Dear Sayantan,
James sent you a letter a moment ago to your yahoo mailbox answering your questions. I just put the main answer here in case you didn't receive his letter.

We do accept your view that we can keep two objectives separate and each can have separate proposal.

1. In the budget, it is type error that number of four wheelers is 2. So, we want only one for wheeler and we propose to purchase a new car as we plan this programme to benefit more and more young boys and girls to get trained. I am sure we can get a used car for around Rs. 1,20,000 but we cannot gurantee for its condition and it will take more and more maintenance burden on us, due to the condition of Indian Roads. In the case of new car atleast for the first year the maintenance charges will be less.

2. Also, in the case of the three wheeler, second hand vehicle is bit problamtic in maintenance. So only we thought of new one.

3. You are right that for maintenance and fuel of the vehicles,it should be Rs. 5000 X 2 x 12 = 1,20,000, as we envisage Rs. 5000/- per vehicle per month. So it is right that the total will become Rs. 1,20,000/-

4. Local contribution is from the local resources from the community and people around us.

Best regards
Jean

Dear Sayantan and Kubuga,
Thank you for your praise. I am very happy to work with so many nice neighbours like you. Kubuga, Thank you very much for your help and I will download your cover letter and migrate it to the new website wiki page. Also I will preserve all the important materials and information that has been found and add them to the new village in the new website.

Best regards
Jean

Juan,
I must agree with Sayanthan that your enthusiasm is really infectious.
I took a look at the work so far and thought I could start with the cover letter.
I have currently added it to very last bottom of the wiki and attaching it to this text as well.

I'll make time later to see what else I can try my hands on.

Keep up the hard work

Cover Letter_Madurai.doc

Jean,
I think I speak on behalf of all the neighbors when I mention that you have been doing a wonderful job maintaining the energy and continuity in all the discussion about Madurai. I really admire your skills and enthusiasm. A big round of applause to you!!!

Sayantan.

Dear Sayantan,
Thank you for your advice. I will forward your ideas and questions to James immediately.

Also as far as people finding funding resources is concerned, I will try to contact more neighbours. By the way, the new Nabuur website will be launched within a short time and I need to make some changes concerning my steps and tasks, also I will include building up a new website for PARD(jame's organization) into our project.

Thank you again for your advice and your effort.

Best regards
Jean

James and Jean,
Thank you so much for your prompt response. Your enthusiasm and energy are worth admiring. I did understand Jean and James' point on the group having two objectives for the same goal. I just want to make sure that for business proposal purpose, we will keep the two objectives separate. Each should have its own proposal.
Now having said that, I wanted to clarify a few items about the budget:
1. In the budget, no. of four wheelers = 2. which I am guessing was a mistake. So, we want only one car and I know we can get a used car in good condition for around Rs. 1,20,000. This reduces the budget by Rs. 3,30,000
2. Also, have we looked into the cost of a used three wheeler? Can we get something under Rs.1,00,000?
3. For maintenance and fuel of the vehicles, there is an error in calculation. It says, 5000 X 12 = 1,20,000. Whereas it should be 60,000. Kindly verify this and mention the correct number in the budget.
4. In the budget, it has been mentioned that local contribution = Rs.1,38,000. What is this?

Kindly look into these issues and get them clarified asap. In my guess, the budget can be reduced significantly than its current number.
Now, about the sustenance of the driving school.
I really liked the ideas suggested by Jean. All of us should think on similar lines and come up with actual numbers to put into the proposal. This will add to our credibility.
Finally, I noticed that we have few new neighbors who are interested in conducting research on funding sources, especially, Mr. Saraf.
I would request Jean to include them in these discussions and get the ball rolling on that front. Because, before writing a proposal we have to identify few funding sources. After we have identified them, then we have to get grant applications from them. Most of the applications will have very clear guidelines on what the business proposal should look like. In case, there is no formal grant application, we will develop our own format.
So, I would request people who are responsible for getting the grant applications to start identifying funding sources and requesting grant application forms from them.
For a start, you can look into TATA foundation, BAJAJ foundation, BIRLA foundation etc.
We should apply to at least a dozen sources -- within India and Outside India.

Looking forward to your responses.

