Scholarship for the sole driving force behind engaging and managing volunteers in your organization! Apply NOW

Do you have someone who single-handedly recruits, engages and/or manages all volunteers in your organisation? This person could be a staff member or a volunteer who does this entirely on their own. If so, here's an interesting opportunity that rewards the exceptional work being done by them.

VolCon, India’s largest volunteering conference, has introduced "The Trailblazer Scholarship 2024" award for individuals who are the sole or ONLY volunteer managers in their non-profit organization. The aim of the scholarship is to recognize the impact of individuals who recruit/engage volunteers and champion the cause of volunteering through their work, and to help build their capacities and networks in the space.

VolCon will provide up to 20 scholarships to deserving candidates, which would include:

• Attendance pass for VolCon 2024 (to be held in Bangalore on Feb 29 - Mar 1 2024).
• Flight/2AC train/AC bus travel expenses from their home base within India to and from the conference venue (train/bus for journeys upto 12 hours)
• Accommodation during the conference period

This year's VolCon will be attended by 180+ leaders across corporates, intermediaries and agencies that actively engage volunteers all across India. This is a great opportunity for selected volunteer managers/engagers to participate in 2-days of intense learning through 15+ workshops and panel discussions on a variety of volunteer management topics.

The learning/exposure from the event will not only equip them to upskill their own knowledge and capabilities, but also provide opportunities to your non-profit organization to grow its network, build new CSR relationships, and grow the impact of your volunteering programs.

In order to encourage new people to participate in VolCon, this scholarship will only be available for those individuals and organizations who have NOT attended VolCon previously.

Eligible candidates are invited to submit their application here. If you have a colleague in your organisation who is eligible, do ask them to apply!

Attend Capacity Building Workshop - Final workshop in a series of 5 to upgrade your NGO with GuideStar India Certification

 

Happy New Year!   More power to you in the new year to make a better world!    We thank you for your active participation in the overview and capacity building workshops held on 15th Dec ,18th Dec, 20th,Dec, 22nd Dec and 05th Jan, as part of GuideStar India's certification programme.   This is our invite for the Part 5 workshop of 5 scheduled on 09th Jan, Tuesday at 3pm on zoom.   GuideStar India’s upgraded Certification is based on an assessment rubric covering 7 pillars or clusters with 500+ parameters that will give you an edge in India and globally.    The certification process comprises 5 Capacity Building workshops. What’s more…you apply for the Capacity Building + Certification programme and have the chance to qualify for the GuideStar India Platinum/ Gold/ Silver/ Bronze based on your assessment score! Every organisation has an equal chance to qualify for Platinum regardless of its size! The assessment parameters are divided into qualifiers and differentiators, and you need a minimum score in each pillar to qualify. There could be differentiators that you may learn about, but put into practice in the future. The applicability of parameters is based on the size of the organisation.    We covered the following 5 pillars in our previous workshops:   Situation Analysis  Theory of Change Evidence of Impact using logic model Intervention (Programme Management) Infrastructure & Support (Operations, Finance and Compliance)   Following are the topics for the 9th Jan workshop: Compliance Q & A to previous workshop Governance and Oversight - Governance  - Accountability Learning & Reflections - Capabilities & Challenges       This will be a journey of learning and reflection with your internal teams, management and governing body members! 304 unique participants from 180 NGOs have attended the first 4 workshops in this series. 98% found the framework useful!   GuideStar India certified NGOs showed remarkable resilience during the pandemic. In the past 5 years, 88% of GuideStar Certified NGOs registered growth vis-à-vis only 57% on non-GuideStar India certified NGOs.    Here’s what some of the participants had to say after attending the last series of capacity building workshops:

“I think there is a solution to everything and I am now more confident that as an organisation we can work on preventive measures to avoid any risk that can happen to the organisation.”   Shannon Dona Massar, Faith Foundation “Realistic examples and cases were eye opener and push us to look into our books of accounts appropriately”   Shwetha, DEHAT “The possibility of communicating our work better to an external/general audience, Connecting with a community of NGOS”   Poonam Kathuria, Society for Women's Action and Training Initiatives

Even if you have a currently valid GuideStar India certification seal or you have already started our new certification process, we recommend you to attend these workshops so that you are better equipped to take advantage of your certification.   Role of the Certification Champion (Contact person from your organisation): Please note that you need to nominate one person from your organisation to attend all the workshops and champion this process internally and be responsible for completing the process with GuideStar India in a time-bound manner.   The champion will be awarded a certificate on successful completion of certification by the NGO. We recommend that following people from your organisation should attend the workshop  on 9th Jan, 2024.   1. Chief Functionary 2. One or more Governing Body members. 3. Head of Finance and Compliance 4. Contact Person from the organisation must attend     Register in advance for this meeting:  https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrdu2qrD8jGdTCO7DnTESCxjpu8vhmtOW-   Time: 3:00 pm to 5:30pm    After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.    About your Certification Status: In the evolving landscape, we understand the significance of aligning certifications with the latest financial data. Most stakeholders, including founders and platforms (including social stock exchanges), increasingly seek certifications based on the latest financial year, 2022-23 in this case.   While your certification may be valid, we would like to highlight that it is best to keep it aligned based on the financial review for the period of 2022-23.   If you wish to apply for certification based on the review of financial year 2022-23, please fill the Expression of Interest Form (EIF) by clicking this link: https://forms.gle/b1Ji1yheHd5TMMkn6   Please fill the feedback form for the overview workshop by clicking this link: https://forms.gle/nDVaH6o6bmNwZ2jY9.   Link for Reading material: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e36S6P-sOV-IvEBxeWPdy0cnX_Dyl6xy/view?usp=drive_link   The workshop ppt will be shared shortly with the organisations that  have applied and is  under the process for GuideStar India certification.   If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write to us at certification@guidestarindia.org with a copy to lathika@guidestarindia.org.    We look forward to this learning journey with you!    Best wishes Lathika Rajan