Only 3 documents & 30 min needed to register an NGO on GuideStar India!

Our registration process for NGOs has been further simplified! It takes only 3 documents (ITPAN, registration certificate as Society/ Trust/ Section 25 Company and a valid address proof) and a simple form which you can fill in less than 30 minutes to apply for registering an NGO on www.guidestarindia.org. Registration is FREE!

Over 1000 NGOs have registered with GuideStar India and we have connected them with resources and opportunities such as free IT training workshops and software donations from NASSCOM Foundation,  online fundraising through GiveIndia, membership & accreditation from the Credibility Alliance, the Spirit of Humanity Awards from AmeriCares India, India NGO Awards from the Resource Alliance.

NGOs have started quoting their GSN (GuideStar Number) on application forms to qualify for fast track registrations and for other assessors to refer to their documents online!

Many NGOs have updated their pages on GuideStar India to showcase their work comprehensively and to demonstrate their transparency and accountability. For example visit the pages of Alternative for Rural Movement and ROSARY Trust.

Click here to register now with GuideStar India!

India NGO Awards last date extended to Feb 28

Many GuideStar India NGOs wrote to us in the last 10 days for their GuideStar Number to fill in their application for the India NGO Awards. Some NGOs wrote to us for their login details for updating their pages before sending off their award applications.

Now, you have more time to apply.

The Resource Alliance has extended the last date to Feb 28, 2011.

All the best!

Only 10 days left to apply for the India NGO Awards!

The Resource Alliance and the Rockefeller Foundation invite NGOs to apply for India NGO Awards 2010. The application form requires you to quote your GuideStar Number (GSN) so that assessors could refer to additional information from your pages on www.guidestarindia.org. Many of you have been asking us for your GSN and login details for updating your page. If you need this information, please write to info@guidestarindia.org.

If your organisation is in the process of getting uploaded on www.guidestarindia.org, you may quote your GSN in the form as: Completed registration, awaiting GSN. We will mail to you in March, the GSN and login details for updating your pages. We will also directly send your GSN to the Resource Alliance for their reference.

You still have 10 days to send your application if you have not done already. You can download the brochure and form at: http://www.resource-alliance.org/documents/india_ngo_awards_2010.pdf.

Rush your entry to the Resource Alliance before Feb 15, 2011.

Please refer (below) to the communication from the Resource Alliance for more details.


=============================================================
Dear Friends,


The Resource Alliance and the Rockefeller Foundation are pleased to invite applications for the India NGO Awards 2010. The Awards, as you may be aware were instituted in 2006 to recognise and felicitate those organisations that have demonstrated best practices in creative resourcing, financial management, governance and impact in the community.

Non Governmental Organisations from across the country are encouraged to send in their entries under one of the three categories based on their annual budget (income) for 2009-10.

Categories

- Small: Annual budget under Rs 50 lakhs
- Medium: Annual budget between Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 5 crores
- Large: Annual budget over Rs 5 crores

Criteria

Organisations will be evaluated on the effective and sustainable mobilisation of resources, the demonstration of efficient management of resources, good governance practices, transparency and accountability and the impact of the work in bringing about tangible benefits to its target communities,

Benefits

• The three national winners in each category will receive a trophy and cash prize of Rs 4,00,000/- to be used “to strengthen their internal systems and processes.”
• All Regional Finalists will be profiled in a casebook, which will be widely disseminated.
• All Regional Finalists will be mentored by TIE members.
• All applicants will be invited to participate in customised workshops on resource mobilisation and related areas.

Please find attached the brochure/entry form for the India NGO Awards 2010. You may also download the form from http://www.resource-alliance.org/documents/india_ngo_awards_2010.pdf . The last date for receiving entries is February 15th, 2011- just 10 days to go.

For any further information on the Awards please write to us at indiangoaward@resource-alliance.org.

Warm regards,

Rati Misra
Regional Representative (South Asia)
The Resource Alliance
B4/58 Safdarjung Enclave, 2nd Floor
New Delhi-110029 India
Tel.: + 91-11-41354766
Mobile: 9811938889
Website: http://www.resource-alliance.org/

Fast track registration for GuideStar India NGOs to get software donations

A special offer from NASSCOM Foundation for GuideStar India NGOs to register for its  software donation programme BiGTech in partnership with TechSoup Global.

