Before a request is made for a grant or program-related investment, a brief letter of inquiry is advisable to determine whether the  foundation’s present interests and funds permit consideration of the request.

The letter should include:

After receiving the letter, foundation staff members may ask the grant seeker to submit a formal proposal. There is no grant application form. The proposal should include:

In some instances, the foundation requires the grantee organization to match the foundation’s grant with funds from other sources. 

The foundation supports pluralism and equal opportunity in its grant making and in its internal policies. The opportunities that prospective grantee organizations provide for women and other disadvantaged groups are considered in evaluating proposals.

Applications are considered throughout the year. If the proposals are within the foundation’s program interests and budget limitations the approval process for grant is generally completed within three months. Rejections are intimated in three weeks of receipt. Activities supported by grants and program-related investments must be charitable, educational or health care related, as defined under the appropriate provisions of the Indian laws. The foundation monitors grants through regular financial and narrative reports submitted by the grantee.

The foundation’s funds are limited in relation to the great number of worthwhile proposals received.  The foundation directs its support to activities that are within its program interest and are likely to have wide effect. Support is not normally given for routine operating costs of institutions or for religious activities. Funding is not available for the construction or maintenance of buildings specifically except in rare cases for educational or health care.

Requests in India should be e-mailed to: contact@mysetu.org   or mailed to: 

Support for graduate fellowships is generally provided through grants to universities and other organizations, which are responsible for the selection of recipients.In all cases, recipients are selected on the merits of their proposals and on their potential contribution to advancing the foundation’s program.                                            
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Setu’s trustees and staff try to advance human welfare by making grants to develop new ideas or strengthen key organizations that address poverty and injustice, and also promote democratic values, cooperation and human achievement. Within these broad aims, we focus our grants on fields within Community Development, and  Social Justice .  Working in these selected fields also enables us to link grantees for their mutual benefit, knowledge and inspiration guided by the sense of funding needs and opportunities for innovation.

Once the board approves work in a substantive or geographic area, program staff consult broadly with practitioners, researchers, policy makers and others to identify foundation initiatives that might contribute to progress, specific work grantees would undertake, benchmarks for change, and costs. When the program officer has completed this analysis, he or she presents the ideas in a memorandum reviewed by the a supervisor and at least two foundation officers before approval of the SMB. When approved, the program officer begins to make grants within the broad parameters of the approved memorandum and budget allocation. Staff regularly provide reports to the board about grants made and ongoing lines of work.                                                                                                                                                                    
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Proposals are accepted and reviewed in the office and are be approved  generally at weekly meetings of staff and foundation officers. Setu considers requests for grants, recoverable grants, loans and loan guarantees. Requests range  are accepted in categories such as planning grants, project support, general support and endowments.

Upon receipt, each proposal is numbered and a letter is sent to the applicant. If a grant request falls within program interests, it is reviewed by a  program officer. The program officer looks for fresh ideas and effective organizations that can help advance work in a particular area, as well as for evidence that the people and organizations are likely to succeed in the project they propose and work well with others.

If the proposal is being considered for a grant, meetings, site visits, grant negotiations, administrative and legal review and presentation of the grant for approval are generally completed within three months. The first check from the foundation or bank notification should arrive a few weeks after a grant has been approved.          
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During the course of a grant, the program officer usually visits with the grantee on site or at a foundation office, reviews periodic financial and narrative reports, shares them the SMB. The grantee may be asked to attend meetings the foundation convenes to discuss current and future program strategy. Often, Setu hires consultants to help monitor groups of grants or a single grantee’s work.

Monitoring is designed to ensure that the funds are used for approved and lawful purposes, and to see whether the grant is contributing to progress toward the larger goal—for example, reducing poverty or injustice. Setu staff members understand that the work the foundation and its grantees undertake together is difficult, that success often results from multiple efforts over a long period, and that setbacks are likely. The monitoring process encourages candid exchanges about how things are going and whether the strategy might be adjusted to get better results over the long term.

In the course of its work, the foundation regularly convenes program officers and grantees working on similar problems in order to compare strategies and advance learning. These various supports for comparative analysis help identify principles of success along with local variations.

Grant renewals are frequent since the foundation supports long-term strategies. After the completion of a grant, the program officer approves final reports, and the grant is closed. The grant file is then moved to Setu’s archive and these archived documents may be opened for research as and when required.                               
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