Tiyara works in close partnership with well established local partners. We have joint agreements with the partners on the criteria and requirements for all candidates and our partners ensure those standards are met. These requirements include visits by the partner staff to the candidate’s home to establish and authenticate their circumstances and check their references. This is a part of our commitment to excellence in stewardship. In addition to the candidate sharing their story with us, our partner organizations provide us with specifics of which institution the candidate has been accepted into, the program they will pursue as well as a breakdown of the educational costs.
The agreements with our partners include the submission of quarterly financial statements for each scholar’s education. Additionally, partner organizations send us their annual audited organizational reports, certified by an independent accounting firm.
The Tiyara model of support is one of scholarships rather than individual sponsorship. So individual donations go into a Tiyara scholarship fund for disbursement to qualifying candidates. Donors receive monthly updates from Tiyara, and opportunities will be offered to engage with groups of candidates.
We strive to keep Tiyara fundraising and operations costs to 10 to 15 percent, freeing up upto 90 percent to go to the beneficiaries. However by raising funds separately for scholarships and for operations, in the first 2 years we have been able to give more than 100% to scholarships.
