Tangible Deliverables
In an aim to attack poverty at its root, The Citizens
Foundation provides heavily subsidized education to
extremely under privileged children in the urban slums
and rural areas of Pakistan on a pay-as-you-can afford
system. The driving concept is that education is the difference
between temporary alleviation and long-term
solutions.
“[TCF has] raised
public awareness about the dire
literacy problem in Pakistan.”
Efficiency of Deliverables
TCF provides education to almost 40,000 children.
In doing so, this organization has created almost 4,000
jobs, set up 300 schools and most importantly, raised
public awareness about the dire literacy problem
in Pakistan.
Efficiency of Delivery Systems
Funded entirely by donations, the TCF took in almost $8
million last year - of which almost $7.4 million went directly
to the recipients. The roughly $600,000 administrative
costs was spent on management salaries, fundraising
efforts, office expenses, utilities and travel. The
CEO takes home an annual salary of roughly $5,000
and the bulk of senior directors’ work on a purely volunteer
basis. Investors to the charity can choose exactly
where they would like their donations to be directed
and the options include building a classroom, stocking a
library or simply choosing to educate a child.
Accountability
The organization is audited by KPMG, publishes an annual
report, and maintains a completely accountable
and transparent approach in directing its annual income
towards its programs.
Sustainability
From a long term perspective, TCF plans to add a total
of 1,000 school units with an enrollment of almost
400,000 students and it is considering the addition
of vocational training as part of its mandate. TCF is
establishing an endowment fund, which when fully in
place will meet a part of its annual running expenses
and it intends to increase the size of this fund over a
period of time.
Volunteerism Teaching is a full-time job and as a result most of the
teachers at TCF schools are paid. However, the directors
of TCF do not derive any monetary benefit from
the Foundation and, on the contrary, invest a lot of their
time and resources in managing TCF free of any charge
and obligation. Volunteer work with TCF can range
from projects available at the head office, collection of
books for school libraries, teacher training, running a
donation drive and setting up TCF chapters worldwide
for gathering global support.
