Baal Dan is a charity that was founded in 2006 and provides grants to grassroots and charitable organizations in developing countries. Its name is from the Hindi words for child (baal) and donation (dan). Baal Dan's mission is to help street children and orphans by providing feeding programs, supplies, and education sponsorships. Baal Dan gives grants to grassroots projects, orphanages, and schools in countries like India, Pakistan, Haiti, South Africa and Zambia.
Since its inception the charity has funded the construction of a school in India and a pre-school in Zambia, several toilets, a water well in Haiti and in Pakistan and has sponsored the education of over 200 children. In addition the charity has provided aid in various forms and grants to over 4,000 children. Baal Dan is a registered 501c3 nonprofit public charity that relies almost 100% on volunteers for its administration. As a result of this volunteer-based model, the charity has been able to have consistently low administrative costs and most years more than 97% of every dollar raised goes directly to beneficiaries and project funding.
The charity was founded by Tanya Pinto, who resides in Dallas, Texas. Tanya was in brand management at The Richards Group in Dallas, Texas and in 2005 she decided to take a sabbatical and volunteer at Mother Teresa's orphanage and home for the dying in Calcutta, India. This experience led her to start Baal Dan with the mission of helping smaller less well known orphanages and projects for street children in as simple and efficient way as possible through funding needs for specific supplies (e.g. food, blankets, school supplies) and then gradually funding larger projects such as the contraction of toilets and wells.
The Board of Baal Dan maintain a simple model when it comes to providing grants. A search and audit is conducted of potential grantee projects and they are assessed for their trustworthiness, transparency, quality of care provided for the children, cleanliness and other standards. Then each year after checks and progress reports each grantee can submit and discuss a list of their most pressing foundational needs and Baal Dan focuses on provided one-time restricted grants for those purposes or more strategic multi-year grants that are related to more general health and well-being outcomes such as the provision of nutritious food and protein for children who might be malnourished.
Baal Dan is a remarkable organization in that it has helped to have significant impact on several projects all over the world and has done so with extremely low administrative costs and a high level of documentation through over 65 short videos that are on its YouTube Channel. These videos and updates on the website and Facebook pages are the primary channels of communication to donors and supporters.
Tanya Pinto is a dedicated humanitarian that has also been the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Curtin Medal and accolades for her work. After leaving a full-time job in advertising in 2012, she now does consulting for large NGO's such as World Vision International and helps other nonprofit develop their brands and marketing strategies. She is dedicated to learning more about humanitarian aid and counts people such as Walter Middleton, one of the most respected humanitarians in food programming in the world as a mentor and Board member of Baal Dan.
Baal Dan's long-term goals are to provide small, impactful grants to grassroots projects that help the most vulnerable children, mostly orphans and street kids, thus strengthening them and creating a stronger foundation for life for children living in extreme poverty and without the care and nurture of parents.