Social Entrepreneurship and the Aashraya Difference

Aashraya is an accountable, self-sufficient and consistent social entrepreneurial group of enthusiastic and fiercely driven individuals who seek a presence both in the business world and the social sector.

Aashraya emerges from a well-networked group of business professionals, who work self-sufficiently in the Aashraya realm, supported by their existing organizations and businesses.  These professionals work together with existing businesses, combining existing skill and innovative ideas to develop products that are beneficial both to the existing businesses that provide materials for them, and for the social entrepreneurial side of the coin - providing profit that is funneled directly into existing, transparently effective, and overseen social programs.  Because existing business networks are tapped to develop Aashraya products, and because professionals are supported by existing business ventures, Aashraya products have no operating costs, eliminating the often-crippling need for outside support from grants and supporters.  Aashraya is thus not at the mercy of supporters’ whims and desires when developing projects for social investment.

Without outside dependency, and with the innovation and devotion of Aashraya's team of social entrepreneurs, Aashraya can invest in demonstrably effective social programs.  Aashraya is able to research and hold social groups accountable for how Aashraya's funds are used, which has the benefit of direct accountability, as well as consistency and flexibility - three crucial, but often undervalued concepts in social investment.

Accountability

Accountability in our programs assures that funds are well used, that investments have clear returns - students are educated in schools held to quality standards assured by Aashraya, and no one in Aashraya is pocketing the money that is expected to go to community projects.  There are no donors who are gaining social status through their investments in possibly phony programs, and there are no programs that are operating inefficiently because funds are funneled directly into existing organizations - eliminating the major and often debilitating costs of building initial infrastructure for a social project.

Consistency

Consistency in social programming is perhaps the most valuable and least understood, concept in community-building.  When Aashraya commits to a group of students, for example, it will not simply educate the highest number in order to build social status - it will invest in quality schools and commit to a reasonable number of students all the way through the students' education process.  When NGOs invest in students' education in order to look good to investors, commitment takes a back seat to superficial concepts of success, and the students, and subsequently the community, suffers.

Flexibility

Another key element that stems from Aashraya's system is flexibility of support and funding.  Because Aashraya invests in social projects with existing infrastructure, it saves countless dollars on building initial programs.  Thus, more money is available to put toward new ventures as they arise.  For example, if a program arises quickly to assist with landslide victims, Aashraya has available funds to give to this program.  Resources are available for effective and high-standard social programming, as social programming comes into being, allowing Aashraya's support system to grow and expand as needs arise.

The concept of social entrepreneurship is at its core, a wedding of for-profit business tactics and the accompanying efficiency, skill, consistency and human-power of existing successful businesses, with the generous, innovative and creative ideas that often accompany minds that seek to enter the social sector to bring all citizens into a network of support for the betterment of the community as a whole.