Dear James,

How about asking the assistance of your country's Transportation Dept. Maybe they can help you and the community faiclitate the registration process and other things relevant to your community's objectives.

Best regards,

Junjun

Dear Junjun,
Welcome back to Madurai village. I am very happy to meet you here. We can further keep in touch in the new Nabuur website. :)
If you have any information to share with me, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards
Jean Yuan

Dear Sayantan,
Following is the reply from our local representative James to your questions.

As you said, we have two separate projects for Madurai with the same goal as " Bring back the children of the city slums into the mainstream of development and cutting the chain of child labour from generation to generation" For this said Goal we have to concentrate 1.school education and 2. the driving school.

You are right that we should keep separate from each other for purpose of fundraising. But as an organization taking efforts to bring back all the children into mainstream, we have to concentrate simultaneously.

1. Teaching English to students in driving school is only part of the programme and so the participant will have practical classes in driving and theory classes on rules of driving and English. We have fixed three months for a batch and so it is quiet enough to conduct the programme simultaneously. We have not alotted any honorarium for the English tutor. As you have said we can utilize some volunteers from the colleges to teach English without paying them anything and this will be the experience part of the college students as our volunteers.

2. According to the budget we need one three wheeler and one four wheeler.

3. So far we have not identified any sources for funds and we do not have any locally raised money, so far. Once we start the programme we hope to raise the local contribution.

4. How are we planning to sustain this project? Suppose we get $20,000 this year for starting the driving school, how do we run it next year and years after that?

As I have already said, during the second year, the vehicles will be with us so we do not need $20,000 for the second year. We need the maintenance cost, instructors salary, license expense and administration alone.

5. We do not have a website for PARD. As per your suggestion, May be we shall try one for PARD.

We all have to think from the funding institution's perspective to achieve our goal of conducting programme for the children and so please do not hesitate to ask for more questions to close the gaps among ourselves.

With warm regards,

James.

Additional information and comment for Jean:
Dear Sayantan,

It is true that we should make separate fund raising plans for children above 18 in the driving school and small children dropped out of school. The problem is that the two goals need to be put in one village and I can only list one focus in one village, that might be a little bit confusing. Our village will move to the Nabuur new website within a short time and I will make some changes as far as the steps (actions) is concerned.

It is necessary for us to make the plan self-sustainable, the Nabuur online community manager has given me some advice such as---when one of the youth completes the training and finds a job, have him repay for his training, set up a fund with that money, etc. We can further discuss about it.
Thank you for all your effort. If you have any other suggestions or questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards
Jean Yuan

Dear Jean,

You're doing a great job keeping the village back to its focus and generating positive response from Nabuurs.

Hope we can make it this time!

Best regards,

Junjun

Jean and James,
Thanks a lot for all the details and information. I have gone through most of it. It looks pretty good. I will need sometime to come up with a preliminary draft of the plan.
However, before that, I want to get some issues clarified.
I understand that we have two separate goals for Madurai -- school education and driving school. I would strongly recommend that these should be kept separate from each other for purpose of fundraising. Otherwise, we would lose focus. Also, usually, funders like to see one well defined objective proposals.
Then, for the driving school project, I have five questions:
1. Teaching english to students in driving school as one of our objectives will be difficult. Driving and speaking english are two different skills which require two different types of instructors. And, again, sharing resources will lead to lack of focus and progress. However, in this respect, can we start the class with children who already have a working knowledge of english. Not only, will their chances of getting good employment after our training will increase dramatically, but also, they can teach english to other children through peer to peer lessons.
2. About the budget, why do we need two four wheelers?
3. Have we identified any sources for funds yet apart from locally raised money?
4. How are we planning to sustain this project? Suppose we get $20,000 this year for starting the driving school, how do we run it next year and years after that?
5. Do we have a website for PARD? I searched for one but could not find it. In this day and age, having a good, visual website is very helpful for attracting funders and convincing them of our credentials. Can we start a discussion or project whose goal will be to create a website for PARD? It doesnot have to be fancy. From my experience, it will be very powerful. For refernce, you can look at this website:
www.annfoundation.org
This is something that is very basic but has all the information.

I know that these questions might sound very analytical and way into the future. But, I am trying to think from the funding institution's perspective and have an assurance that we have really thought through the problem, have a fesible solution and closed all the gaps.

