Kalleda, Warangal district, Telangana
In 1996, eighty children in Kalleda village started school with ten teachers. Today the Rural Development Foundation runs four schools and a junior college for 2,824 students, half of them girls. IRDF is the American charity that helps pay for it, with no paid staff and nothing taken off the top.
Tax-deductible in the US · EIN 94-3274500 · Every officer is a volunteer
The story
The Rural Development Foundation (RDF) was founded in Hyderabad in 1996 by the Erraballi family to bring a good school to their own village. The same year, family and friends in California chartered the India Rural Development Fund so that Americans could give to it with a US tax deduction.
The model has not changed. RDF runs the schools: hires the teachers, cooks the mid-day meal, keeps half the seats for girls, and admits by lottery so every caste and community in the village is represented. IRDF raises money in the United States and sends it as grants. All of IRDF's officers volunteer, so the only costs are bank fees and state filings.
The schools are not charity schools in the usual sense. Families pay modest fees where they can, about one in ten students gets a concession, and the schools compete and win against the best in the district in archery, athletics, kabaddi and science fairs. Alumni have represented India at the junior world championships and the Olympics.
I have been working in developing countries for 25 years and have never before encountered an organization so deserving of support.Glenn Davis Stone, anthropologist, Washington University in St. Louis, who founded the Village India program at the Kalleda junior college
The schools
All run by RDF from Hyderabad with local village committees. Counts are for the 2025–26 year.
What school does
2,824 children are in school this year. Here are three things that happened because they were.
Pranitta Vardhineni learned archery at the Kalleda school. In 2006 she won silver for India at the junior world championships in Mexico; in 2008 she shot for India at the Beijing Olympics. Her schoolmate Adonda Raju took bronze in Mexico.
Matendla had no school at all. RDF started classes outdoors, under the palm trees, before there was a building. Today it has 840 students, science and computer labs, a dining hall, a school bus and its own clean-water plant.
RDF students have been chosen for the YES exchange program, spending a summer at a US high school. Two fourth-graders from Rollakal were selected for the state sports school at Hakimpet in 2019.
The money
IRDF has no office, no salaries and no fundraising costs. What you give is what the schools get, less a card fee. Here is roughly what it buys.
A month of mid-day meals for one child: rice, dal and vegetables from the school garden.
Books and two uniforms for a child for the year. The uniform is what erases caste and class in the classroom.
One child's whole year: fees, meals, books and uniform.
A teacher's salary for a year.
A science lab, a library or a school bus.
A new classroom block.
You give to IRDF by card, check, stock or employer match. IRDF sends your receipt; the gift is deductible on your US taxes.
IRDF grants the money to Rural Development Foundation, Hyderabad, which runs the schools.
RDF spends it on teachers' salaries, mid-day meals, books and uniforms, and buildings. Its own audited accounts are on rdfindia.org.
Children go to school in Kalleda, Matendla, Redlawada and Rollakal. Half of them are girls.
Give
Every gift goes to the schools. Pick an amount, or give the way your accountant prefers.
Monthly gifts let the schools plan a whole year of salaries. Cancel any time.
Opens PayPal's secure donation page for India Rural Development Fund. Pay with PayPal or any debit or credit card; no PayPal account needed. PayPal emails your receipt.
Payable to India Rural Development Fund. Include your email so we can send a receipt.
Many employers double gifts. IRDF is listed on Benevity and most matching portals under EIN 94-3274500. Ask HR, or send us the form.
Give appreciated shares and avoid the capital gains tax. Email us for the brokerage transfer details.
From a donor-advised fund, search for India Rural Development Fund, Fremont, CA, or use the EIN.
For large gifts or from outside the US. Email us for wire instructions.
If you pay tax in India, give directly to RDF for an 80G receipt: rdfindia.org/donate.
Remember IRDF in your will or as a life-insurance beneficiary. Tell us, so we can thank you.
Who runs it
No one at IRDF is paid. The board is listed on the latest IRS filing.
Letters from Kalleda
A student's story, a photo from the classroom, and what your gifts paid for that term. No spam, and one click to leave.