How to apply for The Times of India Social Impact Awards

As an implementation   partner for The Times of India Social Impact Awards, GuideStar India encourages you to apply for these awards. Please read the invitation  below and the FAQs section before you apply.

• To apply, you can log in via Twitter, Facebook, itimes, indiatimes or TOI IDs. If you do not have an account on these, please click “More Login Options” and select 'Connect with Times of India' and join as a new member
• If you have any queries, please write to: socialimpactawards@indiatimes.com
• Last date for applications: 7th July, 2011. We advise you to apply at the earliest
• Log in to www.timessocialawards.com and send in your applications 

I N V I T A T I O N

There has been undoubted progress post India’s independence but it is overshadowed today by the persistence of poverty, ignorance and disease among a vast number of our fellow citizens. While most people will agree with this, they despair at the vastness of the problems. Some close their eyes and strive only for personal advance. Others hope that state policies will somehow change the prevailing order. Fortunately for India, there are wonderful and amazing people and organizations who have been battling enormous odds and making great personal sacrifices so that the lives of disadvantaged people are changed for the better. To acknowledge and honor these unsung heroes of India, The Times of India has decided to institute ‘The Times of India Social Impact Awards’. This paper, which has over the past few years launched such initiatives as Teach India, Lead India and Aman ki Asha, believes it has a responsibility towards this nation, and its people, that goes beyond merely reporting the news of the day.

The TOI Awards will help focus greater attention on five critical spheres: education, healthcare, livelihood, environment and advocacy/empowerment. As we want to credit outstanding contributions from different sections of society, there will be three awards in each of the five spheres – a non-governmental organization (NGO); a corporate-backed organization; and a government body at the state or district level. There will also be a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Global Impact Award. Widespread and tangible impact, which has the quality of changing lives forever, is the key criterion for these awards. The applications for each award will be vetted by an esteemed panel of jury members and domain experts. 

We encourage organizations like you to send in your application for the awards by logging on to www.timessocialawards.com. Your support and participation will serve as an inspiration to the millions who wish to make a real difference.

The awards will culminate in a final award ceremony which is scheduled for Sunday, October 2^nd 2011.

Best Regards,

Team Social Impact Awards

What are you doing this Joy of Giving Week?

Register for the NGO workshop on Fundraising during the Joy of Giving Week 2011on April 11, 2011 in Mumbai from 9am to 1pm. This workshop is ONLY for NGOs with operation in and around Mumbai. If your NGO is outside Mumbai, please watch out for workshop annoucements in your city.


What is the Joy of Giving Week (JGW)

The Joy of Giving Week (JGW) is India's "festival of giving". Launched in Sept 27-Oct 3, 2009, the festival is celebrated every year, in the week including Gandhi Jayanti, i.e., October 2, and brings together Indians from all walks of life, to celebrate "giving". From auto drivers to CEOs, school children to celebrities, homemakers to opinion leaders, millions of people give their time, money, resources or skills back to society- by creating or participating in "events" of their choice. Events are organised by NGOs, individuals, social groups, schools, colleges, corporates, media houses and others.

More than 1 million Indians participated in 400+ events held in JGW 2010 and funds and material worth over Rs20 crore was raised.

Why your NGO should be a part of JGW

While some NGOs have made events during JGW an annual affair to generate awareness and donations, we believe that with some orientation and training, thousands of NGOs could significantly leverage the JGW platform to raise funds and/ or create awareness if they start planning NOW.

You could create your own event or join an existing umbrella event. You could focus on fundraising or simply heighten the awareness about your work. It is a great time to do events with people you know to reach to people they may or may not know. It is a festival during which corporates, schools, colleges, associations, housing societies and individuals are keen to spread joy. Many of them are eager to support NGOs working for their favourite cause. The media devotes space and time to cover events.


What will be done at this NGO workshop:

• Overview of JGW in the 2009 & 2010

• Key platform events planned in Mumbai for JGW 2011 – which you can join

• Show case of replicable events & ideas

• Identification of specific event options for your NGO

• There are worksheets that NGOs will use in small groups to think through and arrive at 2-3 specific options for each NGO

• JGW Resources


Who should attend this workshop:

Ideally the chief functionary AND fundraising head should attend this workshop.


When & where

Monday, April 11, 2011 from 9 am to 1pm at

Kalavati Chabbria Hall

Rotary Service Centre, Ground Floor

Rotary Chowk, Juhu Tara Road

Santacruz West, Mumbai 400054

Directions and details will be sent with confirmation mails.


The Joy of Giving Week team thanks the Rotary Club Bombay West for providing their venue, facilities and refreshments for the workshop. They responded to our request within minutes by email!

How to REGISTER for this workshop

To register for the workshop, please fill the online form at http://bit.ly/jgwngoworkshopregn . It will take you less than 10 minutes to register.

Registration is FREE but compulsory as we can take in only 100 participants.

Within 2 days of registration, you will receive a confirmation mail from GuideStar India. Please carry a copy of the confirmation mail for entry at the venue.

Register now as confirmation is strictly based on first come first served basis for a maximum of 2 persons (decision makers) from each NGO.

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!