Making a difference

I am proud to share with you that we have raised रु3,17,521.00/$7,021.69 in one time contributions and a total of रु5,33,521.00/$11,798.34 that includes ongoing commitments.

Next steps:
While there have been many causes that accompanied your pledges, the common theme appears to be education. Let us spend the next 3 months refining the ideas so by April 30th, we have defined how we are going to spend the money we have raised, including specifics about how money will be collected and distributed, the selection criteria etc.

Additional participants:
We continue to grow with Anu Srinivasan joining us.

Increasing pledges

1. We have another friend Asha Suresh, who joins our endeavors. Thrilled to have have more on board (Thanks Manimala!).

2. Your generosity continues to be touching. Here are the numbers.

Pledges from 12 so far
Total pledges including ongoing commitments = रु4,80,911.00/$10,634.91
Of the total, the 1 time pledges = रु2,64,911.00/$5,858.27

generosity in action

- 9 pledges in 3 currencies
- Without factoring in Rajiv and Murali's pledges as I am not sure how we add an ongoing commitment with a 1time donation that rest of us have made (not to mention I have no clue what a kids tuition and books cost), we have so far raised;

रु 223,735.00

or

$4,947.70

Pledge reminder

When I last wrote on Dec 5th, I had requested that we consider Jan 30th, 2011 as our pledge deadline. This is the day by when you want to let us know how much you will contribute towards a philanthropic cause of your choosing. You DO NOT need to contribute till sometime in the spring/summer of 2012, but certainly by Jan 30 should indicate your pledge amount. At this time some of you have emailed your pledge amounts and cause to me and I appreciate that. I look forward to everyone's pledges by Jan 30.

If for some reason you need more time, certainly take it but please do but let me know.

Some material updates;
1. Thanks to Soumitri we found that recently a group of our seniors has a reunion in Mysore. They met at Metropole and the buffet cost Rs 300/person. I believe this could be an option for us.
2. Srinivas C has been doing some diligence in to how we collect monies and distribute them while ensuring there is total transparency and ownership by this group. I am sure we will additional details soon.

In addition there were a few questions some of you posed to me that I believe we should collectively answer.

1. Should pledge amounts be kept secret or should they be shared with the team?
My take - Share with the team. Transparency is going to be the key to our success.

2. Should pledge amounts include the cost of get-together?
My take - Philanthropy and celebrations money should be separate. Reason is we do not know the total guests at this time and it would not be fair to our cause to reduce philanthropic contributions.

A growing endeavor

Our effort continues to find new supporters. Apart from Rajiv who joined us earlier in the week, Madhu MD and Srinivas M have also joined us. We are now up to 23...very encouraging.

It has been almost 6 months since we last communicated on the subject of the 25th anniversary celebration. A few of you have asked me what was going on and so I wanted to write to keep our effort alive but also encourage everyone to think about your contribution sums as the year ends. So when the new year comes we can add up all our pledges and see what the total looks like which should drive our choice of idea(s). Please consider Jan 30th as a pledge deadline. This is not a date for you to actually pay since those modalities have yet to be worked out but just a date for you to pledge how much you intend to donate to the cause.

Also please continue to reach out to our other friends and encourage them to join us.

3 more of our classmates join the effort: Gargi, Madhu KR and Ajith. Welcome folks :)....that takes the tally to 20. Exciting to see see this grow. More will join for sure as great ideas continue to pour in, more the better!