Six friends, connected by our passion about the power of education, came together having all benefited from the various forms of schooling readily available to us.
All the work to manage One Cause is from the team’s personal time. We’re not trying to change the world, but if we can make the world of difference to a few lives then we’re happy.
Between us, we’ve got backgrounds in finance, strategy, marketing, compliance, and entrepreneurship. This combination of skills means that we’re well equipped to take on the challenge of building non-profit organisation.
Rajen Shah
Chief Executive Officer and Trustee
Kishan Vasani
Chairman and Trustee
Aashish Nathwani
Trustee
Pritul Shah
Compliance Director and Trustee
Rishi Raja
Marketing Director and Trustee
Kiran Shah
Finance Director
Our mission statement is:
The advancement, improvement, and provision of education and training of communities around the world, in particular but not exclusively, by establishing or working in collaboration with educational institutions.
Simply put…we are a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of communities around the world through education.
The idea of One Cause was conceived in over ten years ago. It was August 2007 when Rajen, was clearing out the drawers in his room, which were full of old books just collecting dust. As he stacked these books, Rajen thought wondered whether there would be someone who needed these books and was willing to pay for them.
Rajen knew that he could very quickly gather a large number of unwanted books from friends and family, and if they could be sold online, all proceeds could be donated to worthy causes.
So he decided to call Kishan, to ask if he wanted to help. Rajen had met Kishan a couple of years back when they were both part of a team that had organised a charity event. Upon hearing Rajen’s idea, Kishan was intrigued. What initially started as an informal chat about how best to sell the collected books quickly became a more serious discussion about the many other ways to leverage their time to raise the maximum amount of money for good causes.
Rajen and Kishan were both keen to focus their efforts on education. But now their plans were much bigger and they needed more dedicated individuals who shared their passion. Luckily, they didn’t have to look very far! Both Rajen and Kishan spoke to their closest friends about their plan. Within days Rishi, Aashish, Kunjal, and Pritul were all on board and raring to go!
One Cause was officially incorporated on 24th October 2007 and gained status as a UK registered charity on 13th March 2008. In the end, instead of selling books, One Cause started organising multiple fundraising events including adventure and sport days, charity shows, and business seminars. They also identified grassroots educational institutions, first in India and later in Uganda, that they would support both strategically and financially.
The core team of 6 has been supported by many dedicated volunteers that helped to fulfill the vision of the charity. In 2010, Kunjal stepped down from One Cause to focus on his own business, but the following year Kiran, brother of Pritul and initially a volunteer, was promoted to the board of directors.
All of our accounts are filed with companies house: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06407931/filing-history