BiGTech has so far donated software worth Rs7.5 crore across 27 states of India. Over 1000 NGOs are already registered under this programme. Currently their donation products come from Microsoft, BUSY accounting, Eagle teleconferencing, Bytes of Learning & Quick Heal Anti-virus.

NGOs registered with GuideStar India are put on a fast track registration process as BiGTech will access their registration details and supporting documents from http://www.guidestarindia.org/. This essentially means GuideStar India registered NGOs do not have to go through their usual process  All they need to do is fill in a very short form providing contact details of the person authorised to request for the software  donations and provide answers in Yes/No to their eligibility criteria.

In less than 10 minutes, a GuideStar India NGO could be registered with BiGTech!

If you are registered with GuideStar India, follow this link to fill the short form created especially for you by BiGTech. Do remember to quote your GSN (GuideStar Number). Register NOW and start taking advantage of software donations under BiGTech!

If your NGO is already registered with BiGTech, you need not register again.

If your NGO is not yet registered with GuideStar India, please complete the process as described at: http://www.guidestarindia.org/Registerorg.aspx. We will send you an invite for BiGTech registration thereafter. NGOs that have recently completed their GuideStar India registration will receive an invite with their GSN in Feb. 

Thank you, Prashant at NASSCOM Foundation for simplifying the BiGTech registration process for GuideStar India NGOs!

Thank you for making 2010 so special for us! Happy New Year!

As we set out to connect many more people with NGOs of their choice during 2011, we thank all those who made 2010 so very special for us:

• 716 NGOs who chose to be featured on www.guidestarindia.org for voluntarily sharing their information with over 5000 documents in public domain

• 948 participants from 607 NGOs who registered through us and took advantage of NASSCOM Foundation’s free IT training workshops

• 74 NGOs from across India who participated for the first time in online fundraising by registering through us for GiveIndia’s India Giving Challenge 2010

• 32 NGOs that underwent due diligence for Style for Smiles and Speak for Smiles to receive their donations through Toofles Foundation

• 344 NGOs that attended the several workshops of GiveIndia, GlobalGiving and Credibility Alliance for which we did the outreach

• 85 NGOs that signed up NASSCOM Foundation’s BiGTech programme

• The British Asian Trust for making us their due diligence partner when we had just started

• NASSCOM Foundation for making us their Outreach Partner for their ConnectIT workshops

• Credibility Alliance for partnering with us to manage their Membership registration

• GiveIndia for making us their Outreach & Registration Partner for India Giving Challenge 2010

• Resource Alliance for partnering with us to be a part of screening India NGO Award 2010 applicants

• The National Trust, Packard Foundation, Ammada Trust, Goonj, Janpath and Maharashtra State Women’s Council for giving us the opportunity to address their partners

• SP Jain Institute of Management Research for inviting us to address students of their fundraising course

• Tata Tea Jaago Re! And AmeriCares India for using our services to reach out to NGOs

• The Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University for their inputs and guidance with using the International Classification for Nonprofit Organizations

• The American Center, Mumbai and Harmony for Silvers Foundation for providing us their auditorium for workshops

• Blind People’s Association, Goonj, Sightsavers India and STAPI for sharing their database

• Propoor.org, NGO Post, Alliance Magazine and the GiveIndia NGO newsletter for spreading our message far and wide

• GiveIndia and Credibility Alliance for facilitating automatic registration of their partners with us and for working towards smooth navigation for users

• STAPI for providing institutional support

• Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy for advice on a range of issues within hours

• The government departments that welcomed our inputs and also readily offered advice

• Individual donors and foundations who supported our efforts

• Visitors of our site, our followers on Twitter, Facebook friends and subscribers of our blog

• People who reported stories of NGOs they found through GuideStar India and the contributions made

• GuideStar International for support and encouragement in so many different ways

• Our Board Members, Advisors, auditors, volunteers, interns and team members during the year

While we have thanked the numerous organisations that made 2010 special for us, it is wonderful people in these organisations who made the journey so rewarding!

We look forward to another exciting year with your support!

A very happy New Year!

Click and Connect with your favourite cause this holiday season

Have you ever thought about gifting your time or money to help significantly change lives of those around you? This giving season, spend a few minutes on www.guidestarindia.org to get to know about and connect with NGOs in India working on a cause that is dear to you. You can identify NGOs that you would like to visit in your city/ town or find information on charities that you may want to support remotely. You can also share information on their work via your blog, Facebook or Twitter. GuideStar India features 716 NGOs across India. Just click and connect!

