What is ILP and what are its goals?
ILP is a registered nonprofit organization of enthusiastic volunteers passionate and dedicated to make India 100% literate. ILP’s vision is to be a catalyst in making India 100% literate.
ILP’s goals are to:
a) Spread awareness about literacy and its importance
b) Identify and partner with organizations in India working for the cause of literacy
c) Raise funds to support these organizations in their literacy-related projects.
d) Develop and execute successful and sustainable projects to increase literacy rates in India.
e) Scale successful ‘model projects’ geographically to help achieve 100% literacy in India
f) Create a knowledge repository to capture our learning and cross-pollinate the best practices across like-minded organizations.
g) Promote advocacy at the micro-level to ensure the local communities are aware of opportunities and are positioned to maximize them.
h) Promote advocacy at the macro-level to bring about systemic changes and to influence government policy to increase its investment in education.
Is ILP a registered non-profit charitable organization in the USA? In India?
India Literacy Project is a registered non-profit organization in the USA. Donations to ILP in the USA are 100% tax-deductible under Section 501(c)3 of the IRS Code in USA.
ILP is a registered Charitable Organization in India. Donations made in India are 50% deductible under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
How does ILP work with / support partner organizations in India?
ILP partners with grass-roots organizations working on literacy initiatives by providing both financial and program-management support. Our financial support is typically used to provide learning materials, create innovative teaching methods, fund teacher salaries and to support community mobilization efforts and enrolment campaigns. Through our program-management support, we guide our partner organizations to improve their operational efficacy, conduct partner workshops to share best practices, introduce linkages to other institutions and tap into government resources to amplify the impact of our projects.
How does ILP ensure that disbursed funds are properly utilized?
We select projects carefully through our Participatory Evaluation Process (PEP). We monitor projects in a consistent and ongoing manner. Monitoring to specific metrics is a critical reason for our project successes and is our core strength. The ILP India team, comprising of staff and volunteers with over 15 years of experience working at the grass roots level, plays a key part in this process. We also consult with outside experts whenever needed. Such expertise helps ILP to not only to manage the funds disbursed to our partner organizations, but also to build their capacity to manage future projects.
Do ILP volunteers directly train children, youth and adults on your projects?
ILP partners with and funds organizations that implement the literacy programs. ILP-USA primarily focuses on spreading awareness of the cause, raising and disbursing funds to our partner non-profit organizations in India. Volunteers in India help us identify and monitor projects. In some cases, ILP may work directly with the children. Example is our Prathibha Mitra program started in 2005, through which volunteers in India conduct weekly study sessions and mentor high school students and young adults to help them achieve their full potential.
What are ILP's administrative costs?
Zero in the USA - All operational expenses are borne by volunteers or through special donations for admin purposes. Our operational expenses for project monitoring and evaluation are less than 1% of the total project funding - our India office covers these expenses by raising funds in India.
