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http://www.sankaranethralayausa.org/
9710 Traville Gateway Drive
No. 392
Rockville MD 20850
Rockville MD | IRS ruling year: 1988 | EIN: 52-1611548
Organization Mission
Established in June 1988, Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust seeks to support Sankara Nethralaya (SN), Chennai, India, a comprehensive eye care center for providing free ey ... (More)
Established in June 1988, Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust seeks to support Sankara Nethralaya (SN), Chennai, India, a comprehensive eye care center for providing free eye care of international standard to indigent patients in the Indian sub-continent. In addition to their main campus in Chennai, Nethralaya has hospitals in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, and Kolkata in West Bengal. (Less)
Great
This charity's score is 100%, earning it a Four-Star rating. If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.
This overall score is calculated from multiple beacon scores, weighted as follows: 33% Accountability & Finance, 57% Impact & Results, 10% Leadership & Adaptability. Learn more about our criteria and methodology.
We recognize that not all metrics and beacons equally predict a charity’s success. The percentage each beacon contributes to the organization’s overall rating depends on the number of beacons an organization has earned.
Use the tool below to select different beacons to see how the weighting shifts when only one, two, or three beacons are earned.
Charity Navigator's ratings previously did not consider Leadership & Adaptability, Culture & Community, or Impact & Results. The historic rating mainly reflects a version of today’s Accountability and Finance score. More information on our previous rating methodologies can be found on our rating methodology page.
| Date Published | Overall Rating | ||
| 12/1/2020 | | ||
| 9/3/2019 | | ||
| 8/1/2019 | | ||
| 4/1/2019 |  | ||
This organization received multiple star ratings within this fiscal year, due to an update to its Accountability and Transparency data and/or the receipt of an amended Form 990. | |||
Score
Most Recent Fiscal Year:
FY 2021
This beacon provides an assessment of a charity's financial health (financial efficiency, sustainability, and trustworthiness) and its commitment to governance practices and policies.
Learn more
Full Credit
Partial Credit
No CreditMajority Independent Board Members - 100% independent members8 out of 8 points Majority Independent Board Members - 100% independent members8 out of 8 points
Industry professionals strongly recommend an independent governing body to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters. We check to see that a majority of board members are identified as independent on their tax form.
Source: IRS Form 990
Independent Board Size - 35 independent members7 out of 7 points Independent Board Size - 35 independent members7 out of 7 points
Industry professionals strongly recommend an independent governing body to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters. For most organizations, we check to see if the organization has at least three independent board members. For large, donor-funded organizations, we check to see if the organization has at least five independent board members
Source: IRS Form 990
Financial Statements - Audit and Oversight Committee15 out of 15 points Financial Statements - Audit and Oversight Committee15 out of 15 points
An Audit, Review, or Compilation provides important information about financial accountability and accuracy. Organizations are scored based on their Total Revenue Amount:
| Total Revenue Amount | Expectation to Receive Credit |
| $2 million or higher and 40% or higher donor support | Expected to complete an audit and have an audit oversight committee |
| $1 million or higher | Expected to complete an audit |
| $500,000 - $1 million | Expected to complete an audit, review, or compilation |
| Less than $500,000 | No expectation (removed from scoring methodology) |
Source: IRS Form 990
Material Diversion of Assets - None10 out of 10 points Material Diversion of Assets - None10 out of 10 points
A diversion of assets — any unauthorized conversion or use of the organization's assets other than for the organization's authorized purposes, including but not limited to embezzlement or theft — also can seriously call into question a charity's financial integrity. We review the charity's most recent IRS Form 990 to see if the charity has reported any diversion of assets.
Source: IRS Form 990
Full CreditPartial CreditNo CreditWebsite Listed on Tax Form - Listed2 out of 2 points Website Listed on Tax Form - Listed2 out of 2 points
Charity Navigator looks for a website on the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency metric.
Nonprofits act in the public trust and reporting publicly on activities is an important component.
Source: IRS Form 990
Conflict of Interest Policy - Listed4 out of 4 points Conflict of Interest Policy - Listed4 out of 4 points
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a conflict of interest policy on the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy protects the organization and by extension those it serves, when it is considering entering into a transaction that may benefit the private interest of an officer, director and/or key employee of the organization.
Source: IRS Form 990
Whistleblower Policy - Listed4 out of 4 points Whistleblower Policy - Listed4 out of 4 points
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a whistleblower policy per the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy outlines procedures for handling employee complaints, as well as a confidential way for employees to report financial or other types of mismanagement.
