PaperSeed Visit to ATMA

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PaperSeed to Visit ATMA

This was posted on the ATMA blog about ED Aliyya Shelley Mattos’ recent visit to incubator partner, ATMA.

Someone once said, “An entrepreneur without funding is a musician without an instrument.” Entrepreneurs, whether social or business, often find themselves unable to translate their ideas and passion into successful or impactful initiatives. Having worked with over 26 education non-profits and social enterprises, Atma realizes that the vicious cycle of financial constraints, is a major deterrent in scaling these organisations.  Atma Executive Director- Mary Ellen says, “Over the last six years, we have seen so many passionate social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for tackling the mammoth issue of education. Often times, all they need is someone to have a little faith and to give them the push needed to move from idea to impact.”

Whilst Atma has always provided non-financial support to our portfolio organisations, we understand that funding is an important piece of the puzzle. Keeping this mind, we have been actively working on connecting our portfolio organisations to potential funders. It is during this search that Atma began working with PaperSeed Foundation in May 2013. A sister concern of Cell Mark, PaperSeed supports education initiatives that can provide innovative solutions for strengthening education.

In September 2013, one of our portfolio organisations- Umang Charitable Trust was selected by PaperSeed as a grantee and was awarded over $21,000 in grant funding. Umang is non-profit organization that works with children with autism and learning disabilities. As a result of this funding, Umang has been able to increase their reach and impact through a new center in Bhayander.

Executive Director of PaperSeed Foundation, Aliyya Mattos visited us this week to identify more potential grantees. With our business planning workshop coming to a close, 7 of our portfolio organisations made their final presentations. It was abig learning for Atma and some of our portfolio organisations to get a funders’ perspective from PaperSeed Foundation.