning program, which would further educate
and improve the awareness of the villagers and the rest of the population.
And last but not least, it is a macrofinancial program. Providing microcredit, business training,
mentoring for the formation of new businesses.

It should be concluded that all these programs are complementary and represent a chain of basic living
needs and problems faced by marginalized groups of population

4) Evaluate HiHs goal of making all five of its main programs sustainable by 2010. Given the
organizations development mission, is this an appropriate goal? Are some programs more appropriate
targets for sustainability than others?

The organization's holistic approach included five inter-related initiatives that spanned education,
Citizens' Centers, health, the environment, and microfinance. Given the organization's development
mission, that they were providing the individualized development, services that had helped driving the
organization's growth, this wasn't an appropriate goal because of many reasons. Just scaling, in order
to reach more people and make the organization sustainable within a year, gets on quantity, but loses a
quality of services. They lose on everything that was an advantage before, for example by charging
higher interest rates, increasing loan sizes, or billing clients for business training or mentoring
services, that had traditionally been provided for free. Some programs were more appropriate targets
for sustainability than others. For example, microfinance was Hand in Hand's largest program, that
reached over 300,000 women, and had a goal of developing over 1 million jobs by 2010. Another
program that was more appropriate than others was Citizens Centers, that were usually run by self-
help group (SHG) members, and funded through microcredit provided by HiH. Between those two
trusts, HiH had 2000 full-time staff members, 2400 part time employees, and 17.500 volunteers.

5). What are the advantages and disadvantages of the various sources of funding available to Hand in
Hand (e.g., equity investment, loan collateralization, charitable contributions)?

Donor contributions could make the centers free, but using the microcredit system is better because it
creates more ownership of the establishment among community members. Loan collaterization had
many advantages, as a source of funding available to Hand in Hand because poor people had many
barriers that prevented them to accessing formal financial institutions, and, by eliminating them, by
organizing SHG's, as a mechanism for servicing loans, they could more efficiently pass the problems,
as cost of monitoring lack of collateral etc. Non banking financial companies (NBFC) was prevented
from taking donor funding, but it could accept equity investments. Equity financing doesn't have fixed
payment, requirements, so investments do not increase company's fixed costs, and dividends could be
directed for business oportunities and operating requirements. They don't requiere a pledge of
collateral and it can be long term, because investors are focused on future earnings. Disadvantages are
that profits, business growth or dividends are not guaranteed for investors, business form
requirements. Charitable contributions have many advantages, as not paying income/coorporation
taxes, it's an easy way to raise fund from the public, they can reclaim gift aids, they can obtain
informations. Disadvantages are that they must have exclusively charitable purposes, that they have
strict rules, and that trusts need to avoid any situation where charitable and personal interests conflict.