Source: IRS Form 990
Document Retention and Destruction - Listed4 out of 4 points Document Retention and Destruction - Listed4 out of 4 points
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a document retention and destruction policy per the IRS Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy establishes guidelines for the handling, backing up, archiving and destruction of documents. These guidelines foster good record keeping procedures that promote data integrity.
Source: IRS Form 990
Documents Board Meeting Minutes - Yes2 out of 2 points Documents Board Meeting Minutes - Yes2 out of 2 points
Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the IRS Form 990 that the organization has this process in place as an accountability and transparency measure.
An official record of the events that take place during a board meeting ensures that a contemporaneous document exists for future reference.
Source: IRS Form 990
Full CreditPartial CreditNo CreditTax Form Posted on Nonprofit's Website - Listed4 out of 4 points Tax Form Posted on Nonprofit's Website - Listed4 out of 4 points
For almost all charities, we check the charity's IRS Form 990 to see if it discloses that the Form 990 is available on the charity's website. As with the audited financial statement, donors need easy access to this financial report to help determine if the organization is managing its financial resources well.
Source: IRS Form 990
Full CreditPartial CreditNo CreditLiabilities to Assets: Ratio - 0.83%15 out of 15 points Liabilities to Assets: Ratio - 0.83%15 out of 15 points
The Liabilities to Assets Ratio is determined by Total Liabilities divided by Total Assets (most recent IRS Form 990). This ratio is an indicator of an organization's solvency and/or long-term sustainability.
Source: IRS Form 990
Program Expense: Ratio - 92.46%25 out of 25 points Program Expense: Ratio - 92.46%25 out of 25 points
The Program Expense Ratio is determined by Program Expenses divided by Total Expense (average of most recent three IRS Forms 990). This measure reflects the percent of its total expenses a charity spends on the programs and services it exists to deliver.
Source: IRS Form 990
This chart displays the trend of revenue and expenses over the past several years for this organization, as reported on their IRS Form 990.
Presented here are up to five of this organization's highest compensated employees. This compensation data includes salary, cash bonuses, and expense accounts and is displayed exactly how it is reported to the IRS. The amounts do not include nontaxable benefits, deferred compensation, or other amounts not reported on Form W-2. In some cases, these amounts may include compensation from related organizations. Read the IRS policies for compensation reporting
Ramani A Aiyer, Trustee
Compensation not entered
Prasad Bethamcherla, Trustee
Compensation not entered
Parthasarathi Chakravarthy, Trustee
Compensation not entered
Rajasekhar Aila, Trustee
Compensation not entered
Jagannath Vedula, Trustee
Compensation not entered
Source: IRS Form 990 (page 7), filing year 2021
Below are some key data points from the Exempt Organization IRS Business Master File (BMF) for this organization. Learn more about the BMF on the IRS website
Foundation Status:
Organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) (BMF foundation code: 15)
Affiliation:
Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary (i.e., not affiliated with a National, Regional, or Geographic grouping of organizations). (BMF affiliation code: 3)
The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. Click here to search for this organization's Forms 990 on the IRS website (if any are available). Simply enter the organization's name (Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust) or EIN (521611548) in the 'Search Term' field.
Score
This beacon estimates the actual impact a charity has on the lives of those it serves, and determines whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.
Learn more
Program
Sankara Nethralaya Om Trust
Activities
The nonprofit performs cataract surgeries to cure beneficiaries of preventable blindness.
Program Type
Cataract Surgery
Beneficiaries Served
People living in poverty, general public, people with disabilities
Program Geography
Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust is a fundrasing arm of Sankara Nethralaya which is a Major charitable eye hospital in India. Sankara Nethralaya organizes regular eye camps for free of cost to poor patients in India.
Time Period of Data
1/1/22 to 12/31/22
Outcomes: Changes in the lives of those served by a nonprofit. They can be caused by the nonprofit.
Costs: The money spent by a nonprofit and its partners and beneficiaries.
Impact: Outcome caused by a nonprofit relative to its cost.
Cost-effectiveness: A judgment as to whether the cost was a good use of resources to cause the outcome.
Outcome Metric
A person cured of blindness
Outcome Data Source
Ratings are based on data the nonprofit itself collects on its work. We use the most recent year with sufficient data. Typically, this data allows us to calculate direct changes in participants' lives, such as increased income.
Output data collected during the program. The nonprofit submitted data on how many surgeries it performs, which we use to calculate how many people it cures of blindness.
Method for Attributing Outcomes
We don't know if the observed changes were caused by the nonprofit's program or something else happening at the same time (e.g., a participant got a raise). To determine causation, we take the outcomes we observe and subtract an estimate of the outcomes that would have happened even without the program (i.e., counterfactual outcomes).
