IIMPACT Australia AGM : 2020-21
President’s Report
Welcome to all who have joined this AGM. Thank you for taking the time to participate in our eighth AGM – with lockdown we have gone all electronic with a prayer that the tech Gods stay on our side for at least the next 90 minutes or so.
It’s good to see some of our new supporters online. Let me say, and I mean it, if it wasn’t for the lockdown Rekha and I would have been delighted to host the Sydney end of the AGM at our home with hot samosas. Something we’ll try and do at the next opportunity.
According to the rules AGMs allow members to receive a report on operations, a financial report, raise concerns and vote of position holders. This year we have extended the invite to all supporters – this gives them an opportunity to meet some of the “faceless men and women” but also to establish a closer rapport with the cause. We have included a session at the end to consider new initiatives that we could instigate and get your thoughts on how best to extend our reach.
In the interest of keeping our electronic communications short and infrequent, the invite did not include a running order … we expect to run the meeting for 90 minutes of which we’ll try and limit our formal AGM style bits to 30-40 minutes – this being the overview, a financial report on the year past and election of office holders. Resolutions adopting these matters are limited to voting by members only. This part will be followed by an open planning session that Dilip has consented to lead.
First up: Financial performance we raised almost two times of the amount raised in the previous year, which itself was a substantial growth on the year before. This performance was due to the effort of many folks, some of whom are online.
One of the features of our charity is that we have a reputable transparent service delivery partner in India. IIMPACT in India
- Today educates close to 60,000 girls in more than 1500 villages across 11 States of India.
- Almost all girls who complete the Class V program go on to middle and high school
- 100% of donor funds go towards educating girls.
We espouse their values: all donations are applied to the education of girls. All operating expenses are met from other sources. In our case, I’d like all to acknowledge the efforts and time put in by Anthony – social media campaigns and website update – crowd sourcing for LCs, Shanti (she designed website and campaign graphics), Dilip – the invisible hand behind the initiatives who makes things happen: their contributions allow us to run on a low overhead – from the statement of accounts you will note the main expense is related to funds management – PayPal fees etc.
Covid has had a huge impact in the field where learning centres are located. IIMPACT India responded to the challenge by not only re-jigging the pedagogy but also spreading the message of social distancing, hand hygiene, distribution of mats, soaps, sanitisers etc. They became a partner of government efforts involving local Panchayats and government officers and also the Good Samaritans.
We’d like to keep up the growth trajectory – by maintaining what we do and by adding new channels. We are registered on a number of corporate giving portals – Good 2Give, Benevity to name two. Sponsoring an LC is a three to five-year effort – we don’t want to see an LC close because of lack of funds – we want to see the girls who attend an LC move on to Middle School. This means that growth in our fund-raising effort is a continuing challenge. We are supporting 14 LCs and we want to grow this to 100 LCs over the next few years. Something I am confident we can achieve with the commitment of all friends and well-wishers who have joined us on this journey.
In closing, a big thank you to our team of volunteers in Australia and to the dedicated staff at IIMPACT India who are soldiering on despite Covid-19 and carrying on the good work.
I’d like to hand over to our Treasurer Navodit to present the financial reports.
Alok Ralhan, President
15 August 2021