GiveIndia

GiveIndia
Formation	1999
Type	Not for profit
Location	Mumbai
Website	www.GiveIndia.org

GiveIndia is a not for profit organization in India. It is an online donation platform and aims to channel and provide resources to credible Non-Governmental Organisations across India. It is a web portal, raises funds and contributions from individuals across India and the world and then disburses these donations to credible Indian NGOs.

After a rigorous and thorough document based due diligence, supplemented by a visit or a strong reference, GiveIndia lists NGOs on its website. As on April 2011, GiveIndia has selected over 270 charitable organizations that are recommended on its website after reviewing more than 3,000 nonprofit organizations from all over India. GiveIndia works across ten causes and lists charities ranging from charity for children to charity for education, health, employment, elderly, disability,human rights, environment, youth and women's empowerment. GiveIndia also lets its donors know where exactly their donation was used and also give them a proof of it through a feedback report. Every feedback report contains the details of the beneficiaries who were benefited from each donation. GiveInida also issues an instant e-tax receipt upon making a donation. The donations are either 80G (50% tax exempt) or 35AC (100% tax exempt). GiveIndia has one of the lowest costs of fundraising in India. GiveIndia ensures that at least 90% of every donation reaches the organization that is donated to (as against the average of 60% for the NGO sector).

History

GiveIndia was conceived in 1999 by IIM-A graduate Venkat Krishnan. It is run and managed by a team of professionals. Venkat Krishnan wanted to create a credible link between people willing to donate and credible grass root NGOs which work for the poorest of the poor. GiveIndia was started with the mission to create a culture of giving in India. Most of these NGOs do not have adequate systems in place to raise awareness about their causes and consequently have difficulty raising funds to support these causes.

The Organization

GiveIndia does not undertake any charitable functions directly. Instead it channels funds provided by donors to certified non-profit organizations across India. Non-profit organizations who wish to partner with GiveIndia need to satisfy a minimum set of conditions known as "credibility alliance norms". Among other criteria, organizations must have no political ties and at least fifty percent of their beneficiaries must be economically underprivileged. Donors visit GiveIndia website and donate online to their preferred Indian NGOs and the donations are then disbursed to those NGOs.

GiveIndia was created to allow secure donation options for potential donors and provide them with access to over one hundred NGOs. The assurance is that through this convenient medium, funds will be sent to NGOs, thereby allowing people to donate at their convenience. It aims to promote efficient and effective giving that provides greater opportunities to the poor in India.

Donations

As on April 2011, since GiveIndia's inception, over 2,00,000 donors across the globe have been involved in supporting 270 organizations through GiveIndia (See). Over the last decade, they have channelled over Rs. 130 crores to more than 270 NGOs all over India, impacting over 1 million lives. They launched India's first "online philanthropy marketplace" (a website where people can donate to causes of their own choice) in September 2000. GiveIndia introduced the concept of Marathon-based fundraising in India. . Though, it is not associated with marathons such as the Mumbai Marathon, it was the official charity partner to the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) and Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon (VDHM).

GiveIndia mainly raises funds for NGOs through various channels such as Payroll Giving, Retail Giving, Client services and other fund raising events.

Payroll Giving Program

GiveIndia launched an online Payroll giving program in 2004 through which employees of the organization may pledge a certain portion of their monthly income towards charity every month. These monthly contributions accumulate in an online account that GiveIndia creates for each employee. Employees can log into their online accounts and donate to an NGO or cause of their choice from the accumulated sum. The funds are channeled to the respective NGOs by GiveIndia every month.

Organisations like Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Cadbury, GroupM, HDFC Bank, NDTV, STAR TV, ICICI Bank, Marico, KPMG, McKinsey & Company and several others are part of GiveIndia's Payroll Giving Family all over India. The Payroll Giving program already has more than 30,000 donors across over 125 companies contributing over Rs. 8 crores per month, and is growing fast.

Retail Giving

GiveIndia pioneered online donations in India in the year 2000 and was one of the first worldwide. GiveIndia has channeled over Rs 6 crores to various non-profit organizations through the Internet. GiveIndia’s site is designed as a "Philanthropy Exchange" that allows donors to donate directly to any of the "listed" non-profit organizations. So, GiveIndia is essentially a fund raising organization committed to make online donations effective. GiveIndia offers its donors the 3 C's:

• Choice of the cause / organization / project they would like to support.
• Convenience of donating online, in just a few clicks.
• Confidence that their donation is used for the chosen purpose

Donors can also gift their charity donations by dedicating the donations made to people close to them.(See)

Client Services

GiveIndia provides consultative comprehensive approach to helping donors achieve their individual philanthropic goals. It works in partnership to recommend a strategy tailored to donors’ specific needs taking into consideration.

• Donors’ philanthropic objectives
• Level of comfort
• Engagement needs
• Time as well as tax and other concerns

GiveIndia has launched the First Givers Club (FGC)(See) in 2010. Nitin Nohria,from Harvard Business School, was one of the keynote speakers in the first summit held by First Givers Club in 2010. First Givers Club intends to facilitate the creation of a platform that will enable a meaningful dialogue between its members through a consistent process of shared inputs and suggestions leading to a step change in philanthropy. Through an annual summit and special events/seminars in the year, the members have a continuous opportunity to learn and interact with experienced philanthropists, dynamic social entrepreneurs and leading policy makers in the field. The Club helps connect donors to social issues, to effective giving strategies, and to other like-minded philanthropists. In the Annual summit in 2010, 100 high net-worth individuals pledged to give money and time to charity. In the Annual Summit in 2011, Azim Premji and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala were the key note speakers. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala pledged to give away 25% of his wealth during his lifetime.

iGive

GiveIndia offers individuals and organizations the option to raise funds for a cause they wish to promote personally. Utilizing the GiveIndia portal, individuals can create their own customized iGive (See) page, send it out to friends, family and social networks. All funds raised are then channelled by GiveIndia to the individual or cause chosen.

Charity Events

GiveIndia has been selective in identifying events to raise funds for charity. The traditional model of organising events results in more than 80 per cent of the resources raised being spent on the event itself. So by "piggy backing" existing events that are already planned, GiveIndia ensures that the cost of fundraising is less than 10%, to contribute more towards a cause. Some of the events that GiveIndia conducts are:

• Twestival (See)
• India Tax Saving Challenge (See)
• India Giving Challenge (See)

GiveIndia was the official charity partner to the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) & Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon (VDHM).GiveIndia hosted a unique event - Engagement Evening - on November 17, 2006 that spread knowledge about the philanthropy marketplace and also celebrated the listing of NGOs

Financial information

GiveIndia retains a maximum of 9.1% in order to provide donors with the high quality support that donors have come to expect when transacting through its online portal. The 9.1% retained by GiveIndia is to cover its costs of processing a donation, providing a tax receipt and feedback report, a technical platform to track donations, due diligence and other administrative costs. By taking this donation, GiveIndia is reducing its dependence on grants and increasing the chances that it will be around for a lot longer to serve donors, NGOs and beneficiaries (See)

External links

• The GiveIndia website.
• Give Foundation website.
• GiveIndia San Francisco Bay Area Chapter website.