Prem Gupta

Director

Prem is a one of the Key members of the first Hindu Temple (Church) in Northern Virginia. He has been actively involved as a volunteer since the inception of this Church in 1990 and was involved in all type of volunteer work. It included setting up things for Church’s weekly services at remote locations before the Church has its own building in 2001.  One of the most important things for the survival of any Church/non-profit organization is to raise sufficient funds for day to day activities as well as monthly loan commitments. Once completed, the Church had a difficult time meeting its monthly financial obligations and therefore fell behind in mortgage payments.

Prem has always had a giving sprit, and believes true devotion is through volunteering and working hard.  He, along with a small group of board members, designed a program called Monthly ACH Bank Donation, specifically designed for monthly loan mortgage payments. Through this program, any devotee was able to donate money directly debited from his/her bank account for 100% credit to Church bank account with the BB&T bank.   Prem single handedly raised over $30k a month through this program (About 1500 members, donation ranges $5-500 a month, average $20/member. The program was so successful and the Church was not just able to pay the bank all back due interest & principal, it actually paid the whole loan ($2,5M) in about 6-7 years, almost 15 years earlier than the due date. Prem was responsible for raising over 95% of all ACH membership by standing outside the Church during all weekly/daily services to spread the word and register members, and through constant communication with the members, kept the revenues up and helped increase long-term membership. Today, the same Church turned around from a failing Church/a non-profit organization to an organization with a reserve fund of over a million dollars and helping other non-profit organizations set up similar ACH programs.

Being an accountant, he also helped the Church and other non-profit organizations, by designing & implementing CASH control system to minimize any misuse of cash, which also helped increase the monthly cash collections from church services.  Prem has since moved away from the area but is still involved to any extent possible, and by periodically visiting the Church as, & when, needed. With the great success of this ACH program, he helped many other Churches/non-profit organizations to implement similar ACH fund raising programs. Prem believes the success is in the implementation and not the idea as it takes hard work and dedication to make any idea successful.

Prem has always believed in that a part of one’s salary/income should be donated for a good cause(s). With that in mind, he has been donating a part of his monthly salary to educational fund in India for the last over 23 years and has passed the same value to his children

From 1993 to 2004, Prem has also sponsored personal scholarship programs for deserving students in India who didn’t have the financial resources to continue education and were forced by parents to work for family income.  This program was specially designed to assist not only these deserving students who will continue their education; they will have to improve their grades every semester and will similarly help other students in life. Additionally, Prem has made special visits to India to personally meet and motivate these students and has constantly stayed in touch with them like a mentor. He believes that if his help can keep even one student from straying onto a bad path, then he will have gotten worth of every penny he donated. In fact, a few of these students have ended up going to college and hope one day other students will get similar help from them.

Currently, he is involved in volunteering for meals and wheel, Outer Banks Triathlon, and the March of Dimes.