The official GiveIndia blog

Welcome!  We hope that by reading the GiveIndia blog, people who know a little about us will come to know more, and people who have never heard of us will come to know a little; that people who have wanted to give back but weren't sure how or where to will now be confident, and that people who have already placed their trust in us will spread the word.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Has the recession affected charitable giving?

We found a very interesting article in Business Today called "Charity in crisis" by K.R. Balasubramanyam and Anamika Butalia taling about how the recession has impacted the donations received by NGOs.


Here is an abbreviated version of the article.

Charity in crisis

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is in the midst of a crisis it never imagined possible a few years ago. The Bangalore-based non-profit outfit was a star in the sector, running what is now the world’s largest non-government school meal programme. The NGO feeds 10.08 lakh children, every day, for a mere Rs 1,200 per child per year, across seven states and 5,700 schools. This is a mammoth achievement, considering the organisation started providing meals for just 1,500 children eight years ago. It is also a vital undertaking in a country that sends millions of undernourished children to school on empty stomachs.

Today, Akshaya Patra is scrambling to continue feeding all the schoolchildren it does. Out of its Rs 80-crore-a-year programme, Rs 40 crore comes from donations— a chunk of money that is in danger of going up in smoke, thanks to the global recession. “Three metal and mining companies, which together had committed Rs 6 crore to build kitchens in two states, have deferred their contribution,” says Akshaya’s Vice Chairman Chanchalapathi Das.

“Eight IT companies that had promised 12 vehicles (of Rs 9 lakh each), in all, to transport food and fund feeding of 6,000 students have also put off their plans. Four automobile and ancillary units, who had offered to give about Rs 40 lakh, have backed off for now,” he adds. The global recession—as well as the slowdown in India—has begun to have disturbing consequences for non-profits like Akshaya Patra, which undertake programmes across India’s most neglected social sectors. India’s vast population of NGOs relies on either foreign aid or the domestic corporate sector for its survival. Declining corporate profits in the last year, bleak revenue forecast and cash-strapped foreign governments have left agencies in deep distress.

“This means a collapse of the services NGOs have been providing to communities as well as the livelihoods of a million of development workers in the country,’’ says Hari Krishna, a disaster management expert who was associated with Oxfam America’s India operations. Oxfam itself has cut $1 million in grants for the next year.

Like Akshaya Patra, the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA) was flying high on a legacy of robust aid, mostly from Indian corporates, such as Godrej, HUL, Citibank and the Union Bank of India. The programme required Rs 20 lakh a month for its operations but routinely ended up with more. On its annual fund-raising day for cancer patients last year—dubbed “World No Tobacco Day”, held on May 31—the organisation’s initial target was Rs 22 lakh, but it effortlessly netted twice that amount.

Today, the organisation is struggling to stay above water, unable to attract even Rs 10 lakh a month for its operations. Plus, as of the second week of May, the agency had mobilised a paltry Rs 1 lakh to date for this year’s fund-raiser. “We have lost 50 per cent of donations as compared to last year,’’ says a worried Anita Peter, Director, CPAA.

Ultimately, it is the poor who suffer the most during recessions, warns P.V. Unnikrishnan, Emergencies & Conflicts Advisor (Asia & Americas), Action Aid International. “Both types of support available for poor people—government spending and charities—are getting negatively impacted. Since the poor are affected, a bailout process should focus on supporting them and their small businesses,’’ suggests Unnikrishnan.

While these are tough times for NGOs, many experts feel that this is precisely the kind of opportunity that NGOs need to revamp themselves for the future. “This is a good chance for NGOs and civil society groups to see carefully how they function and work smarter and leaner,’’ says Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson of Arghyam Foundation— an organisation that promotes access to water for the poor.

“We have to be realistic and know that the future beyond our current grants is uncertain and we have to plan for this contingency,’’ adds Ashok Kamath, Chairman of Akshara Foundation, which spearheads a primary education movement in Karnataka.