We estimate the number of people the nonprofit cured of blindness by comparing the number of people whose blindness was actually cured to the number of people whose blindness would have been cured even in the absence of the nonprofit's program (the "counterfactual"). Some people might have had access to cataract surgery from other providers, and we net out these counterfactual successes from the success we observe. We do so in order to idenitify the isolated impact of the nonprofit when it would have happened anyway. Few nonprofits estimate the counterfactual themselves, so we construct our own counterfactual estimate based on research and publicly available data — namely, the percentage of the population with existing access to cataract surgery and the percentage of the population with existing access to essential health services.
Cost Data Source
After estimating the program's outcomes, we need to determine how much it cost to achieve those outcomes. All monetary costs are counted, whether they are borne by a nonprofit service deliverer or by the nonprofit’s public and private partners.
Program cost data reported by the nonprofit. Partner and beneficiary costs reported by the nonprofit or estimated by Charity Navigator.
Cost Calculation
$115,573 program costs + $0 partner costs + $0 beneficiary costs = $115,573 total costs [2021 USD]
We calculate impact, defined as the change in outcomes attributable to a program divided by the cost to achieve those outcomes.
Impact Calculation
$115,573 total costs / 15,140 people cured of blindness = roughly $7.63 cures a person of blindness. [2021 USD]
Benchmark for Rating
Impact & Results scores of cataract surgery programs are based on the economic productivity loss averted by successful treatment of blindness or vision impairment from cataracts. Programs receive an Impact & Results score of 100 if they cure a person of blindness for less than the estimated economic productivity loss from that person's blindness. According to WHO convensions on benchmarking, programs receive a score of 80 if they cure a case of blindness for less than three times that economic productivity loss. If a nonprofit reports impact but doesn't meet this benchmark for cost-effectiveness, it earns a score of 65.
Determination
Highly cost-effective
Not Currently Scored
Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust cannot currently be evaluated by our Culture & Community methodology because we have not received data from the charity regarding its Constituent Feedback or Equity Practices strategies.
Note: The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that we have not yet evaluated the organization.
Score
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's leadership capacity, strategic thinking and planning, and ability to innovate or respond to changes in constituent demand/need or other relevant social and economic conditions to achieve the organization's mission.
Learn more
Full CreditPartial CreditNo CreditMission 10/10 points Mission 10/10 points
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization's mission
Established in June 1988, Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust seeks to support Sankara Nethralaya (SN), Chennai, India, a comprehensive eye care center for providing free eye care of international standard to indigent patients in the Indian sub-continent. In addition to their main campus in Chennai, Nethralaya has hospitals in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, and Kolkata in West Bengal.
Vision 10/10 points Vision 10/10 points
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization’s vision.
An estimated 33% of those who are blind or visually impaired worldwide live in India. Most of these cases can be cured by a simple cataract surgery costing $65. Many patients do not have access to hospital . Sankara Nethralaya has established Mobile Eye Surgical Units to take hospitals to people. Ultimate goal is to eradicate preventable blindness in India.
Source: Nonprofit submitted responses
Goals 20/20 points Goals 20/20 points
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking and goal setting through sharing their most important strategic goals.
Goal One: Make Eyecare affordable / free of cost to people in India.
Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.
Goal Two: Establish more Mobile Eye Surgical Units so that eye care can be taken to rural areas where people are poor even to go to hospitals
Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.
Goal Three: Train qualified Eye professionals and invest in innovation. Sankara Nethralaya is working with various institutes to train young eye professionals so that care can reach to all population
Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.
Leadership Development 15/15 points Leadership Development 15/15 points
The nonprofit provides evidence of investment in leadership development
Describe an investment in leadership
Throughout the USA, fundraising efforts are held though the year . Our trustees and office bearers are given opportunity to spearhead campaign , plan events and give presentations to donors.
Mobilizing for Mission 15/15 points Mobilizing for Mission 15/15 points
The nonprofit provides evidence of leadership through focusing externally and mobilizing resources for the mission.
This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:
Strategic Partnerships
Networks of Collective Impact Efforts
Thought Leadership
Raising Awareness
Community Building
What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?
Fundraising efforts need collaboration. Whenever we do not have many volunteers in one place we collaborate with other volunteer organizations and vice versa.
Adaptability Story 30/30 points Adaptability Story 30/30 points
The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
Our organization worked with a hospital in Hyderabad to act as base camp for new Mobile Eye Surgical Unit in Telagana state in India. We did not have a base in Hyderabad which is a major Indian city but we worked with other organizations.
Impact & Results
Accountability & Finance
Culture & Community
Leadership & Adaptability
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