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| AIF Raises $1.2M at SF ‘Bow Ties & Bangles’ Gala | | By LISA TSERING | | | indiawest.com | November 16, 2009 02:40:00 PM |
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SAN FRANCISCO — The American India Foundation honored Brad Smith, president and CEO of Intuit, and William Draper III, general partner of Draper Richards LLP, for their work in India at a black tie gala at the 100-year-old Palace Hotel Nov. 7.
The AIF — which has invested in over 100 Indian nongovernmental organizations since it was founded in 2001 — wisely warmed up its supporters with wine, elegant Indian food and sparkling entertainment at its seventh annual Bow Ties & Bangles fundraiser, all the better to painlessly coax them into donating an impressive $1.2 million in pledges.
 Comedienne Dhaya Lakshminarayanan emceed the gala with her usual élan, while the crowd roared its appreciation for entertainers Ishaara, a Bollywood dance troupe, and Signature — a hot British Asian dance duo who dazzled with their Michael Jackson-meets-bhangra act.
The money raised at the event will go to support AIF projects such as the Rickshaw Sangh program, which aims to enable 25,000 rickshaw pullers across the country to become owners of their vehicles by facilitating loans through local commercial banks.
“We bring credit to the informal sector,” said AIF co-chair Lata Krishnan. “It’s our duty to invest in people like that. Each life we transform has a newly empowered voice behind it.”
“Most NGOs in India operate within one state,” said Ethan Veneklasen, AIF’s executive director for the West Coast. “We are truly pan-Indian.”
Veneklasen, who has held his post for nearly two years, is especially proud of AIF’s Digital Equalizer program. “DE,” as it’s commonly called, provides on-site computers and support to 1,470 schools in 14 states, for a three-year period, and prepares the schools to become self-sufficient afterward. Approximately 609,000 kids have gone through the DE program, he said. “It’s been a success particularly in terms of scaling the program,” Veneklasen told India-West. “It improves the quality of education in government schools, and is really useful in building livelihood skills. Five years ago, they’d graduate without any computer skills.”
Honoree Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, told India-West, “We as a company are very committed to India.”
Intuit — which earned $3 billion last year with products such as Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax — is about to launch three unique products for small businesspeople that will be available only in India, he said. One of them, Agrinova, will let small farmers use cellular phones to inform other farmers which middlemen in their local mandi is offering the best price. “So far, we’ve been able to raise the amount paid to small farmers by 16 percent,” Smith told India-West.
Bill Draper III, who has headed the United Nations Development Programme and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, now runs Draper International, a venture capital fund investing in private companies with operations in the U.S. and India.
Twenty years ago, he and a partner wanted to invest in an Asian country, and had narrowed it down to China and India, Draper told India-West. “India had the rule of law, democracy, they spoke English, and we liked the food better,” he said.
The Draper Richards Foundation, which he helped start, gives NGOs their first $100,000. Among their success stories are Room to Read and Kiva.org.
Despite the luxe surroundings at the Bow Ties & Bangles gala, the AIF works hard to keep costs under control. During the financial year 2008-09, according to its annual report, the organization spent 81 percent of its money on program services (just over $7 million) and spent 13 percent ($1.1 million) on fundraising. “We have a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the highest rating you can get,” said Veneklasen.
The AIF has raised $55 million over the past eight years, and has improved the lives of 100,000 families, said Krishnan.
Veneklasen, for his part, says the potential for such big results are what drew him to the AIF. “One thing I found compelling is that you can do so much there without much money. In India, you can profoundly change a family’s life for what we might spend on a nice dinner in San Francisco,” he told India-West.
The Southern California chapter of AIF will hold a gala fundraiser Nov. 15 at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles with honorees Zakir Hussain and Anil Kapoor. For more information, visit www.aif.org. |
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