Address
P.O.Box. 29304, San Jose, CA 94538
Our story
Achaani was started in September 2021 by a group of computer professionals working in the American tech industry, most with roots in Tamil Nadu. Earlier that year, Dr. Ramanan, an oncologist in Chennai, had introduced us to the CanCare Foundation and to a plain fact: many cancer patients there were not dying of cancer. They were dying of the cost of treating it.
We did not know oncology. We knew how to organize, account, and verify. So we built the foundation around that: find people who have done the work for years, fund them in small measured steps, and check the bills. The first fund went out in November 2021. The first projects with CanCare began in January 2022. The IRS recognized Achaani as a 501(c)(3) charity in April 2023.
The name is the oldest part of the idea. In Tamil, an achaani (அச்சாணி) is the linchpin — the small pin that holds a chariot wheel to its axle. It carries no load and gets no praise, but remove it and the wheel comes off. The doctors, teachers, and social workers are the wheel. We try to be the pin.
What we hold to
The work should speak. We do not run campaigns or chase publicity. We publish what was spent, what was done, and who it reached, and let people draw their own conclusions.
Those nearest the work know it best. Achaani does not execute projects. We fund organizations that were doing this work long before us — CanCare since 2010, its sister trust since 2008 — and we stay out of their way.
Small and finished beats large and vague. Grants go out in milestones of at most $10,000. A milestone is funded, completed, accounted for, and only then followed by the next.
Privacy is part of care. We publish counts, never patients' names. A family in treatment owes the public nothing.
The people
Achaani is run by its board, without paid staff. The board members each carry a portfolio and a project tracker.
Jaganathan Eswaran — operations; leads the Kanavu School and Kalam Ariviyal Pattarai education projects.
Easwaramoorthy Damodaran — India operations; leads the CanCare partnership in Chennai.
Ramesh Balasubramanian — technology; leads the wellness program.
Jerry Louis — fundraising and donor reporting; leads the WeReachOut partnership.
Advisors: Stuart Mooney and Senthil Dayanithi. Legal counsel: Law Office of Charles J. Ingber. Accounting and tax: Magnus Blue LLP. An Indian Section 8 nonprofit company is being incorporated to deepen the work there.
