The official GuideStar India blog

Welcome, NGOs and all those interested in NGOs in India!

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.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Celebrating World NGO Day with 12000+ NGOs of GuideStar India



World NGO Day is celebrated on February 27th in more than 90 countries.

World NGO Day is an international day dedicated to recognize, celebrate and honour all non-governmental and nonprofit organizations, and the people behind them that contribute to the society all year around.

The theme for World NGO Day 2024 is 'Building a Sustainable Future: The Role of NGOs in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

GuideStar India celebrates the commitment of 12000+ NGOs of India to voluntarily practice transparency and public accountability.

We thank all our NGO members for the opportunity to illuminate their work and to build a community of changemakers. We believe when citizens, businesses and governments participate in doing good through NGOs, they can create greater impact!

Visit www.guidestarindia.org to discover, engage and support credible NGOs!


Monday, February 12, 2024

37 NPOs awarded GuideStar India Certification and 203 participants attend capacity building workshops in January 2024

GuideStar India organisations that received their certifications in January 2024


Congratulations to 37 organisations on successfully completing their GuideStar India certification!

Please browse through their GuideStar India profiles to identify opportunities to collaborate.

Those whose certifications are expiring on or before Mar 31, 2024, you are eligible to apply for renewal so that you get the benefit of a full year without and break in your certification status.

January 2024 Honours List:

Platinum

Collective Good Foundation: Renewal, Gold: 4 times
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=11024

Gold:

Magic Bus India Foundation: Renewal, Gold: 6 times
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=396

Silver:

Social Aspiration for Participatory Reforms by Evolved Manpower (SAPREM): Renewal, Silver: 1 time
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=7487

Bronze:

AAS
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=4654

Arunoday Sansthan
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14417

BRAVE SOULS FOUNDATION
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14113

Centre for Community Initiative
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=1263

Community Renovation and Organisation Advancement Trust
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=2700

Diksha
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=13812

DISHA
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14428

Drishti
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=4529

Gram Jagat
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14442

Gram Vikas Yuva Trust
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=13982

Gramin Shiksha Kendra Samiti
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=13673

HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14429

INTEGRATED RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY, MUTHUPATTI
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=599

Jan Sahas Social Empowerment Society
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14446

Jharkhand Mahila Uthan
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14441

Manav Vikas Bahuuddhishiya Gramin Seva Santha
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=10959

PATANG
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=11734

POREVARTHAN (PEOPLES ORGANISATION FOR RURAL EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL ACTION, RESEARCH, TRAING, HEALTH, AGRICULTURE & NATURE)
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14431

PRAKRITi
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14451

PRANTAKATHA
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=13274

SAHYOGI
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=1746

Samaan Social development Society
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14437

Samarpan
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=10876

SEVA NIKETAN
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14445

SEWA Delhi Trust
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14452

Sikshasandhan
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=11945

SOCIETY FOR PEOPLES ACTION IN RURAL SERVICE AND HEALTH (SPARSH) GADCHIROLI
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=8737

THE TAMILNADU DOMESTIC WORKERS WELFARE TRUST
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=192

UTSAH-UNIVERSAL TEAM FOR SOCIAL ACTION AND HELP
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14440

Voluntary Integration for Education and Welfare of Society
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=3436

WOMENS EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=1373

Yuva Vikas Mandal
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=14443

MANUVIKASA
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=983

NORTH EAST CENTRE FOR EQUITY ACTION ON INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT (NEAID)
https://guidestarindia.org/Summary.aspx?CCReg=10594

For the full list of certified NGOs, please visit:

Monday, January 29, 2024

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!

Saturday, January 6, 2024

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

Friday, December 29, 2023

Important Amendments to the Social Stock Exchange (SSE) Framework

In December 2023, SEBI issued notifications of amendments to the ICDR, LODR and amended its Circular of Sep 19, 2022 to enable greater participation of NPOs on the Social Stock Exchange.

We believe these amendments will make it possible for more NPOs to qualify for registration and improve prospects of listing (fundraising) on the SSE.

Highlights of the amendments are:

Minimum requirement to be met by a Not for Profit Organization (NPO) for registration with SSE

  • Registration Certificate under section 12A/ 12AA/ 12AB/ 10(23C)/ 10(46) to be valid for at least the next 12 months.

