Our Mission and Purpose
The Sathi Fund [pronounced saa-tee] empowers grassroots social innovators in the developing world. Our mission is to find inspired, promising young leaders and support these talented dreamers to actualize their lifelong visions and ideas for improving their communities. Through the power of our donor network, we accelerate practical and sustainable social innovations that are appropriate to local needs.
The Sathi Fund searches the globe for people with innovative ideas working to better their local communities. Once we find these individuals we provide seed grants, strategic counsel and mentorship to make their goals a reality. Our grants target small-scale entrepreneurial activities with the promise to yield long-term returns in the local community. Sathi Fund's primary goal is to partner with inspired individuals with great ideas but without access to the resources and support necessary to launch and grow their enterprise. We call these inspired and inspiring individuals "Sathis" which in Hindi means "companion" or "partner."
Qualified candidates are discovered through our extensive network of professionals living around the world. A rigorous review process is conducted for every candidate by our Board of Directors and members of the Advisory Council and once selected the Sathi must abide by our Principles of Conduct. Sathis receive not only financial support, but also strategic guidance and collaborative mentorship to foster their advancement of economic, social, health and environmental justice in the communities where they live and to ignite their career path and long-term goals.
““If you go out into the real world, you cannot miss seeing that the poor are poor not because they are untrained or illiterate but because they cannot retain the returns of their labor. They have no control over capital, and it is the ability to control capital that gives people the power to rise out of poverty.””
What We Achieve
- Financial support for sustainable, locally driven solutions.
- Preservation of natural habitats and indigenous knowledge.
- Professional mentorship for promising social entrepreneurs.
- Participatory, bottom-up social change.
- Individual empowerment and independence.
- Authentic cross-cultural collaboration and learning.