GuideStar India wishes you a very happy New Year!

Not a single day passes without interacting with NGOs at the GuideStar India office. We learn something new every single day as we get to know you better and try to present your work truthfully and effectively. Thanks to each one of you, we got strength to take our baby steps...

We spent the last 8 months building our site and database. We expect to go live with the first set of NGO data early in the new year. Until we have significant stories of change to report, we thought of putting together our smiles for you.

I will let my light shine...Christmas celebrations at GuideStar India

Our team celebrated Christmas in a special way. Team members highlighted the "spark" in one another and wrote it down on "candles". We all pledged "I will let my Light shine" and noted down in our respective "candles", how we would spread  our light. Our office looks lovely with the decorations we made and it was great fun doing it together. We also screened a short film "I believe..."

We wish every one a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

Taiwan voluntary sector conference finds session on NGO Accountability in India, relevant

GuideStar India's CEO, Pushpa Aman Singh, was invited to speak about NGO Accountability in India at the International conference on NPO Accountability in Taipei, Taiwan. Pushpa could not go to Taipei due to last minute glitches at the Mumbai airport. However, she addressed the conference via Skype. Thanks to some smart use of technology by GuideStar India and the Taiwan NPO Self Regulation Alliance, the audience had a virtual presentation followed by Q & A. Seen in the picture is Mr Richy Li, Director (News Products, Media Products & Solutions) Yahoo responding to Pushpa's address.

Pushpa gave a brief introduction to the size and structure of the Indian voluntary sector. She pointed out that statutory requirements for NGO accountability and their administration in India was not sufficient for stakeholders to be assured of NGO credibility. She described the various initiatives of the Indian voluntary sector towards promoting NGO transparency and accountability. Chiefly, she described the role of GiveIndia, GuideStar India, Credibility Alliance, the Joy of Giving Week and CSO Partners' Annual report Awards. Pushpa emphasised that NGOs voluntarily participated in initiatives that required them to be transparent & accountable if these resulted in tangible benefits. She also mentioned that several thousand NGOs that were keen to participate in these initiatives could not do so for want of resources to build their capacity. There is also the need to bring thousand of NGOs in remote areas into an electronic database so that they could be made aware of the numerous opportunities that exist. She emphasised the need to make donors (individuals, corporates, foundations and government) aware of the existence of these mechanisms so that they could direct their resources towards NGOs that voluntarily demonstrate accountability.

Pushpa stressed on the need to have easy (low entry barrier) mechanisms such as GuideStar India to allow NGOs to make public disclosure of as little or as much information they could share. GuideStar India allows NGOs to start reporting with just 2 documents (registration certificate and address proof). At the same time, the site (soon to be launched with NGO data) would reward NGOs that report more information and make frequent updates through search results ranking.

Pushpa welcomed the Planning Commission's NGO Partnership System that has over 22,000 NGO records. She expressed concern about some of the government moves such as making FCRA permission for a limited duration, the IT Department stating that 12A could be withdrawn any time and its stand on income earning activities of NGOs. These seem to be quite contrary to the positive tone of the Voluntary Sector Policy, 2007. She welcomed the Planning Commission setting up task forces and committees with NGO representation for implementing the Voluntary Sector Policy, 2007.

The concluding part of the address was devoted to her views about the need for the voluntary sector in India to convert, its various initiatives for transparency & accountability, from small disjointed steps into a coordinated and concerted movement to transform the sector. While NGOs had been successful in pushing for electoral reforms to make politicians accountable, played a key role getting the Right to Information Act passed towards making the government machinery accountable, it has become very critical for the sector to pursue its own accountability with the same passion and zeal.

Reacting to Pushpa's address, Professor Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, Department of Sociology, NTU, expressed the desire to interact with Indian organisations as Taiwan makes its progress towards self-regulation of its voluntary sector.

Thank you, Chi and Regina of the Garden of Hope Foundation for inviting GuideStar India and providing all the relevant material on Taiwan's NPO sector. A big thank you to the team at Taiwan NPO Self Regulation Alliance.

