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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.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Registrations begin for Rajasthan IT workshops


After the success of 6 ConnectIT Workshops and the ConnectIT Day attended by 318 NGO participants in different locations of Maharashtra, GuideStar India (www.guidestarindia.org) is pleased to invite NGOs 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) in Rajasthan.



ConnectIT Day:
This half day event to be held in Jaipur in mid March will include discussion panels on topics relevant to the use of IT in development and will be attended by representatives from NGOs, Government, Industry and domain experts. The ConnectIT Day is a programme for NGO leaders and senior managers to meet and interact with decision makers and experts who use technology for development.

Registration is FREE and each NGO can send 2 participants. NGOs that attend the ConnectIT Day will be given preference in registration for the ConnectIT workshops.

ConnectIT Workshop:
There will be 6 workshops called ‘ConnectIT Workshop’ to be held in Jaipur, Jodhpur & Udaipur the months of March-April. These workshops are for NGO leaders and staff who already use MS Office and are keen to learn to use these and other tools more effectively. The workshops include hands-on training on desktops & laptops. Sessions include advanced use of Microsoft Excel, Word, making presentations, newsletters, movie making, use of new media such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. There is also a session on how to get featured on GuideStar India. All NGOs that register for ConnectIT Day/ConnectIT workshops will be trained to showcase their work on www.guidestarindia.org, an online platform for NGOs to create and manage their own web pages.


Participants who attend all 4 days sessions in any one ConnectIT Workshop will receive a Certificate of Participation and a CD based user manual to help them use their learning after this workshop.


Registration is FREE and each NGO can send 2 participants for any one ConnectIT Workshops in Jaipur/ Jodhpur/ Udaipur.


Participants of the ConnectIT Workshops and ConnectIT Day held in Maharashtra found them useful. This is what some of them had to say:
Ms Diana Peters from Habitat for Humanity India: “Overall the training was educative, informative, effective, building upon the basics. Content was excellent and faculty was interactive, reaching out to everyone’s level of understanding.”
Mr Pandurang Solanke from AFARM: “Very helpful, learnt additional features, shortcuts which will save time, learnt additional Power Point features like power point video, hyperlinks, etc which will help in presentations, got to know about online tools and how to do marketing online, also shall spread the learnings to colleagues which will help them in their daily activities. I will ask other NGOs from our network to register for Nagpur and Sangli.”
Ms Sarita Walkar from Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi:“Overall very good learning workshop. Learnt additional features, better way of creation of report in excel and word. Learnt to create blog which will help the organization to do more creative work with online tools.”
Ms Thelma Pereira from Paragon Charitable Trust: “Overall, the instructional and hands-on training imparted to us was very educative, informative and effective particularly for me who earlier had only basic knowledge and use of the various MS office applications and I am now confidently looking forward to upgrading my IT skills from the current Windows 2003 to Windows 2007. I greatly appreciate the coverage of topics at the Workshop and the active interactions between the trainers and us trainees where our trainers spared no efforts to cater to all levels of understanding.
…And I have left the Workshop greatly enriched by the training and learnings I’ve received and, emulating Ashutosh(trainer), I am sharing them with my office colleagues. I thank you once again not only for the useful training but also for making available to us a CD to reinforce our learnings in the Workshop.”

Venue and Date for ConnectIT Day and ConnectIT workshops: will be informed shortly. You may subscribe to our blog http://guidestarindia.blogspot.com/ for frequent updates.
Accommodation: Participants have to make their own arrangements for stay and travel.


How do you register


1. You can register online at  OR


You can fill the attached Registration Form and mail it to connectit@nasscomfoundation.org AND info@guidestarindia.org


2. After you send the registration form, we will send you a Need Assessment Form.
How will you know if your Participation is Confirmed
You will receive a mail from NASSCOM Foundation within 3 days of receiving your registration form and Need Assessment Form. If you do not receive a mail, please feel free to call Lathika or Jitu at GuideStar India to verify your confirmation status.

GuideStar India is the Outreach Partner for ConnectIT Day and ConnectIT workshops. If you have any questions regarding participation, please write to info@guidestarindia.org or speak with Lathika on 022-26856900. Please apply at the earliest and await email confirmation of your registration from NASSCOM Foundation.

Feel free to inform other NGOs from your network to register for the ConnectIT Day and ConnectIT Workshop. You may simply share this blog post with them.

Due to limited seats at each event, registrations will be based on first come first served basis.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Read what GuideStars around the world are doing

GuideStar International's latest newsletter has updates from GuideStar India, Korea, US and UK. Click here to view the newsletter. A quick look at the contents:

IN THE NEWS
  • GuideStar India
    - GuideStar India's CEO gives presentation at Taiwan's International Conference on NPO Accountability
    - The British Asian Trust to support all its partners to register with GuideStar India - GuideStar India hosts ConnectIT Workshops
  • GuideStar Korea
    - GuideStar Korea speaks about GuideStar (US) on Korean TV Programme
  • GuideStar (US)
    - Majority of Charities Report Increased Demand for Services yet Receive Less Contributions
  • GuideStar UK
    - A Balancing Act: Regulation and Reporting for Small Organisations • GuideStar International News - GuideStar Google Map - Caroline Neligan presents GuideStar to Colombian Civil Society
  • GuideStar International's Blog Update!
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    - Responding to NGO Development Effectiveness Initiatives
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