Our Journey
Our Journey
A Startup of the Nonprofit World
Sneha Karma Foundation began with a refusal to accept that a girl’s future should be decided by the family she was born into — and grew, one deliberate step at a time, into an organization that educates, trains and stands beside girls and women.
This is that journey: the decisions, the launches and the milestones that shaped who we are. Where a story lives on our blog or a page, we have linked to it.
Our Journey
Key Milestones
- Milestone
A month that changed everything
A volunteer month in Peru showed what a fair start can do for a life — and planted the seed for what came next.
Read the story - Milestone
My first visit to Garbhanga
The first encounter with the children of the forest villages — the true origin of the work.
Read the story - Milestone
What the first village visits taught us
Years of listening in the villages convinced us that education alone would never be enough.
Read the story - Focus Area
The need for social change
The conviction that a girl's future should never be decided by her family's income or her gender becomes the foundation of everything we do.
Read the story - Founding
Sneha Karma Foundation USA is born
Registered as a nonprofit in the United States on July 13, 2015, turning years of intent into an organization with a mission.
Read the story - Milestone
Joined the GuideStar database
Listed in GuideStar (now Candid), opening our work to public accountability and building donor trust.
Learn more - Milestone
The quiet years: building the structure
Between the founding and the programs lay years of building governance, financial discipline and trust.
Read the story - Recognition
Why transparency is a program, not a badge
Our transparency practices — and why openness is a practice we renew every year.
Read the story - Program
Designing programs that actually work
Learning to design for the whole journey: education, safety, nutrition, mentorship and livelihood.
Read the story - Program
Garbhanga Handloom and Handicraft Center opens
Bringing a skill, and an income, into the home of women who could not leave it to work.
Read the story - Program
When a vision comes to life
The work in the villages of Assam takes shape, and the promise of a fair start becomes something families can see.
Read the story - Campaign
Assam flood relief
When floods displaced families across Assam, supporters helped re-settle the under-privileged.
Read the story - Milestone
The year the world stopped
Through the pandemic, supporters helped keep families fed and girls connected to learning.
Read the story - Grant
Support from the VMware Foundation
For years, the VMware community has generously funded the mission — and carried it through the pandemic.
Read the story - Founding
Sneha Karma Foundation India is registered
Officially registered in Assam on January 31, 2022, anchoring our work where it happens.
Read the story - Recognition
Provisional 80G approval
Granted provisional 80G approval in India in March 2023; current 80G validity is being confirmed.
Learn more - Impact
How we measure impact year over year
Tracking retention, completion and income outcomes — and reporting them in the open.
Read the story - Program
Skills Development
Vocational training that turns an education into a livelihood.
Read the story - Goal
Independent and self-funded
Building toward a fully independent organization by 2030, so the mission can continue and grow without depending on outside funding.
Our Journey
Where We’re Headed — Independent by 2030
Alongside this work, we’re building toward a specific milestone of our own: becoming a fully independent, self-funded organization by 2030. Our Social Enterprise program is designed to generate the revenue that supports Support-A-Girl and Skills Development, so the mission can continue and grow without depending indefinitely on outside funding.
If the years so far have been about building the foundation, the years ahead are about building on it — for the girls we serve today, and for the generations of girls after them.
Ways to Support
Frequently Asked Questions
Sneha Karma Foundation began in 2011, built around one conviction: give an underprivileged girl the same chance as anyone else, and she changes her own life and everyone around her.
From a small effort in India, it has grown into programs in education, skills, health and artisan livelihoods, with US 501(c)(3) status and a community of supporters worldwide.
Our programs operate in India — including the Northeast and the Garbhanga forest villages of Assam — with volunteers and donors across the US and beyond.
Contact us
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