For the full article/ presentation, please write to info@guidestarindia.org

How many years do we need complete to apply?

NGOs are eligible to be featured on GuideStar India as soon as they get registered in India as a Trust, Society or Sec 25 Company. All you need is a regsitration certificate and a verifiable address proof (as described in our previous post).

What is GuideStar India's eligibility criteria?

GuideStar India is open to all NGOs registered in India.

To get featured on GuideStar India, an NGO needs to:
1)be registered as Trust/Society/Sec 25 Company in India and
2)have a verifiable address.


What are the minimum documents an NGO is required to give us:

1)Registration Document
any one of: Trust Registration Certificate/ Trust Deed with Sub-Registrar's stamp/ Society Registration Certificate/ Cetificate of Incorpration under section 25 of the Indian Companies Act

2)Address Proof
any of the following, not older than 2 months, stating your address for correspondence: telephone bill/ electricity bill/ bank statement (not bank pass book)

We require photocopies that are attested by the NGO's authorised signatory and carry the NGO's stamp.

Watch out for our post about the Pre-Registration form and process.

Find answers to your questions about GuideStar India

Starting today, we will present excerpts from our FAQs so that you can get answers to your questions about GuideStar India.

How are you connected with GuideStar in the US and the UK?
GuideStar India is set up in collaboration with GuideStar International (GSI), the founders of GuideStar US & UK. GuideStar India is independent of its US and UK counterparts. GSI provides technology and other resources to GuideStar India. We are a part of the GuideStar Alliance, hence connected with all other GuideStars which are emerging in more than 10 countries. We are a part of the global reporting framework developed by GSI, which makes NGOs featured on GuideStar India, also an integral part of the global search across other GuideStars. For more details, visit http://www.guidestarinternational.org/.

Good news for NGOs registered for the Joy of Giving Week

We are happy to share that Credibility Alliance will be inviting all NGOs that registered with GuideStar India for the Joy of Giving Week to become its members. They will not ask NGOs to resubmit documents already available with GuideStar India because we will share scanned copies of documents with them. This is a great moment for us as we would like more and more organisations to use our database and reduce multiple submissions of similar information by NGOs.

NGOs voice their IT Challenges at ConnectIT Day

90 NGO representatives from different parts of Maharashtra attended NASSCOM Foundation’s ConnectIT Day on Sep 16 in Mumbai. It was great to see many participants from outisde Mumbai.

Dhaval Udani, GiveIndia’s CIO, Ms Annabel Mehta Treasurer of Apnalaya and Ms Mrinalini Kher, Director, KSWA were among the NGO panellists. The speakers and NGO leaders present in the auditorium argued if and how IT could really address challenges faced by NGOs. While Mr Jerry Rao, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation wore multiple hats (IT industry leader/NGO leader/Philanthropist) as he moderated the discussions, Mr Sunil Soni, Principal Secretary, Planning Dept., Govt of Maharashtra, urged NGOs to visit government websites and raise questions or at least provide some feedback. Some NGO leaders wondered whether computerisation & IT training would make programme staff at NGOs spend more time in the office than be amongst the community! Speakers made NGOs aware of various resources available to them: NASSCOM Foundation’s (www.nasscomfoundation.org) BiG Tech and BiG Bridge programmes, TCS’ Adult Literacy programmes, use of free social media, etc. Rufina Fernandes, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation urged NGOs to register with NASSCOM Foundation to avail of its several programmes for hardware & software support as well as IT skilled volunteers.

NASSCOM Foundation will be organising 4-day hands-on IT training workshops for NGOs in Pune, Nagpur & Sangli between Nov 2009 & Jan 2010. Similar workshops are also being planned for Rajasthan and Orissa. Participation is free. If interested, please write to GuideStar India, the Outreach Partner for these workshops at info@guidestarindia.org.

Thank you, FirstSource!

