Cambrian Indian Community - The story so far and the road ahead

A few years ago, when the Indian community in the Cambrian Park neighborhood was no more than a few families, there was a dream. A dream to build a home, away from home. To foster and keep alive our culture in this new land. But to also give back to this country for all that it had given them. These families celebrated their joys and shared their sorrows together. They became family. 

The community started to grow. More and more families saw this small neighborhood of San Jose as where they wanted to put their roots. The good schools and tree lined streets welcomed them. As the Indian community in Cambrian grew, there was a strong desire to bring families together on a more regular basis. To learn, cherish and to serve. Thus was born the Cambrian Indian Community (CIC).

In 2014, a few of these committed individuals got together to formalize this organization and registered as a California State Non-Profit. CIC was incorporated in July 2014. Since that time, the community has exploded. Our events have grown in magnitude. We meet often - we do mehendi and music and dance and Diwali and karaoke and trivia together. We have contributed for important causes. We have volunteered to build the larger community where we live. In the process, we have made and continue to make friends for life. 

Earlier this year, over piping hot chai and wonderful kachoris from a gentle Cambrian soul, we filed to become a 501(c)3 non-profit. This would allow us to expand our charter. To dream bigger and to do greater things. A few weeks ago, we were informed by the IRS that our application was approved to be a 501(c)3 organization.

For me, as one of the joint directors of CIC, this has been a 4-year journey. But for many others, it has been the culmination of a journey that started over 15 years ago. And we are all ready to take the next big step in this journey. 

As a 501(c)3 organization, we can take your donations, big and small and you can claim it for your tax deduction. This begs the question, do we really need money, if so how much and what for? To answer this question, I would like to explain how we have generated funds in the past years and how we have put it to use.

Nothing comes free. We all know that. And for the past 3 years since we incorporated, we have spent quite a bit of money to be able to do what we do. We started with getting ourselves this website (~$100/yr). We then added insurance to cover us in case of accidents during our events (~$650/year). We have also been paying the minimum taxes required (~$800-$1500/year).

We raise funds through sponsorships during our Diwali event and from the chais and samosas and chaat we vend at different events. And these funds add up. We then use that money to buy things for the community. From the audio mixer, mics and speakers we used at last week’s Utsav to the chai pot, we have built up our bhandaar, bit by bit.  We would like to grow this bhandaar. We would like to add a small tent, more utensils, additional electronics like a dedicated laptop and a small video camera, cloud storage for the thousands of photos and videos from our events,  and eventually rent a storage to hold all this. Right now, many kind souls in the community are accommodating all this in their garage. We would like to relieve them of this load soon.

In the past three years, we have raised money only once to help us incorporate in 2014. We have been fiscally responsible and frugal to avoid having to go back to raise more funds. As we expand, we need to grow our infrastructure to meet the growing demands of the community. 

We, the members of the CIC Board would like to invite you all to our next fundraiser - CIC Khana Khazana on the 14th of May at 10:15 am in Houge Park. The event will be an all-you-can-eat hand-cooked brunch for $30/family (upto 4 members). For larger families over 4 members, we recommend an additional $10/person. But I really want you to consider donating more to help us build our funds.  For all your donations over $30, you can receive your tax-exemption certificate from our Treasurer. You have seen our interview with a couple of chefs who will cook for the event with a couple more to come in the next week leading up to the event. 

If you have questions or ideas about how we can do more for the community, we would love to hear. Please reach out to one of the members of the board. We hope you consider contributing and helping us grow this community. We also hope you consider organizing events for us and volunteering to make a difference. See you all next week at Khana Khazana.