The Nanubhai Education Foundation was founded in 2004 by Raj Shah, a first generation Indian-American. His vision was to empower the next generation of students in rural India by improving the quality of education.

The Foundation is named after Mr. Nanubhai Naik, a revolutionary educator. During his tenure as Principal at The Kadod High School, Principal Nanubhai inspired his students and staff to work hard, to value education, and to serve as models in the community. As a result, Kadod is a success story – many former students pursued higher education, emigrated to other countries, and used their newfound prosperity to support families members who remained in India. The cycle continues to this day.

Since 2004, Nanubhai has launched several successful endeavors in Kadod and surrounding areas such as the construction of two computer labs, three student lending libraries with over a thousand English books, and thousands of hours of instruction from Nanubhai Teaching Fellows.

Today, Nanubhai focuses efforts on the fact that a college education is an option for only 1 in 10 students in India. Each year, Nanubhai Scholars program awards renewable scholarships to rural girls to assist them in attending university. The Nanubhai Scholars are a direct representation of Mr. Nanubhai Naik’s vision of equitable education for rural India.

The Nanubhai Education Foundation works to have a positive impact on financially vulnerable rural students in a scaleable and sustainable way. The organization seeks to empower women by providing them access to quality education. For the past decade Nanubai has worked closely with communities in Gujarat and Rajasthan, India.

Key values include:

Excellence: We strive to uphold the highest professional standards of international development.

Transparency: We believe that transparency is an essential part of trust and the trust of both our communities and our donors is what allows us to continue the mission of Nanubhai. By maintaining total transparency in all financial doings, we strive to build an even stronger trust with all of our stakeholders.

Cultural Sensitivity: We are aware that we operate in a different, vibrant, and nuanced culture. It is important to us that our work is informed by and suited to the local context.

Impact and Measureability: We are committed to programming which has the maximum possible impact and we believe that these programs must have clearly measurable outcomes.

Sustainability and Scalability: We are committed to programs which are sustainable. It is also important that these programs be easily scalable in the rural context.

A recent study found that only 10% of students in India have access to a university education. In the subset of indigenous girls, that number drops to 0.9%.

The Nanubhai Scholars program empowers rural girls to change the numbers. To date the organization distributed scholarship money to over 230 young women who have gone on to study in fields such as engineering, accounting, nursing, pre-med, computer science, education, and more.

In 2014, Nanubai’s pilot program awarded 11 scholarships to girls in rural Gujarat. In 2015, Nanubhai awarded 36 scholarships in Gujarat as well as 4 one-time scholarship prizes in rural Rajasthan. By 2019, Nanubhai had over 230 scholarships in both Gujarat and Rajasthan. Nanubhai’s ultimate goal is to support over a thousand scholarships across India annually.

For selection, Nanubhai searches for bright, brave girls from rural communities who have the grades to go to college but not the financial support. Scholarships are then awarded for the duration of their program and Nanubai becomes invested in their success. Support with extra tutoring are offered once Scholars are in college, meet & greets for all Scholars and their families, soft skills workshops for Scholars nearing graduation, and mentoring opportunities between Nanubhai Alumni, young female professionals, and current Scholars.