Demonstrated Capacities and Commitment: The program supports organizations with a serious commitment to the social/education sector through their past engagements
Clear Organizational Objectives and Structures: The program aims to facilitate the development of stable educational CSOs that can engage with school education in the long-term and expects the work in education to align with the organization’s overall vision and objective. Structures and processes to facilitate smooth organizational functioning should also be in place
Engagement with Class/School Issues: While issues outside schools/classrooms such as those related to community, nutrition/health, etc., are essential for effective education, we believe that to create effective educational NGOs that can have a systemic impact, a core education team that engages directly with the children and teachers within-class/school issues (such as curricular and pedagogic aspects) is critical
Focused Approach: Education requires some degree of specialized knowledge, and effective educational NGOs are often willing to go deeper into a few educational domains/disciplines as opposed to being generalists who attempt to address all educational issues at once or play the role only of mediators (e.g. by providing readymade content available to a set of schools)
Balanced Teams: If organizations have to develop and sustain over the long run, it is important to have balanced teams of partners/co-owners who while on one hand have allied sensibilities and interests (which geography to work in, which educational domains to focus on, which demographics to cater to, etc.); on the other hand, are also able to provide constructive feedback to each other and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses