1.5M+ Government & NGO-Run Schools
Government schools and schools run by NGOs serve children whose learning opportunities are often limited by scarce resources. First Bench helps connect school-specific needs with corporate CSR support.
A youth-led non-profit · Gurugram
Every child belongs in the first bench.
Schools tell us what they need. We document it. CSR partners fund it - directly. Everyone sees the impact.
- 100% direct funding
- Vendor-verified proposals
- Audit-ready reports
Why it matters
The budget exists. The requirement is real.
Tens of thousands of crores flow into corporate CSR every year, with education the single largest category. Yet small, school-specific projects remain hard to source - every engagement First Bench runs is built to protect intent, reduce risk, and move money directly from company to classroom.
₹29K Cr+ CSR Spend
Annual CSR outlay by Indian companies. Education is the single largest category - yet small, school-specific projects rarely get funded.
The Missing Bridge
CSR teams struggle to source, verify, and track school-level projects. First Bench closes that gap with a tripartite MoU and audit-ready reports.
Listen to schools
Turn on-the-ground requirements into structured requests.
We visit every school in person, walk the campus with the principal, and capture the top priorities - photos, beneficiary counts, and budget estimates. The school owns and signs off on its own submission before it leaves our hands.
Submission · GGSSS Sector 4Draft
Requirements in this request
- 01Sanitary napkins vending machine₹1.2L
- 02Smart-board for senior section₹2.2L
- 03Library repository and Books update₹1.8L
Total ask₹5.2L
Document & match
Verified proposals, matched to CSR mandates.
Each requirement becomes a vendor-costed, admin-reviewed proposal - board-ready before it goes to a partner. We match on focus area, geography, and budget band. School identity stays anonymised in Discover until the partner org accepts First Bench's one-time platform NDA.
Verified school3 requirements
School-0007
Gurugram · Sohna block
WASHDigital literacyEducation
Total ask · 3 requirements
₹5.2L
Fund direct, verify monthly
Partner → school, no middlemen holding cash.
Partner expresses interest, First Bench reviews and coordinates offline with both sides, and activates the project when everyone is aligned. Funds move directly from the partner to the school's bank account against verified expenditure - First Bench never holds or disburses money. Monthly reports (narrative, geotagged photos, bills) keep every rupee traceable and BRSR-aligned.
Project · activatedActive
Bright Future Foundation
Funding GGSSS Sector 4 · 412 students
Committed
₹4.80L
Direct to school
₹4.80L
First Bench never holds or moves your funds.
Audit trail
- Platform NDA acceptedDone
- Project activated by First BenchDone
- Monthly report · Aug verifiedDone
How we work
Five steps from first visit to funded impact.
End-to-end from the first school visit to the monthly impact report - every step structured, documented, and audit-ready by design.
01Discovery
Cohort planning4 blocks scoped
Gurgaon · Sohna · Pataudi · Farrukh Nagar
10 schools shortlisted
From UDISE+ data · verified with DEO
District Office aligned
Formal consultation letter on file
Cohort locked
Site-visit assignments ready
Five to ten schools per year, distributed across Gurugram's four education blocks, in consultation with the District Education Office.
Why partner
Designed around what CSR teams actually struggle with.
Independent verification
We never accept or hold funds. CSR teams get independent eyes on the ground - not a story written by the implementing partner.
Custom-fit projects
Every proposal is built from a specific school's real priorities - not a generic intervention dropped into many schools.
Audit-ready reports
Standardised monthly reports designed to satisfy Section 135, the CSR Rules, and the BRSR framework - without extra work for the CSR team.
Right-sized for CSR budgets
₹3–15 lakh per school. Fits inside an existing CSR budget without committing to a multi-year, multi-crore programme.
Single point of contact
Partners deal with one initiative across multiple schools - instead of negotiating with each principal separately.
Local, continuous presence
We are based in Gurugram and visit each project every month. Partner questions get answered the same week.
The co-founder2026 - present
Sasha Bhowmick
Co-founder, First Bench · Grade 9 at Heritage Xperiential Learning School.
I started First Bench because the gap was so obvious - and so fixable.
Spending time in Gurugram’s government schools and volunteering at NGO-run schools, Sasha saw firsthand the resources classrooms lacked. She realised that the gap between what schools need and what corporate CSR could fund often comes down to paperwork and connections.
She founded First Bench to help government and NGO-run schools bridge that gap. It is structured as an ongoing non-profit - not a one-off project - so partnerships can grow over multiple years and support successive groups of students.
First Bench does not handle CSR funds. Under a tripartite MoU, funding goes directly from the company to the school, the organisation that runs it, or approved vendors.
Every child deserves the same chance to be in the first bench. This is the simplest way I could think of to help that happen at scale.
Sasha Bhowmick
Co-founder · First Bench · Gurugram, HR
Get in touch
Let's talk.
CSR teams, educators, potential advisors, or a school in Gurugram - we'd love to hear from you.
- Office
- 609A DLF Golf Drive, Sector 42, Gurugram
- Response
- Within 48 hours