Infosys Director, T.V. Mohandas Pai—who is on the boards of both Akshaya Patra and Akshara— has a plan for NGOs: they need to expand their base for funds as well as curtail administrative expenses, he says. An NGO should limit its administrative spend to around 8-10 per cent of its overall budget and spend the rest on direct activity, he says. The Nasscom Foundation, too, believes this is the right time to test more innovative ways of doing things. “We are exploring some ideas that may not necessarily need loads of money,” says Fernandes.

Once the global economy climbs out of its recessionary hole and companies begin to post improved results, the NGO sector is sure to bounce back. Till then, however, they would do well to take a page from corporate India’s handbook and hunker down for the lean times ahead.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

NGO in-depth | Magic Bus

This NGO in-depth post is about Magic Bus, the Mumbai based NGO that uses sport as a way to connect with underprivileged children bringing discipline, teamwork and sportsmanship into their lives.

The GiveIndia blog is reproducing below an article in the Telegraph newspaper written by Simon Hart in 2007.

"Magic Bus" rides towards a brighter future

Until two years ago Mohammed Shah had not even seen a football, let alone kicked one. Even now, he has never heard of David Beckham or Wayne Rooney and is unable to name a single international player.

But for the 14-year-old, who lives in one of the world's poorest neighbourhoods, the Bombay Port Trust slum in Mumbai, football has become such a passion that he recently scraped together enough rupees to buy his own pair of goalkeeping gloves.

"He's one of our most talented players," said Vijay Dange, his coach. "He's just like all the kids here. They didn't know anything about football before. A lot of them couldn't have told you whether a football was round or square. All they knew about was cricket. But now they all love football and they just want to play it more and more."

Shah is one of 18,000 boys and girls living in the slums and on the streets of Mumbai to have benefited from the Magic Bus programme - an extraordinary charity initiative set up by an English former public schoolboy and backed by the Premier League that uses football to transform the lives of youngsters untouched by the growth in the Indian economy.

Each week, thousands of deprived children, some of them institutionalised orphans and rescued sex workers, are offered two-hour football sessions which, while emphasising fun and recreation, use the game to impart life lessons such as discipline, communication skills, teamwork and health. Kit, boots and shin-pads are provided free of charge.

In the slums of Bombay Port, the results have gone far beyond the football pitch, a private club ground that used to be off-limits to slum children until the charity did a deal with the owners.

Before the arrival of Magic Bus, only 40 per cent of the children attended school, the rest earning money by selling vegetables or diving in the filthy local river in search of scrap metal. Now the figure is 85 per cent.

A month ago, after parents were invited to experience the game for themselves in a community tournament, residents got together to clear a huge, insect-infested rubbish dump from the centre of the slum. It is now an open space where the local children can practise.

The Magic Bus programme has won high praise from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who visited it in January, and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who spent three days working for it as a volunteer this year. It has also formed a partnership with UK Sport and Unicef to expand into Delhi and Hyderabad next year to reach as many as 40,000 children.

For Magic Bus founder Matthew Spacie, a former Felsted School pupil who came to India in the mid-Nineties as chief operating officer of the travel company Cox and Kings, the success of the project has highlighted the power of sport to harness potential. He came up with the idea while playing rugby at a private Mumbai club and noticed how street kids would gather outside to watch. He negotiated with the club to be allowed to bring them inside and offer them coaching and was stunned by their transformation.

"The epiphany for me was seeing all the clichéd stuff you hear about with sport — the self-esteem, the discipline, the focus — coming true," he said. "These kids were changing before my eyes. That really stirred me and I realised we were building something quite powerful."

Spacie, who was made an MBE in the last New Year's Honours List, has also set up an outdoor pursuit centre for deprived children a 90-minute drive from Mumbai - the bus trips there spawned the name 'Magic Bus' - but his main goal is a self-sustaining football programme with the most talented children graduating to become mentors.