A very big thank you to the FirstSource whose team made sure that every single NGO on our invite list for the ConnectIT Day of NASSCOM Foundation was called. We have had a steady flow of registration forms and phone calls. Registrations are closing end of today.

Thank you you Madhu, Vinay & team, Subramonian and Lakshmi. We immensely value your support.

Registration on for NASSCOM Foundation's ConnectIT Day

NGOs in Maharashtra:

GuideStar India (www.guidestarindia.org) is pleased to invite you to “ConnectIT Day”, a curtain raiser for a series of capacity building workshops in IT titled ‘ConnectIT workshops’ to be conducted by NASSCOM Foundation (www.nasscomfoundation.org). The objective of the programme is to provide effective computer technology and Internet training to assist NGOs and Government officers accomplish their development objectives through effective use of IT in their operations.

‘ConnectIT Day’, is on Sep 16, 2009 at Y B Cavan Centre, Rangswar Auditorium, Mumbai, from 2.00pm-5.30pm.

The participation is FREE but requires you to register in advance (due to limited seats). You need to send the participation form and complete an IT Need Assessment Form. Click here for the communication from NASSCOM Foundation. Participants will be confirmed by NASSCOM Foundation based on need assessment from the questionnaire you fill and on first come first served basis.

GuideStar India is the Outreach Partner for the ConnectIT Day and ConnectIT workshops. If you have any questions regarding participation, feel free to write to us at info@guidestarindia.org.

77 NGOs complete registration for the Joy of Giving Week

We are happy to announce the list of NGOs that completed the requirements for regsitration for the Joy of Giving Week (JGW). GuideStar India is managing regsitration of NGOs for this massive national event hosted by GiveIndia.

As NGOs already listed with GiveIndia are automatically registered for JGW, they did not have to go through this process with GuideStar India.

Applications are pouring in. Our office is full of papers and our team is stretching itself to process applications on the same day they are received.

NGOs registered for the Joy of Giving Week:
Aangan Trust (Mumbai)
Able Disabled All People Together (ADAPT) - formerly The Spastics Society of India
Acumen Trust
All India Movement For Seva
Arokiya Charity
Arunodhaya Centre for Street & Working Children
ARUWE
Aseema Charitable Trust
Ashoka Innovators for the Public (India)
Association for Non-Traditional Employment for Women
Association for Rural Community Development
Aural Education for the Hearing Impaired
Bharti Foundation
CHILD
Children Toy Foundation
Community Development Organization Trust
Credibility Alliance
Cross Blood Foundation
CRY - Child Rights and You
Dhanvantari Trust
FAME India (Foundation for Action Motivation & Empowerment)
Foundation for Excellence India Trust
Girivanavasi Educational Trust
Habitat for Humanity India Trust
HelpAge India
Hyderabad Council of Human Welfare
India Literacy Project
Iniya Udaiyam Charitable Trust
International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC)
Isha Foundation
JAMGHAT (A Group of Street Children)
Janpath
Karna Prayag Trust
Khairabad Eye Hospital
LIGHT
Love and Care India Trust
Madras Dyslexia Association
Mahan Trust
Malvi Educational & Charitable Trust
Mary Anne Charity Trust
Masoom
MAYA (Movement for Alternatives And Youth Awareness)
Mumbai Mobile Creches
Nagarika Seva Trust
Narmada Kidney Foundation
Nasiha Education & Welfare Trust
Population Services International
Prajna Counselling Centre
PRAYAS
Prerana
Priyadarshini Seva Mandali
Rural Amelioration Service Society
Sadguru Sri Gnanananda Seva Trust
Sankara Eye Hospital
Save The Children India
Service and Research Foundation of Asia on Family and Culture
SHARE - Society to Heal Aid Restore, Educate
Shraddha Charitable Trust
Skillshare International (India) Trust
SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action)
Social Action for Manpower Creation
Society for Higher education of Women in India (SPJ Sadhana School)
Society for Poor People Development
Society Moved to Instill Love with Empathy
Spastics Society of Karnataka
Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust
Sri Shakthi Association
Sri Shiridi Sai Seva Trust
Svechha Foundation
The Akshaya Patra Foundation
The Bandra Holy Family Hospital Society
The Indian Cancer Society
Tulir Charitable Trust (For Prevention & Healing of Child Sexual Abuse)
Udhavum Ullangal Public Charitable Trust
VIDYA Integrated Development for Youth and Adults
Vidya Sagar
Visamo Kids Foundation

