Partner With Us
SARD partners with organisations and professionals across four engagement models. Every partnership is scoped to the Village Development Plan, grounded in a documented scheme-first methodology, and designed to produce outcomes that persist after SARD's cycle ends.
What every SARD partnership is built on
SARD does not accept undifferentiated CSR funds applied to a general programme budget. Every partnership is scoped to a specific gap — identified through the scheme mapping process — in one or more villages in the corridor. Partners know exactly what their resources cover and what government schemes are covering the rest.
This approach requires more upfront work from both SARD and the partner. It produces partnerships where impact attribution is clear, duplication is prevented, and the partner's investment goes to the highest-value gap rather than the easiest-to-fund component.
Four engagement routes
Different partners bring different things to a village development programme. The four routes below reflect what SARD has found most valuable and what produces the most durable outcomes.
Route 01
CSR and Philanthropic Partnership
Funding for the specific gap-filling components that public schemes do not cover — sustained behavior change facilitation, institution building capacity, last-mile infrastructure, monitoring equipment, and the coordination costs that make scheme convergence work. All components are documented in the Village Development Plan. CSR partners receive quarterly progress reports and have access to VDP data for their own reporting.
SARD is registered under Section 12A and 80G of the Income Tax Act and is eligible for FCRA-regulated international donations. Company CSR contributions under Companies Act 2013 Schedule VII are applicable to SARD's programme activities. Forthcoming: FCRA/registration details
Route 02
Research Partnership
Academic institutions, think tanks, and policy research organisations can co-design research within the programme geography. SARD offers access to programme villages (subject to community consent), baseline and follow-up data, and field team support for primary data collection. Research questions should address the methodology itself — convergence effectiveness, institution-building outcomes, sustainability after exit — rather than extractive data collection on communities.
All research partnerships operate under SARD's data governance framework. Community consent is non-negotiable. Research outputs are shared with the relevant GPs in accessible formats.
Route 03
Implementation Partnership
Organisations with specific technical or sectoral capacity — agricultural NGOs, water sector specialists, public health organisations — can collaborate as implementation partners on specific pillar components. Implementation partners work within the VDP framework and under the same scheme-first, community-consent principles as SARD's own team. Scope is determined by the gap analysis, not by the partner organisation's programme portfolio.
Route 04
Advisory and Technical Engagement
Professionals with sector expertise — public health, watershed management, agricultural extension, governance, education — can contribute as advisory partners. Advisory engagement may include methodology review, indicator development, programme framework consultation, or field accompaniment during baseline or assessment cycles. Advisory partners are credited in programme documentation.
Partnership standards
What SARD asks of all partners
These are not conditions for a specific type of partnership — they apply across all four routes.
Scope alignment with the VDP
All partner activities must be mappable to a specific gap in the Village Development Plan. SARD will not accept resources for components already covered by public schemes.
Community consent and GP primacy
All partner activities in programme villages require Gram Sabha awareness and GP agreement. No partner operates in a village without the GP's knowledge and consent.
No photography of minors or vulnerable groups without protocol
SARD follows a child-safeguarding and community consent protocol for all field documentation. Partners and their teams operating in SARD programme villages must comply with this protocol.
Honest reporting and shared data
Partners are encouraged to share their own programme data with SARD. SARD will not publish a partner's impact claims on its website unless they meet the same verification standards applied to SARD's own data.
Long-term orientation
SARD's model produces outcomes over 36 months. Partnerships that require visible outputs within 6 months are structurally incompatible with the methodology. SARD will be transparent about this in the initial conversation.