Inception and Rapid Growth

Started in 2001, BRF rapidly expanded its operation to cover 200 villages, running 40 diverse programs, touching all aspects of rural life and impacting over 2 million people

BRF's unique approach has been acclaimed across the world as the most innovative, holistic, large-scale rural transformation model

The primary focus was on achieving a high level of community acceptance and social sustainability, before aiming for 100% economic sustainability

BRF incubated path-breaking social enterprises like 108 and 104, which rapidly scaled as very successful PPP models nationwide

BRF operated 4 BPOs in villages with a population of less than 3000. Each BPO employed more than 100 rural youth, mostly women

BRF successfully partnered and collaborated with over 150 organisations for the optimum leveraging of knowledge, best practices and resources, for implementing many joint programs in all the adopted villages, creating maximum impact and scalability with minimum resources

BRF is the first sizeable Not-for-Profit organisation in the world, which has adopted Six Sigma methodologies across the organisation as the primary method for continuous process improvement

BRF is the first organisation to set up large-scale rural BPOs in small villages

Economic Sustainability and Consolidation

The focus shifted to economic sustainability and consolidation

Only core programs continued, no new programs or villages were added

Over 120 villages became self-sufficient, with no external or additional funding

Impact numbers declined, though BRF's regular customers for water and health continued to avail the services

For health programs, CARE Foundation became an active partner and ran the BRF health centres from 2010 till 2019

BRF water plants continued to run in 30 villages

The tremendous goodwill generated by BRF among rural communities remained undiminished, despite no expansion.

NewAge Technology Platform-driven Rural Empowerment

The context and priorities of rural development changed radically between 2009 and 2018, because by then the dark phase of poverty had mostly been eradicated in BRF's adopted villages. The Indian rural 'existential dilemma' has shifted from the struggle for mere survival and 'living on the edge' to a new era of aspiration and opportunity

Larger earning capacity is triggering growth in the rural economy, leading to larger rural demand for all types of services and products. After meeting all its basic needs, rural India is showing its large appetite for meeting many more of its aspirational needs

The donor-beneficiary paradigm has changed. Villages are not looking for charity; instead, they value their dignity more and want to be empowered. Therefore, BRF has rediscovered itself and re-engineered its Model to meet contemporary and rapidly evolving rural needs

DREAM - Our new model of Digital Empowerment

SEED – Our new model of Transformation

Rural IDEA – The New-Age Technology platform driving it and its ecosystem

VISUAL – Our unique way of structuring our organization along solution modules, support and service enterprises, the various stakeholders and the platform-driven way of value creation, and the plans for our services of the future