Critical Mass was formed to formalize the individual efforts of its founder Reza Samad, in his plans to improve the socio economic conditions of the poor village communities in Pakistan. At the time, Reza felt that rather than making a difference on an individual level, if things were done on a larger scale - in a structured and official manner, many more will benefit and the efforts will have a greater impact.

Plan One, was to train, employ and deploy life guards along the beaches of Karachi. This would serve 2 immediate purposes:
(1) It would provide the much needed safety that the 1.5 million annual beach visitor's need along the public beaches of Karachi - and
(2) It would contribute towards poverty alleviation by employing the 150+ lifeguards from the poor coastal communities from Sandspit to Mubarak village.

Plan Two, the specifics of which, was decided to be determined after successful completion of Plan One. This would include broader issues such as:

(1) Economic uplift of village communities thru broad based process re-engineering methods of current business income sources (for example, in fishing communities - vessels, fishing techniques and storage procedures can be improved alongside setting up a marketing cell that deals in exports directly - thereby eliminating a series of middlemen, transportation costs, etc - and giving the fisherman the best possible price for his efforts, approximately 3 times the price that he currently gets).
(2) Welfare and self sustenance programs for village women.
(3) Vocational training
(4) Education
(5) Healthcare
(6) Introduction of structured recreational & sports programs
(7) Micro credit programs
(8) Any other programs that are determined from time to time