The official GuideStar India blog

Welcome, NGOs and all those interested in NGOs in India!

If you are running an NGO or working for one, you will find opportunities and resources for your organisation.

If you or your organisation want to direct your time, money, products or services to NGOs that can can make the most effective and efficient use of your donations or grants, you will find this blog and http://www.guidestarindia.org/ useful to announce your offer to NGOs.

You will also get to read about statistics and issues concerning transparency & accountability of the Indian voluntary sector.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

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.

Monday, August 10, 2009

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.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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.