The Venkat Trust
Social media expert to helps us up our game
The Venkat Trust. A success story that needs to be told.
The Venkat Trust celebrates its 21st anniversary this year. Since it was set up in 2004 by Sylvia Holder in memory of Venkat, a poor 12-year-old fisherman’s son she met on a South Indian beach and whose education she sponsored, the Trust has built a 1000 pupil Higher Secondary School, set up a 400-child sponsorship scheme and pays the university fees of 75 young people a year. Every penny raised goes to India. The trustees cover all UK costs.
We need help to put together a digital strategy and advice on how to turn our stories into something that engages people of all ages, everywhere.
What success looks like: lots more followers who’re interested in what we do and want to be part of a successful charity, eg sponsoring a child, taking part in an event or becoming a funder.
The volunteer who can help us crack social media will be a game changer. We have people to gather the stories and pictures but if we can package these in a way that breaks through to new people in new places, that would be success with a capital S.
Mini Project: 9-12 hours
Education | Creating | Remote or Face to Face
Skills requested
Social media Content creation, Content planning, Social media strategy
Charity Details
The Venkat Trust was founded in 2004 by Sylvia Holder in memory of Venkat, a poor 12-year-old fisherman’s son she met by chance on a beach in India and whose education she sponsored. When he was killed aged 27, just as his career was taking off, she pledged to give all the children of his village, Kovalam, the same opportunity of an excellent education that Venkat had had.
Twenty-one years later, the Venkat Trust has turned Kovalam into a place of educational excellence. Thousands of children have now benefitted from an outstanding education; once resigned to a future of menial jobs and dire poverty, they can now progress to university degrees or vocational qualifications and wonderful careers. The alumni include doctors, lawyers, IT specialists and bankers. The Trust’s 1000-pupil Higher Secondary School is in the top ten of the state’s 6,848 secondary schools, sought after for its outstanding academic and sporting facilities and results.
The Trust’s sponsorship scheme is changing the lives of 400 of the poorest children, greatly improving their welfare. At present, 75 are undergraduates, studying subjects from medicine to cyber security, law to AI and genetic engineering, accountancy to computer science.
Location: South East
Size of Organisation: Micro
Website: https://venkattrust.org.uk