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Built for Impact Fund · First campaign · 2027 cohort

100 people. $1,000 each. 100 nonprofits with systems that work.

Some of the most important organisations in India and East Africa run on spreadsheets, WhatsApp and someone's memory. $1,000 goes a long way here. Join 100 Founding Digital Patrons and fund the systems that change that.

Join the movement See where the money goes

Sound familiar?

A women's collective supporting 1,800 members across 24 villages. Case records in six spreadsheets. Donor report due Friday. Nobody trusts the numbers.

Technology isn't their mission. But weak technology quietly caps it. Funders want outcomes and rarely pay for the systems that produce them. So the smallest organisations, often the ones closest to the community, are the last to get good tools.

1/500

Indian nonprofits surveyed in 2026 reached advanced digital maturity. The average score was 4.4 out of 10.State of Nonprofits Digitisation Report 2026, Digital for Nonprofits

83%

of Indian nonprofits struggle to raise money for indirect costs, which is where systems and technology live.Bridgespan Group, 2022 (388 nonprofits)

25%

of nonprofits using generative AI have assessed its impact or put data safeguards in place.State of Nonprofits Digitisation Report 2026

Raised in dollars and pounds. Spent in rupees.

A nonprofit system costs about $2,500. Your $1,000 is the biggest share.

In New York or London, $1,000 buys a few hours of a technology consultant. Built in Coimbatore, $2,500 pays for a working donor or programme system, moving the old data across, the training, and a year of support.

We've built 150+ systems for 100+ organisations, so we don't start from zero. Sector templates and our ImpactOS delivery method mean each nonprofit gets a system set up for its work in weeks. Four parties put money or time into every system, and the nonprofit is one of them.

Your contributionPooled in the fund
$1,000
EdZola matched hoursDelivery we put in at no charge
$750
Technology partner creditsLicences and cloud credits we're seeking
$500
The nonprofit's own sharePaid in rupees, scaled to their size. Having a stake is what makes adoption stick.
$250
Full cost of one nonprofit systemBuilt, loaded with their data, adopted and supported for a year
$2,500

Pilot targets. We'll publish the real numbers from the first cohort, including what didn't go to plan.

What a nonprofit receives

The Digital Transformation Grant

Not a software licence. A structured piece of work worth about $2,500, around 120 days long, followed by a year of support. The nonprofit puts in a small share of its own.

  1. Weeks 1–2

    Discover

    We map how money, people and data actually move today, and agree what "better" looks like.

  2. Weeks 3–4

    Design

    One high-value system, scoped to what the team can adopt. Prototype first, then sign-off.

  3. Weeks 5–10

    Build

    Set up on proven templates, with their real data moved across.

  4. Weeks 11–16

    Adopt

    Field staff trained in their language. We don't leave until the team is actually using it.

  5. Day 120 + 12 months

    Measure

    Baseline against after. Support for a year, and licence costs planned before launch so nothing breaks in year two.

The nonprofit doesn't pick software.

We diagnose the organisation and build the single change that will matter most and that we can deliver well. Sometimes that's a donor database. Sometimes it's a field app that replaces paper forms.

A grant can cover

Beneficiary MISCase managementDonor CRM and receiptsField data collectionMonitoring and evaluationDonor reporting dashboardsWorkflow automationPractical AI use casesData protection basics

What you get as a Patron

Pooled money. Personal impact.

Your $1,000 joins the fund. Once a cohort is funded, every Patron is matched with one of the nonprofits their collective money reached, and follows it from start to finish.

  1. Join

    You're in

    One of the first 100 people backing this, named on the Founding Patrons list unless you'd rather not be.

  2. Match

    Your nonprofit

    Who they are, where they work and who they serve.

  3. Day 0

    Their baseline

    A one-page picture of how they run today.

  4. Day 60

    The build

    A short update from the team doing the work.

  5. Day 120

    The outcome

    A one-page report: before, what changed, after, and the people it reaches.

Digital Transformation Report

A women's livelihoods collective, Tamil Nadu

Illustrative example
Before1,800 members across 24 villages. Records in six spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups. Donor reports took three days.
AfterOne member register. Field staff log visits on a phone app that works offline. Reports pull themselves.
1,842
member records cleaned and moved across
14
field workers onboarded
3 days → 2 hrs
monthly reporting time
10%
of the cost paid by the collective itself

One page. Short enough to forward. Every figure confirmed by the nonprofit, not just by us.

Join the movement

Become a Founding Digital Patron.

$1,000 goes a long way toward giving a nonprofit technology that works. Joined by 99 others, it gives 100 of them a system they'll use for years.