  • Details regarding pending notices or scrutiny cases from all regulatory and statutory authority shall be disclosed at the time of making the application for the registration.
    The Stock Exchanges shall have the right to refuse registration of those applicants, if the notices/ scrutiny cases are grave and debilitating enough to endanger the registration of the NPO under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or other relevant laws.

  • Fines or penalties if imposed shall be disclosed as paid or appealed within 7 days.

  • Entity to ensure disclosure whether tax deduction is available or not to investors.

  • Details of past social impact to be disclosed as per the existing practice of NPOs.
    The past social impact should highlight trends in key metrics/ parameters relevant to the NPO (as may be determined by the Exchanges) for which it seeks to raise funds on SSE, number of beneficiary, cost per beneficiary and administrative overheads.

Conditions relating to issuance of Zero Coupon Zero Principal Instruments

  • Lowering of the minimum issue size to Rs50 Lakh
  • Lowering of the minimum subscription amount to Rs10,000
  • The minimum subscription required to be achieved shall be 75% of the funds proposed to be raised through issuance of Zero Coupon Zero Principal Instruments.
  • In case of any under subscription, the not for profit organisation shall, in the fund raising document, provide details on the following:
    a) manner of raising balance capital in case of such under subscription between 75% and 100%;
    b) possible impact on achieving the social objective(s) in case such under subscription is not arranged
    Provided that the funds shall be refunded in case the subscription is less than 75% of the issue size.

In the LODR

  • In regulation 91E, in sub-regulation (2), the words “audited by a Social Audit Firm employing Social Auditor” shall be substituted with the words and symbols “assessed by a Social Impact Assessment Firm employing Social Impact Assessor(s)”.

In the ICDR

  • Regulation 292A
  1. a) in clause (f), the word “Auditor” appearing in the words and expression “Social Auditor” shall be substituted with the words “Impact Assessor”;
  2. b) in clause (g),-
    1. the word “Audit” appearing in the words and expression “Social Audit Firm” shall be substituted with the words “Impact Assessment”;
    2. the words “Auditors” shall be substituted with the words “Impact Assessor(s)”.
  • Regulation 292C modified: A Social Stock Exchange shall be accessible to institutional investors, non-institutional investors and retail investors.

For full details, read the attached circular of Dec 28, 2023 and notifications of amendment to LODR and ICDR.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

2nd in a series of 5 Capacity Building workshops - Upgrade your NGO with GuideStar India Certification

We thank you for the overwhelming response and active participation in the overview and capacity building workshop (Part1 of 5) held on 15th and 18th December 2023.

This is our invite to participate in Part 2, workshop scheduled on Wednesday, 20th December, 2023 (tomorrow) from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.

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 completed the session on the 1st Pillar (Situation Analysis) and will be covering the following 2 Pillars in this workshop:

1. Theory of Change (The what)

  • Vision (End Result)
  • Mission (Purpose)
  • Strategy & Goals

2. Evidence of Impact using logic model

This will be a journey of learning and reflection with your internal teams, management and governing body members! 74 NPOs have gone through our pilot phase and 97% 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 currently valid GuideStar India certification seal or you are 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.

We recommend that following people from your organisation should attend the workshop tomorrow.

  1. Chief Functionary & Founder
  2. Head of Programmes

Register now for the workshop:
Meeting Registration - Zoom
Time: 3:00 pm to 5pm

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

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!

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Chance to attend the 1st session of the capacity building workshops for GuideStar India Certification (Repeating on high demand)

We are excited to invite you once again for the capacity building workshops and for the overview of GuideStar India’s upgraded certification on Monday,18th December, 2023 from 3PM to 5PM IST.

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 globally.

The certification process will comprise 4-5 Capacity Building workshops. What’s more…you apply for the Capacity Building + Certification programme and have the chance to qualify for 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.

This will be a journey of learning and reflection with your internal teams, management and governing body members! 74 NPOs have gone through our pilot phase and 97% found the framework useful!

GuideStar India certified NGOs showed remarkable resilience in the pandemic. In 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 from the pilot launch had to say after attending the 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

Overview and Workshop dates:

We have planned for 5 workshops to cover the 7 pillars or clusters that form our certification rubric. We have shared with you (please refer to the table below) who should ideally attend these workshops.

Once you apply for certification, you can continue to attend all the 4 workshops

Some of you would have started our new certification process. However, we recommend you to attend these workshops so that you can complete the process smoothly.

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.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0tc-mqqjMjGdceSHJ1WEcEAmqd1TAvxNqi#/registration

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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 journey with you!

Best wishes
Lathika