Awards
2023
The Great Place to Work Certification
GREAT PLACE TO WORK
The prestigious Great Place to Work Institute assessed us as a ‘Great Place to Work’ after NalandaWay came out with flying colours in their standard anonymous employee survey. The intent of it is to investigate the perceptions of employees and assess what their real-time experience is working at an organization. The rigorous survey involved our employees rating us across credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.
2017-2022
The Platinum Certification (Transparency & Public Accountability)
GUIDESTAR INDIA
Three years in a row NalandaWay won the prestigious Platinum Award by the India wing of the internationally acclaimed rating agency GuideStar. The Platinum Award is the highest honor the organization confers on account of assessments around due diligence – from financial reports to the way an organization is governed. NalandaWay scored high across the landscape as a result of high transparency as well as full disclosure about our processes around identity, aim and performance in the public domain.
2016
The Millennium Award
MILLENNIUM ALLIANCE
NalandaWay won the well-known Millennium Award under the Education category for the year 2016. The award was to specifically honor the work we had done through our ‘Arts in Education’ programme (now known as ‘The Playful Lessons’). The programme looks at creating a lively learning experience for children studying in Class 1 to 5. Millennium Alliance represents a highly respected consortium constituting the Government of India, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), Marico Innovation Foundation and Facebook.
2015
Healthy Performance and Sustainability
SMERA RATINGS LIMITED
A rating agency known for its efficacy and integrity, SMERA ratings assessed NalandaWay across multiple crucial parameters including business risk, financial risk, project risk and management risk and found us deserving for the ‘Healthy Performance and Sustainability’ category in 2015. We continue to consider this as one of the feathers in our cap because it established us further as an organization that abides by a system promoting authentic longevity.
2009
TOP 50 Social Entrepreneurs in India
OUTLOOK BUSINESS
Sriram Ayer, the founder of NalandaWay Foundation was named one of the Top 50 Social Entrepreneurs in India in 2009. Having built NalandaWay from the ground up, bringing arts into learning for less privileged children, he has ensured we continue to forge a path for them to realise their dreams fearlessly
2008
Architect of the Future
WALDZELL INSTITUTE
The prestigious Waldzell Leadership Institute situated in Austria and committed to acknowledging and honoring social entrepreneurs’ intent on bringing holistic change to the world, named NalandaWay’s founder Sriram Ayer an “Architect of the Future”. Sriram’s intention to transform the way learning is experienced using the arts through innovation was firmly established through this award, inspiring his work in turn, for all the years to come.
2008
South Asia Development Marketplace Award
THE WORLD BANK
NalandaWay won this prestigious award as part of its ‘Children and Media Project’, something that required us to work with children affected by HIV/AIDS. The South Asia Development Marketplace Award honored the work we had put in for a whole year to make available to HIV positive children the tool of filmmaking, as a means to express their lived experiences.
2006
The Ashoka Fellow
THE ASHOKA FELLOWSHIP
NalandaWay’s founder Sriram Ayer became an Ashoka Fellow in 2006, as a consequence of his deep, enriching and meaningful work around bringing arts to education for disadvantaged communities. This is a lifetime fellowship that will continue to impact and inspire NalandaWay’s path forward as it evolves with socio-cultural changes.