Ahmedabad workshop on Joy of Giving Week- Aug 24

NGOs in Gujarat & Rajasthan:
Here is your chance to get to know about the massive fundraising opportuntiy called the Joy of Giving Week, hosted by GiveIndia. Send a mail to jgw@giveindia.org to register for the workshop to be held on Mon, Aug 24 from 11am-1pm at the BPA Campus in Vastrapur.

GuideStar India is managing NGO registrations for the Joy of Giving Week. We will explain the registration process at the workshop. You could also download the registration from (click here) and ask us for clarifications, if any, at the workshop.

For further details, read below the announcement from GiveIndia:
Joy of Giving Week, Sept 27-Oct 3, 2009
A Unique and massive Opportunity for NGOs to raise money, resources and awareness, brought to you by GiveIndia
Ahmedabad Workshop on Monday, August 24, 2009

After bringing you the idea of "fundraising through marathons" to India through the Mumbai and Delhi marathons, GiveIndia now presents NGOs of the country a BIGGER platform- The Joy of Giving Week, September 27-October 3, 2009. The Joy of Giving week is a huge national platform that will bring 2 crore Indians together to engage in conscious acts of giving- money, time, skills, donations in kind. From a panwalla in Muzaffarpur to a billionaire in Mumbai, school children, college goers, factory workers, housewives, autorickshaw walas, celebrities and corporate honchos…just about everybody will participate through this platform. Above all, it creates a platform for NGOs to fundraise with zero fees payable- 100% of what is raised through an event goes to the NGOs!!
We invite you to a discussion on this new national movement and how you might leverage the opportunity to increase the visibility of your work and raise funds for your organisation.
Venue: Blind People's Association, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380015 (opposite IIM campus).
Date: August 24, 2009 (Monday)
Time: 11.00 am – 1.00pm
Register now to confirm participation. Limited seats available on First Come First Served basis. Workshop open to all NGOs of Gujarat and Rajasthan.. Please email jgw@giveindia.org to confirm participation.
More Information on the Joy of Giving Week
Several large national initiatives are already in place-

1. The School Design Challenge will inspire children aged 10-13 from over 30,000 private and government schools all over India to design solutions to India's problems and implement them during the Week. Presented by Riverside School, NID, Stanford Design School and IDEO (the world's #1 design firm), in partnership with hundreds of educational NGOs and schools across India.
2. The College Joyfest will reach youth from 3000+ colleges all over India, and get at least 300 colleges to partner with local NGOs and organise "Joy Festivals" in their colleges. Youth will also be encouraged to volunteer in various community initiatives during the week. The event is being promoted by JAM and supported by MTV.
3. Goonj will run a massive Clothes Collection Drive in 25 cities all over India, targeting to collect at least 1 crore units of clothing during the Week
4. The Battle of Buffets events in Chennai and Hyderabad will see their biggest 5* hotels coming together and offering their best buffet spreads free of cost in large public fundraising events, and NGOs in the city can benefit by selling donor passes to the “zero cost fundraising event”.
5. Stars4Charity, a fundraising event choreographed by ace director Farah Khan to help the Jai Vakeel Trust in Mumbai.
6. A "CEOs Walk the Ramp for a Cause" event by Toofles Foundation will be hosted by the Taj Hotels in Mumbai during the Week

Besides this several individuals and organisations across the country are creating events and opportunities for people to participate in giving and volunteering. Several companies have come forward and offered space for hosting events, providing technology support, free branding and visibility, media coverage, etc. For further details, visit www.joyofgivingweek.org

About GiveIndia:
GiveIndia is India's largest 'philanthropy exchange' that connects donors directly with NGOs. Founded in 2000, our flagship Payroll Giving programme and other activities together channeled Rs26.7cr from 150,000 individual donors to more than 200 NGOs in 2008-09 alone.