"In the early days, sport as a development tool was not really accepted and people would laugh at it and say it was trivial," Spacie said. "Now organisations like Unicef are saying, 'Wow, this really does work'. The absolute end-game is millions of children benefiting from this. That's what we're building towards."

If you would like to support the work Magic Bus does, you could contribute an amount of your choice (minimum Rs500/appx US$10) to their General Fund.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Introducing the Joy of Giving Week

GiveIndia is proud to be the co-ordinator of the Joy of Giving Week to be held from September 27 through October 2, 2009.


The Joy of Giving Week is the beginning of a national movement. The first of its kind for India, and for every single Indian.

It is a platform for all across the country to celebrate the joy of giving. Whether you are a paan wala in Lucknow, a traffic cop in Mumbai, an idli seller in Madurai, a millionaire in Delhi, a multinational company in Bengaluru, a saree shop owner in Kolkata, a teenager in a school or a college goer in Vadodara….

This is your opportunity to reach out to someone less privileged – by donating money, volunteering time, providing your skills and even just saying a kind word to someone who may not have expected it from you.

All you need to be part of the Joy of Giving Week is to do one simple conscious act of giving. So join the movement, now!

The Joy of Giving Week is a volunteer driven initiative hosted in GiveIndia. Please share your ideas, suggestions, questions and comments with us at jgw@giveindia.org.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Interesting video about development

GiveIndia's Director Venkat Krishnan found this very interesting video of a talk by Researcher Hans Rosling who uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide.


The video is about twenty minutes long but we recommend you watch it till the end!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Tweet, tweet!

GiveIndia is now on Twitter! Here's a very simple way to use Twitter to donate Rs250 to GiveIndia.


Step 1 : Create a twitter account for yourself at twitter.com

Step 2 : Write a message which says @giveindia 50 Twollars to support you

Thats it. You've just donated Rs. 250. Thank you very much :-)

Visit the Giving in a Digital World blog to learn more.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

We're on the List of Change

The GiveIndia blog is happy to be ranked #60 out of more than 150 blogs on the List of Change which is a ranking of the top English-language change and cause-related blogs in the world. The ranking provides a glimpse into the change and cause bloggers who are trying to positively affect our lives throughout the world.

The List of Change only uses open APIs to weigh statistical performance, and does not include any subjective measures. Any blogger can participate by submitting their URL for inclusion in the List of Change.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

NGO number 200!

GiveIndia now offers donors the choice of more than 200 listed NGOs to support.


Number 200 is Akhanda Seva for International Shanti (Operation Shanti), a Mysore, Tamil Nadu based organisation.  Operation Shanti's Mission is to directly improve the lives of exploited, at-risk, destitute children and the forgotten, suffering elderly, enabling them to become "beacons of light" and share the same gifts of peace, goodwill, and generosity with others for the rest of their lifetimes.

One of the donation options they offer is to provide a care package with one month's supplies to a orphan living with HIV/AIDS.  The package contains basic groceries and toiletries.  Read a true story of hope about how this small Rs1200 gift (appx US$25) can make a difference.

"Anita and her sister, Ambika lost both their mom and dad to HIV/AIDS related illnesses. Anita tested positive for HIV, and now she and her sister live with their uncle in his small house. It is a burden for the uncle to care for the girls, but there is nobody else to care for them, so he diligently does so, taking Anita to monthly checkups and making sure she takes medicines.

We provide a monthly care package to Anita and her uncle which provides him with some support in taking care of his niece. The care package includes a small amount of cash, to help ease his financial burden, as well as nutritional items and soap to help them stay clean which is very important for HIV+ children.

This new program was started in September 2008. It has been received well both by our recipients and the medical clinics that refer their poorest patients to us. The care package eases the financial burden of uncle Mahesh by about 30% - 50%, and he expresses his gratitude each time we see him
."


Welcome Operation Shanti, our 200th NGO!  May they continue to serve those in need with the support of GiveIndia.

Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs