Question: I am first-year student of the post-graduate program of management at the Management Development Institute (MDI) at Gurgaon, India.
As a part of my course I am required to study & analyze the Business Model of a charitable organization. I decided to do the same with the Sri Ramakrishna Math & Mission.
The rich & long tradition that the organization has and the profound growth that it has witnessed since its inception prompted me to do so. Also, an organization that is not only espousing the Vedanta philosophy furthered by Lord Ramakrishna & Swami Vivekananda, but also keeping itself abreast with the humanitarian needs of people at large makes an inspirational study.
In the view of the above, I have formed a list of some questions about the day today operations of the Math & Mission. I would need the answers latest by 23rd, June. I do realize that its on a short notice, but I would be eternally grateful if you can make sometime & provide me with the required information.
I assure you that the data & information provided will be used for academic purposes only. The list of questions are as below:

1. Are there any goals that have been assigned at the organizational level? If yes, how have these been arrived at & what is the basis of the same?

2. Are there any set processes for project execution within Sri RK Math & Mission?

3. Are there any benchmarks/parameters defined for execution of projects? If there are then are there any means of tracking these?

4. How are the key people identified for the projects undertaken in the Math & Mission? Are there any criteria that are used?

5. Who & how are the schedules of various new & running projects decided in RK Math & Mission? What is the basis of the completion dates being assigned?

6. How are the schedules of various projects tracked and controlled?

7. How are the costs of the projects tracked & controlled? How is the budgeting for projects done?

8. Incase of cost-escalations, how is that controlled – is their a laid out protocol? What are the typical measures that are taken?

9. How is the division of labour/work-allocation done for the projects/assignments?

10. How are the day-today issues/problems of the project execution managed? Is there an heirarchy within the projects?

11. What is the level of automation/IT-penetration within a typical project at the RK Math & Mission ? Are there any ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) tools that are used?

12. After project completion, is there a post-mortem or analysis carried out to determine the learnings from the executed projects?

13. Are the cost and schedule data for various projects being tracked to determine the performance of the capital that is employed?

14. At any point of time, will it be possible for anyone to get a complete list of all the projects that are being executed along with the relevant financial & schedule data for each? Is that data available for past projects as well? If yes, then how is the above achieved?

15. Since the rendered services are subsidized, how are the Maths & Missions sustained with the input costs increasing?

16. What is the methodology for scouting for monks/volunteers? Do you put in any advertisements for various positions?

17. What attracts people to this organization when so many other charitable organizations are present?

18. What are the methods of raising funds?

19. What are the prominent government department helping the Mission & Math?

20. With what other Charitable organizations does Sri RK Math & Mission share affiliations with?

21. A few of the significant grants/donations that have been received in the recent past?