Sign up for Joy of Giving Week Delhi workshop -Aug 13

NGOs in North India (incl. Rajasthan):

Sign up for the NGO workshop on August 13 from 10am to 12 noon at the Bahai Centre (Lotus Temple). You will get to hear amazing fundraising opportunities you can avail of / create under the Joy of Giving Week hosted by GiveIndia.

We will also explain the registration process for NGOs. Click here to download the form. If you register for the Joy of Giving Week, you get automatically featured on www.guidestarindia.org.

The workshop is free and due to limited seats, participation is on first come, first served basis.

To know more about the Joy of Giving Week and earlier workshops, read our earlier posts.

Our list of supporters is growing...

GuideStar India is happy to announce that many organisations and individuals are coming forward to pool in their NGO database / address books or simply their collection of visiting cards! Some are writing to their partners outlining benefits of being featured on GuideStar India. The list is growing fast...
We would like take a moment to thank them and share the good news with all of you.

• Ms Elizabeth Kurian, Regional Director - India Region of Sightsavers International wrote to their 94 partners. Information has started coming in from the partners.
• Anshu Gupta, Founder Director of Goonj has shared their list of 161 partners. His team will also be collecting visiting cards from NGOs that attend their workshops and Gramsabhas.
• Prof Neerja Mattoo, Chairperson-DOCC Center, SPJIMR shared their database of NGOs and their MBA students would be training NGOs, they intern with during summer, to profile and manage content on GuideStar India.
• Mr Harinesh Pandya, Secretary, Janpath will be inviting their 150+ members to get profiled on GuideStar India. They will showcase members profiles on GuideStar India at their AGM in Sep 2009.
• Dr Bhushan Punani, Executive Director of Blind People's Association handed over a bagful of visiting cards so that we can invite them to participate on GuideStar India. He also put us in touch with a number of organisations we could partner with. Thank you, Nandiniben for giving us your mailing list on a memory stick in less than 5 minutes!
• Mr Vijay Nadkarni, Deputy Director-Credibility Alliance, gave us 2 large cartons of documents of 42 NGOs accredited by them. We have already digitised them. He will be writing to their members shortly.
• Mr Ujwal Thakkar, CEO, GiveIndia and Ms Gopi Venkatraman, Head of Listing at GiveIndia for providing "ready to upload" data of 200+ GiveIndia listed NGOs.
• Ms Abha Thorat, Director, the British Asian Trust for enaging us to profile their India grantees and introducing us to a large number of people.

This thank you note would be incomplete without acknowledging the efforts of the wonderful people in these organisations: Mariamma of Sightsavers International, Reena of Goonj, Pragya of SPJIMR, Vijay Jani, Praveen & Kuldeep of Credibility Alliance and Swati at GiveIndia.

Hyderabad NGO workshop great success, rush to the Chennai NGO Meet on July 24

Mr Venkat Krishnan, GiveIndia's Founder, presenting the Joy of Giving Week to NGOs

133 participants from NGOs across Andhra Pradesh attended the Joy of Giving Week workshop at the Press Club in Hyderabad. Besides understanding the concept of the joy of Giving Week and how they could exploit the opportunities it presented, NGOs decided to collaborate. Pushpa from GuideStar India explained the NGO registration process. NGOs were delighted that their profiles would automatically get featured on www.guidestaridia.org on registering for the Joy of Giving Week.

We thank Mr Narsing Rao, Sajitha, Prabhakar & Lakshmi Prasanna of Sahara and Praveen Vempadapu of KIDPOWER India for volunteering with us to manage NGO registration at the workshop.CLICK HERE to download the NGO registration form for the Joy of Giving Week.

Chennai NGO Meet on Jul 24
The Joy of Giving Week (http://www.joyofgivingweek.org/) initiated by GiveIndia (http://www.giveindia.org)/ brings you a unique fundraising opportunity in collaboration with Oriental Cuisines, Chennai - AT NO COST TO YOU. This is an invitation to attend the NGO meet
Date : 24th July 2009, Friday
Time : 10 am to 12 noon
Venue : Conference Hall, ICSA Jivana Jyoti
107 Pantheon Road
Egmore
Chennai 600 008
Phone: 044-28194905/42145726
Directions: Diagonally opposite to Museum Theatre.

Rush to register for Joy of Giving Week workshop in Hyderabad (July 22)

GuideStar India (www.guidestarindia.org) is happy to invite you to the Joy of Giving Week workshop organised by GiveIndia. Please read below the Hyderabad workshop announcement from GiveIndia and confirm your participation to jgw@giveindia.org. They will soon be organising similar workshops in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata.

GuideStar India is managing NGO registration for the Joy of Giving Week. After you confirm participation with jgw@giveindia.org, we will send you the registration form.

Joy of Giving Week, Sept 27 - Oct 3, 2009
A Unique and massive Opportunity for NGOs to raise money, resources and awareness, brought to you by GiveIndia
Hyderabad Workshop on Wednesday, July 22, 2009

After bringing the idea of "fundraising through marathons" to India through the Mumbai and Delhi marathons, GiveIndia now presents NGOs of the country a BIGGER platform- The Joy of Giving Week, September 27-October 3, 2009. The Joy of Giving week is a huge national platform that will bring 2 crore Indians together to engage in conscious acts of giving- money, time, skills, donations in kind. From a panwalla in Muzaffarpur to a billionaire in Mumbai, school children, college goers, factory workers, housewives, autorickshaw walas, celebrities and corporate honchos…just about everybody will participate through this platform. Above all, it creates a platform for NGOs to fundraise with zero fees payable- 100% of what is raised through an event goes to the NGOs!!

We invite you to a free of cost meeting and discussion on this new national movement and how you might leverage the opportunity to increase the visibility of your work and raise funds for your organisation.

Venue: Press Club, Opp. Nizam College (near LB Stadium Gate), Basheerbagh, Hyderabad.
(It is before the Basheerbagh Flyover, on the First Floor)
Date: July 22, 2009 (Wednesday)
Time: 10.00 am – 12.00 noon

Please carry your visiting cards with you to facilitate follow-up contacts.

Register now to confirm participation. Limited seats available on First Come First Served basis. Workshop open to all NGOs of Andhra Pradesh. Separate workshops are being done in other cities for the other states. Please email jgw@giveindia.org to confirm participation.


Travel Directions:

If you are coming by a train or bus, please get down near Nampally Railway Station (or Nampally Bus Stop.) The workshop venue is only 1.5 KM from there. By walk it would take you around 15 mins, else you can take a auto rickshaw for 10-15 Rupees. Also, please find attached to this email a direction map from Nampally to workshop venue.

If you are having any queries/doubts, please call

# 99631 06032 (for mode of communication in Telugu)
# 99082 16677 (for mode of communication in English/Hindi)


More Information on the Joy of Giving Week

Several large national initiatives are already in place-

1. The School Design Challenge will inspire children aged 10-13 from over 35,000 private and government schools all over India to design solutions to India's problems and implement them during the Week. Presented by Riverside School, NID, Stanford Design School and IDEO (the world's #1 design firm), in partnership with hundreds of educational NGOs and schools across India.

2. The College Joyfest will reach youth from 3000+ colleges all over India, and get at least 300 colleges to partner with local NGOs and organise "Joy Festivals" in their colleges. Youth will also be encouraged to volunteer in various community initiatives during the week. The event is being promoted by JAM and supported by MTV.

3. Goonj will run a massive Clothes Collection Drive in 25 cities all over India, targeting to collect at least 1 crore units of clothing during the Week.

4. The Battle of Buffets events in Chennai and Hyderabad will see their biggest 5* hotels coming together and offering their best buffet spreads free of cost in large public fundraising events, and NGOs in the city can benefit by selling donor passes to the “zero cost fundraising event”.

5. Stars4Charity, a fundraising event choreographed by ace director Farah Khan in Mumbai will help the Jai Vakeel Trust to fund raise.

6. A "CEOs Walk the Ramp for a Cause" event by Toofles Foundation will be hosted by the Taj Hotels in Mumbai during the Week.

HYDERABAD is having events like Love 4 Buffet - which presents opportunity for fund raising at Zero Percent Cost, Shadow A CEO, etc. Many NGOs locally are planning and working on huge fund-raising and awareness events during the Joy of Giving Week.

Besides this several individuals and organisations across the country are creating events and opportunities for people to participate in giving and volunteering. Several companies have come forward and offered space for hosting events, providing technology support, free branding and visibility, media coverage, etc. For further details, visit http://www.joyofgivingweek.org/

About GiveIndia:

GiveIndia is India's largest 'philanthropy exchange' that connects donors directly with NGOs. Founded in 2000, our flagship Payroll Giving programme and other activities together channeled Rs26.7cr from 150,000 individual donors to more than 200 NGOs in 2008-09 alone.

Jay, tenth grader from Chicago volunteers with GuideStar India

We are delighted to have Jay Jani, a tenth grade student from Chicago volunteering with us for 3 weeks. This is what Jay has to say: "I came all this way to India from Chicago to help out this NGO GuideStar India. This gives me community service hours and it also gives me a good feeling inside that I am helping the community. GuideStar India has encouraged me to do community services because it is a program that helps many people internationally. The future of the world is going to depend on international communication, thus, this program enables the practice and understanding of helping others before oneself. I feel it is important to do GuideStar India because it helps India move forward into mindsets of people in giving a helping hand. My goals here are bring back this information that I have learned to my school and community. This will help GuideStar India reach many parts of the world. I have done plenty of community service before. I decided to do this because it will help me in the field of business that I wish to embark into. Traveling and having an exposure of working in GuideStar India will help me in my life in plenty of these ways."
Thank you, Jay. We are sure the work you do with us will help us to showcase the work of many NGOs.

Great response to JGW workshops at Bangalore

The NGO workshop held at Dell Computers in Bangalore had 116 participants from NGOs in Karnataka and Kerala. The second session at Resource Alliance's IWRM the same day spread the message to another 63 participants from different parts of the country.

Registration forms have been mailed to all participants and completed forms have started coming in. Click here to download the NGO registration form for free registration.

We thank Praveen, Regional Coordinator (South) of Credibility Alliance for helping us at both workshops. We thank Archana of iVolunteer and their volunteers for the day, Prathana Unkalkar, Anto Francis Bharat, Prema Swaminathan and Vijayanand Nagaraj for making the on-the-spot registration process smooth. A big thank you to Gopi Venkataraman and Karpagavalli M Sundaram, Srivibhavan Balaram and Rajeev Goswami of GiveIndia for taking care of every one.

Joy of Giving Week Bangalore Workshop on June 27, 2009

NGOs in Karnataka and Kerala- send a mail quickly to jgw@giveindia.org to register for the Joy of Giving Workshop.
Venue: Dell Computers India Ltd.,
5th floor, Annexe Building, Discovery Room, Varthar Hobli, Domlur, Bangalore
It is on the intermediate ring road connecting indiranagar 100 ft road to Koremangala.
Date: June 27, 2009 Time: 10.00 am – 12.00 noon .
Do remember to carry your visiting card to facilitate follow up contacts.

70 NGOs register at the Joy of Giving workshop, Mumbai

96 participants from 70 NGOs attended the Joy of Giving (JGW) workshop held on June 13, 2009 at HR College in Mumbai. The GiveIndia team presented the concept of JGW and explained some of the events planned across India for the week of Sept. 27 to Oct 3, 2009. Goonj, Karmayog and JAM shared details of their activities for the JGW. The GuideStar India counter was buzzing with activity as NGOs rushed for on-the-spot registrations. NGOs collected the 2-page form at the workshop and have started emailing their information.

Ms. Indu Shahani, Sheriff of Mumbai, graced the workshop. She shared stories of her experience in reaching out to women and youth in need of help. She emphasised the role of youth in solving social problems as well as stressed the importance of readily accessible information about NGOs working for different causes.

If you missed the Mumbai workshop, check this blog for announcements of workshops in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad. You can also write to info@guidestarindia.org for free registration.

Rush to register your NGO for the Joy of Giving Week!

After bringing the idea of "fundraising through marathons" to India through the Mumbai and Delhi marathons, GiveIndia now presents NGOs of the country an EVEN BIGGER platform- The Joy of Giving Week, September 27-October 3, 2009.

GiveIndia has tied up with Guidestar India for NGO registration for the Joy of Giving Week. Guidestar is a database of NGOs that puts all the information out in public domain and GiveIndia believes it is good for organisations to get that visibility. The registration process is entirely free of cost and all you have to do is to fill in the short Joy of Giving Week form of Guidestar India and submit your basic legal and financial documents.

The Joy of Giving week is a huge national platform that will bring 2 crore Indians together to engage in conscious acts of giving- money, time, skills, donations in kind. From a panwalla in Muzaffarpur to a billionaire in Mumbai, school children, college goers, factory workers, housewives, autorickshaw walas, celebrities and corporate honchos…just about everybody will participate through this platform.
Above all, it creates a platform for NGOs to fundraise with zero fees payable- 100% of what is raised through an event goes to the NGOs!!

Attend GiveIndia's free workshop on Saturday, June 13, 2009 for more details on how you can benefit from this. Pallavi, Jitu, Saleha and Pushpa from GuideStar India will be at the registration desk to help you with on-the-spot registration of your NGO. Do write to jasmine@giveindia.org to confirm your participation and send a mail to info@guidestarindia.org for an advance copy of the registration form.

Do you know how many NGOs are there in India?

Any one trying to understand the voluntary sector in India has this one question that pretty much remains unanswered.

Is it 5000, 50,000, 500,000 or 5,000,000?
The only reliable number that is often quoted is fromthe PRIA- John Hopkins University study conducted in the year 2001 that estimated the number of NGOs in India at 1.2 million. If that number sounds too large, the recent estimates we hear is anywhere between 3-5 million. You might wonder why there is so little statistical information about the voluntary sector in India.

Some of the reasons are:

• There are multiple registration authorities for NGOs.
• As annual filings are not required by all forms of not for profit entities, there is no count of active organisations.
• Registrars that require annual filings are not fully geared to track filings electronically.
• Not all NGOs have exemptions under the Indian Income Tax Act to provide tax benefits to donors. Records of the estimated 50,000 NGOs that have such benefits are scattered at over 100 locations.
• NGOs that receive foreign contributions are registered under FCRA with the Ministry of Home Affairs. This is the single largest source and that too is estimated to be less than 50,000 NGOs.

GuideStar is reaching out to various sources of information on NGOs (government, foundations, CSR divisions of corporates, intermediaies in the voluntary sector, networks and membership organisations, NGOs and individuals) to encourage NGOs they know of, to profile their organisations on www.guidestarindia.org. We believe that information about NGOs in India would soon be only a click away.

Unlike in the US and UK where the government provides information on charities to GuideStar and NGOs go online and update their pages, in India we will need the help of many hands and hearts. We would need to convert several reams of paper information in many different languages to be digitised. More importantly, we need volunteers who can help NGOs write their content, to showcase their work and articulate their needs online. If you would like to help, write to us at info@guidestarindia.org.