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.