Dr Usha Pillai, of the IDEA Foundation  says “Soon after our registration on GuideStar India, we got the opportunity to attend an IT Workshop conducted by the NASSCOM Foundation. Through this workshop we could familiarise ourselves with various online tools to promote our cause. Our presence on the GuideStar India website and a social networking site has in fact helped us to connect with an industry donor, who was looking for a small NGO. Being added to GuideStar India has been of phenomenal long term value to a small NGO like ours within a few months of association."

Pushpa Aman Singh, CEO of GuideStar India says “It is amazing to see how quickly connections happen: I got a call from a person based in Bangalore who wanted his sister, a cosmetic surgeon in Mumbai to connect with a charity working for women around Mumbai so that she could raise awareness about their work at the medical conferences she is invited to address. Within minutes he found a list of suitable organisations on www.guidestarindia.org  and within days his family started work with the IDEA Foundation. With so many NGOs using the internet and email effectively, it is fairly easy for people across the globe to support NGOs in India. We get enquiries from students who seek to volunteer for a few days while on a holiday trip, people who want to intern with charities while on vacation, parents who want to spend time along with their children at an NGO reading stories or playing games or helping them with their daily tasks and there are those who support charities from where they live by spreading awareness and doing fundraisers to helping with online communication.”

Ready to make a meaningful gift this holiday season? Click here and get connected with your favourite cause right away! Do write to us at info@guidestarindia.org and share your joy of giving. We will feature some of the stories on this blog.

Happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year!

Karnataka & Kerala NGOs: Register for FREE IT training workshops, limited seats!





1082 participants have taken advantage of IT training workshops in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat and Delhi. Now it is your turn to attend… Apply NOW!

As the Outreach Partner for these workshops, GuideStar India is pleased to invite you for free high impact IT training workshops titled ‘ConnectIT workshop" in Karnataka.

NGOs can take advantage of free IT training in MS Office & social media worth at least Rs5000. Thanks to NASSCOM Foundation and Microsoft, this programme comes to NGOs free of cost. You can nominate TWO participants, which means a saving of Rs10,000 and your NGO will get the benefit of using IT more effectively.

Where & When are ConnectIT Workshop to be held:

Bangalore  05 – 08 Jan, 2011
Belgaum    18 – 21 Jan, 2011
Hubli         25- 29 Jan, 2011 (26th Jan holiday for Republic Day)
Mangalore  01-04 Feb, 2011

Venue for ConnectIT workshops: will be informed to confirmed participants.

What is the workshop content: Practical training on desktops/ laptops including advanced use of Microsoft Excel, Word, making presentations, newsletters, movie making, animation, sound and video in Power point, use of new media such as blogs, Twitter, Face book, etc. There is a session on how to get featured on GuideStar India. All NGOs that register for ConnectIT workshops will be trained to showcase their work on www.guidestarindia.org. You will also get to enroll for NASSCOM Foundation’s software donation programme BiGTech.

Please refer to the agenda for details.

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.

Who can participate

NGO leaders and staff who currently use MS Office and are keen to learn to use these and other tools more effectively. These will be conducted in English. Nominate 2 persons, one of who is a key decision maker so that your organisation can implement the learning most appropriately.

Accommodation: Participants have to make their own arrangements for stay and travel.

How to register:

Click http://bit.ly/connectitregn to register online.

Or

If you are not able to fill the online Registration Form, please download the Word document, fill it and email to register@guidestarindia.org. If you face any difficulty, please call Lathika at GuideStar India on 022-26856900/99.

How will you know if your Participation is Confirmed:

You will receive a mail from GuideStar India within 3 days of receiving your registration form. If you do not receive a mail, please feel free to call Lathika at GuideStar India to verify your confirmation status. Confirmation is based on selection criteria and first come first served basis. Entry will be allowed strictly against copy of confirmation mail and photo ID.

You will receive a series of important emails after you register. Please read all our emails carefully as it may contain important information about the ConnectIT Workshop.

If you have any questions regarding participation, please write to register@guidestarindia.org. Please apply at the earliest and await email confirmation of your registration.

Feel free to inform other NGOs from your network to register for the ConnectIT Workshop. You may simply forward the link to this page (http://guidestarindia.org/ITtraining.aspx).

If you do not want to miss this golden opportunity, apply NOW.