  1. Now

    Pledge

    Write to us and say you're in. No payment yet.

  2. Launch

    Give

    When the fund opens with its fiscal sponsor, we send you the giving details and your tax receipt follows.

  3. Then

    Bring one more

    We'll ask you one thing: who else should be part of this? One person you'd vouch for.

Pledge by email

Say you're in.

Send us a line with your name and where you're based. We'll reply personally.

reachus@edzola.com
I'd like to be a Founding Digital Patron
Open in your email app

Want to give more? See the Champion and Partner levels below.

How the money moves

Five steps from your card to their field team.

The fund pays for delivered work, never cash handed to the nonprofit. The nonprofit pays its own small share directly. That keeps it simple for grassroots organisations, and keeps every rupee traceable.

USD · GBP

Patrons

Give $1,000 or more. US donors receive a tax receipt.

US 501(c)(3)

Fiscal sponsor

Holds the fund and signs every contract. Partner being finalised.

Independent

Selection committee

Picks nonprofits against published criteria. Majority not connected to EdZola.

INR

EdZola delivers

Paid at published nonprofit rates, plus matched hours of our own.

About 10%

Nonprofit

Pays a small share and gets the system, the training and a year of support.

The conflict, said plainly

EdZola runs this fund and is paid to deliver the work.

You should know that up front. Here's how we keep it honest.

  • An independent committee chooses the nonprofits. EdZola staff can't outvote it.
  • Organisations already paying EdZola aren't eligible. This is for those who can't afford us.
  • Our rates are published and benchmarked against other implementation partners.
  • Each nonprofit signs off its own before-and-after figures.
  • Once a year we publish the fund's books: money in, sponsor fees, delivery cost, matched hours.
  • No lock-in. Nonprofits own their data and system, and aren't required to buy anything from us afterwards.

Beyond the first 100

Fund one nonprofit, or a whole cohort.

First 100 only

Founding Digital Patron

$1,000

One of the original 100. Matched with one nonprofit and its before-and-after report.

Individuals and families

Digital Champion

$5,000

Covers the Patron share for five nonprofits. Choose a theme: education, health, livelihoods, women-led organisations.

Foundations and companies

Transformation Partner

$25,000+

Funds a full cohort, for example 25 grassroots education nonprofits in one state, with a cohort-level impact report.

Why we're doing this

Every nonprofit deserves good technology.

100+organisations
150+systems built
5+countries

I started EdZola in 2020, in the middle of lockdown, after years as an engineer at Zoho and a classroom teacher with Teach For India.

Since then we've built systems for more than a hundred nonprofits. The ones that could pay us got better at their work. The ones that couldn't kept running remarkable programmes out of spreadsheets and WhatsApp, and we kept saying no to them.

I don't want to keep saying no. A thousand dollars from someone in Boston or London, spent by a team in Coimbatore, can change how a small organisation works for years. Technology shouldn't be a privilege of scale.

If that idea makes sense to you, join us.

AkshayFounder, EdZola · Chevening Scholar (LSE) · FRSA

Questions

The things people ask first.

Is my gift tax-deductible?

For US donors, yes. Gifts will go through a US 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor that owns the fund, which is the arrangement we're finalising now. For UK donors we're setting up a Gift Aid route. Until the fund opens, a pledge is non-binding and no money changes hands.

Do I get to choose the nonprofit?

No, and that's deliberate. An independent committee selects nonprofits against published criteria, and the fund decides how money is spent. You're then matched with one of the transformations your cohort paid for. It keeps the selection fair and keeps your gift deductible.

Why not just give the money to the nonprofits directly?

Two reasons. Many small Indian nonprofits aren't registered to receive money from abroad. And cash alone rarely produces a working system; the hard part is the design, moving old data across and training. The fund pays for that delivered work, and the nonprofit pays only a small share of its own.

Does EdZola make money from this?

EdZola is paid for delivery at its published nonprofit rates and adds matched hours on every project at no charge. The yearly report shows exactly how much went to delivery, fees and matched time.

What happens after 120 days?

Each nonprofit gets 12 months of support. Before launch we agree how licence and running costs will be covered in year two, so the system doesn't fall over when free credits end.

Which countries?

The first cohort is in India. Kenya follows in the second cohort, with other East African countries after we've tested the model there.

Can I pay in pounds?

Yes. UK Patrons pledge the pound equivalent of $1,000. We'll confirm the route and exact amount when the fund opens.

100 people can give 100 nonprofits a system that lasts.

Join the first 100. Then tell one person who should be next.

Join the movement Or write to reachus@edzola.com

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