Astha means faith. We would rather earn it.

Charity you can check.

Astha Foundation funds education, clean water and working skills, in India and beyond. Every rupee is published. Every project has a budget, a start and an end.

Join us See how it works

A foundation run by the people who started it. The ledger on this page is public and you can watch it move.

Schoolchildren in uniform listening in a classroom in India

A woman in a red sari at her sewing machine in Rajasthan

Children gathered around a village hand pump

100%of every public gift goes to projects. The founders cover the running costs.

Most giving asks you to trust. We want to show you instead: where the money went, what it built, and whether it still works a year later.

What we work on, in this order

Three things that change what a life can hold.

Education

A child who cannot read by ten often never catches up. So we start where the child is: small groups, sorted by what each one can already do, taught every day until they can read a story and do a sum.

Reading and arithmetic first. The two skills everything else rests on.
Local tutors, trained and paid. Often young women from the same lane.
Tested at the start and the end. Results published by school.

How the education work runs

Water

Clean water close to home gives back hours every day, mostly to women and girls, and keeps children in school instead of in bed with a stomach illness.

Repair before building. A broken pump fixed costs far less than a new well.
Water points at schools. Drinking water and handwashing where children spend the day.
Someone local is trained and paid to keep it running. We check again after a year.

How the water work runs

Two dressmakers at their sewing machines in a workshop

Skills

Narrow, practical skills that someone nearby will pay for. Crochet that sells. Marketing for the shop down the road. A course ends when the learner has earned with it.

Small cohorts. Ten to twenty people, taught by someone who does the work for a living.
A first customer built in. Every course ends in a real sale or a real client.
Graduates teach the next cohort. Paid.

See the first six courses

How Astha works

Five rules we hold ourselves to.

They are simple on purpose. Each one is something you can check from the outside, without taking our word for it.

One public ledger

Every rupee that comes in and every rupee that goes out is listed on this site, with the date and what it paid for. You do not have to ask.

Projects that finish

Each project has a place, a budget, a start date and an end date before it begins. When it ends we publish what was promised beside what happened.

Proof before praise

A classroom counts when children in it can read a paragraph they could not read before. A tap counts when it still runs a year later. We report those checks, including the ones that fail.

Skills that end in income

A skills course is complete when the learner has earned money with the skill: a first sale, a first client, a first salary. Certificates alone do not count.

Learners become teachers

People who finish a course are the first we ask to teach the next one, and they are paid for it. The knowledge stays in the place.

Read how each rule works

The ledger

Open to the last rupee.

Most charities publish accounts once a year, months later. Ours is a running list, updated whenever money moves.

100%of every public gift goes to projects

3causes: education, water and skills

6trades taught until they pay

5rules we answer to in public

Every project is published with its budget, its start and its end.See the full ledger

The path of a gift

From your hand to a result you can see.

A project is written up
Place, people, budget, dates and how success will be measured. Published before any money is asked for.
It is funded
Gifts are tied to that project. The page shows how much is in and how much is still needed.
The work is done
By local people who are trained and paid. Receipts go into the ledger as they come.
It is checked
Children are tested. Water is tested. Learners report what they earned.
You are told
A plain report to everyone who gave, with pictures, numbers and anything that went wrong.

Skills, the first six courses

Narrow skills. Real income.

We chose trades that need little equipment, can be learned in weeks and have paying customers in an ordinary town.

Crochet and handwork

From the first chain stitch to a finished piece that sells, with pricing, photographs and an online shop.

Digital marketing

Running adverts, writing pages and managing social accounts for local shops and clinics that will pay for it.

Bookkeeping and tax filing

Accounts and GST returns for small traders. Steady monthly work in every market town.

Phone and appliance repair

Diagnosis, soldering and parts sourcing. A bench and a toolkit are enough to start.

Pump and filter upkeep

Keeping hand pumps, motors and water filters working. This is how our water projects stay alive, and it is paid work.

Spoken English and interviews

Enough English and enough practice to pass an interview for a first office job.

Why these three

We follow the evidence.

These are findings from independent researchers about methods like the ones we plan to use. They are their results. Ours will be published here as we earn them.

Education6 trials, 7 states

Grouping children by what they can already do, instead of by age, raised test scores in six randomized evaluations across seven Indian states. The children furthest behind gained the most.

J-PAL, Teaching at the Right Level

Water60,000 households

In a trial across rural India, more than 90 percent of households took up treated drinking water delivered to the home when the price was low, and kept using it for the length of the study.

University of Chicago, The Value of Clean Water

SkillsAbout 5 points

Women in Delhi who were offered a subsidised stitching course were almost five percentage points more likely to be in work afterwards than women who were not. Finishing the course mattered most.

Learning and Earning, a randomized evaluation in India

Get involved

Join us.

Astha is being built now. People who join in the first year shape what it becomes, and their names stay on the record of how it began.

Give timeTeach, mentor, translate, photograph, keep books.
Point us to a needA school without readers. A village without a working tap.
Fund a projectTell us what you would back. A trustee replies with the project, its budget and how to give.

Questions people ask first

Fair questions, straight answers.

Where does Astha Foundation work?

In India first, in schools, villages and small towns where a modest budget goes a long way. Each project is listed with its budget, its start and its end, and the ledger records every rupee as it moves.

Can I donate now?

Yes. Gifts are arranged directly with the trustees and there is no card form on this site. Tell us what you would like to fund through the form above and a trustee will reply with the project, its budget and how to give.

Will my gift be tax deductible?

Ask us for the certificate that applies to your gift before you give, and we will send it with your receipt. Please rely on the certificate itself.

Can you accept gifts from outside India?

An Indian charity needs a separate government registration to receive money from abroad. Write to us first if you are giving from outside India and we will tell you the right route for your country.

Who pays for running the foundation?

The founders pay the running costs themselves, so that public gifts go to projects. The ledger shows running costs as a separate line, so you can see for yourself.

Are the people in the photographs people you have helped?

Some photographs on this site show everyday life and learning in general. As our own projects begin, we will replace them with our own photographs, taken with consent and marked with the place and date.

Women carrying water pots through a misty field

Faith is good. Proof is better.

Come in and help build a foundation that shows its work.

Join us