Keep up the good work. Thanks.
Sayantan.

Dear Sayantan and all neighbours,
Thank you for all your efforts.
Sayantan, James has replied to your questions and provide a lot of information on the fund raising plan. The detailed information can be found in the "take actions now" part above.
Please click on "detailed information about the local representative's organization, our objective and the fund raising plan".
neighbours, here James and I want to thank you for all your help and your efforts. Looking forward to your further participation!

Best regards
Jean Yuan

Dear Sayantan,

Thank you very much for your comment and the suggestion you provided.I will forward the highlight of the fundraising plan to James
and let him provide more information, actually he has given me the budget plan of the project and it is inside the attachment below. Please have a look at it.

Another additional information is that actually James is the Director of People’s Association for Rural Development (PARD) and our project is one of the projects of this non-profit organization. PARD conducts various programmes for the slum community and the major concentration falls on women and children in the city slums and farmers in the rural pockets. James and his colleagues are also making their efforts on establishing a Community Radio for the benefit of the rural community, PARD is a well established organization, for the details of the organization, please refer to the resource section. I will put documents there concerning the detailed information of this organization.

For the project plan, actually as you have said, establishing the driving school and asking children back to school are different projects, but since we have got only one village, these two goals need to be achieved at the same time, but school uniforms, pens and pencils can also be used by children above 18 in the driving school, so all the educational materials are also welcomed and are in great need.

Thank you again for your active participation and all your effort!

Best regards
Jean Yuan

budget.doc

Hi Everyone on this Discussion Board,
I am very new member to NABUUR and just became a neighbor for Madurai on receiving Jean's mail. I went through the entire discussion over last year or so. There were lots of great ideas, however, disappointed to find that hardly any action has taken place. I myself have a bunch of questions to begin with:
What is our objective?
Are we trying to establish a driving school for young adults or are we trying to lure children back to school (with notebooks, uniforms etc.)?
These two completely separate projects.
Assuming that we want to establish a driving school for young adults-- what are we looking for?
We, definitely, need a three or four wheeler.
Do we need an instructor?
Requesting foreign tourists to volunteer as instructors will not work. Driving in India is totally different ball game. I have grown up in India but have been in US for last 7 years and I cannot drive in India now when I go back.
In one of his messages, James mentioned that we also plan to impart knowledge of English to drivers. This will again become a separate project.
Driving school needs to be kept separated from Normal schooling. We have to make sure young adults older than 18 are considered for the school. That is the legal age for driving in India.
So, if I have understood well, getting an automobile is the biggest need. And, one of the feasible source can be the big Indian automobile manufacturers -- Maruti, Tata, Mahindra, Birla etc.
All of them have a social welfare program and foundations. In fact, Tata has their own driving program for needy and poor. These are a better bet for sponsorship than local petrol pumps or transportation services.
In order to approach any big corporate foundation, we need to have solid fundraising plan. I am willing to work on this but currently we lack lots of information and credibility. The biggest problem is that we are not an established non-profit agency and do not have any sponsor. However, name of NABUUR should be helpful. For starters, I am pasting in the highlights of a fundraising plan. Jean and James will have to tak a close look at it and provide me with all the information.

Cover Sheet and/or Cover Letter

Proposal Summary (also called Executive Summary)

Background on the Organization (could be in an appendix in some proposals)

Needs Assessment or Statement

Goals and Objectives

Methods, Program Design, and/or Strategies for fulfilling the goals and objectives

Timeline

Evaluation

Future Funding (Plan for Sustainability)

Budget/Budget Narrative

Supplementary Materials

Everyone, let us get the ball rolling. We can do this!!! There lots of young faces looking upto us.

Dear Lucie,

Thank you for your idea and a warm welcome to Madurai village!

It is true that we need to find various kinds of targeting groups and prepare several applicaton materials to conform to these groups' application criteria. Your idea of cutting the big project into small pieces is very innovative. Could you please explain in detail the necessary elements that should be included in the fund raising plan(for instance, background issue, operational cost, cash flow and......)?

Also have you got any suggestions on how many parts and steps the whole project should have(for instance, train the trainer session might be one of them).

Looking forward to your further advice.

Best regards
Jean Yuan