At GiveIndia, we value the trust and faith you have placed in us while making a donation. To ensure that we live up to this trust, we have a stringent selection process for the NGOs profiled on our site. The process ensures that your donation reaches the right people and is utilised appropriately.

Objectivity of the selection:

Criteria we use for selection:

• Organisations must be registered non-profits that implement social development projects in India, with no political affiliations.
• At least 50% of their beneficiaries must be economically underprivileged.
• The organisation should meet the Credibility Alliance's norms or be willing to meet them within 6 months of listing on our site. The Credibility Alliance is a consortium of voluntary organisations and networks, which has come together to enhance good governance in the voluntary sector. The Alliance's norms ensure that the organisations that fulfill them are credible.
• The organization must be willing to provide prompt feedback for the donations you make
  

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• Organisations get to know of us from sources and contact us. Whenever we hear about any organisation that is doing good work, we contact them ourselves. Needless to say, we would definitely value references from you as well. Organisations have to fill a detailed listing application form that requires very high standards of disclosure to be met. You can even see for yourself the information like remuneration of key functionaries, expenses on international travel, etc of the NGOs on our site.
• We make sure that organisations also submit copies of necessary documents like financial and annual reports, various legal registration documents etc.
• We then appraise the organisations. We lay emphasis on the Credibility Alliance Norms. Only organisations that meet all these norms are listed on our site. Those, which undertake to meet them within 6 months, are "provisionally listed" after 1 further step.
• As a last step, we visit and see the organisations and their activities ourselves. In some cases we obtain references from credible partner institutions we know that have themselves evaluated/screened these organizations.
  

What are the Credibility Alliance's norms?
These norms have been divided into minimum and desirable.

Minimum Norms:

Identity:

Principal: The organisation should exist and be registered.

Existence:

•  The organisation has been in existence for a minimum of 1 year from date of registration
• The physical address given by the organisation is verifiable.
  

Legal:

• The organisation is registered as Trust/Society/Section 25 Company.
• Registration documents of the organisation are available on request.
  

Vision, Aims & Objectives and Achievements:

Principle: The organisation be able to state what is it aiming to do and that it can also state achievements related to its aim.

Vision / Purpose / Objectives / Mandate /  Mission:

• A shared vision/purpose/objective is articulated beyond the registration documents.

Aims & Objectives:

• The organisation has defined indicators, which will measure its performance against its stated objectives.
  

Impact / Achievement / Output / Performance:

• The organisation has defined indicators, which will measure its performance against its stated objectives.

Governance:

Principle: The organisation is committed to and practices good governance, especially because voluntary organisations draw upon public funds.

• The organisation has a Governing Board, by whatever name called.
• The organisation discloses name, age, sex, work experience, and position of Board members.
• Not more than half the Board members have remunerative roles.
• The Board meets at least twice a year with quorum as stipulated in its own Memorandum of Association.
• All remuneration and reimbursements to Board members are to be disclosed.
• Minutes of Board meetings are documented and circulated.
• The Board approves programmes, budgets, annual activity reports and audited financial statements.
• The Board has a policy on purchases, disposable, sale of assets, investments etc. to gain comparative advantage to the organisation, which also assures transparency.
• The Board ensures the organisation's compliance with laws and regulations.
  

Operations:

Principle: The organisation conducts its programmes and operations efficiently and effectively in public interest.

• Activities to be in line with the vision/purpose/objective of the organisation.

Management:

• Appropriate systems be in place for periodic programme planning/ monitoring/ review.
• Appropriate systems be in place for Internal control.
• Appropriate systems be in place for Consultative decision-making.
  

Human Resources:

• Clear roles and responsibilities for personnel (including volunteers) exist.
• All personnel are issued a letter of contract/ appointment.
• Appropriate Personnel Policy is in place.
  

Accountability and Transparency:

• Signed audited statements are available: balance sheet, income & expenditure statement, receipts and payments account, schedules to these, notes on accounts and the statutory auditors' report.
• Statement of Accounts to indicate whether they have been constructed on a cash or accrual basis.
• The organisation's Annual Report be disseminated/ communicated to key stakeholders and available on request every year, within 8 months of the end of the organisation's financial year
  

Desirable Norms (GIVE ensures that NGOs listed with us fulfill the desirable norms also)

1. At least 2/3 of Board members are unrelated by blood or marriage.
2. A Board Rotation Policy exists and is practised.
3. The organisation must disclose in its annual report, the salary and benefits of its Head, the 3 highest paid staff members and the lowest paid staff member.
4. The distribution of staff according to salary levels must be disclosed in the annual report as indicated in Table I.

TABLE I : DISTRIBUTION OF STAFF ACCORDING TO SALARY LEVELS

The organisation must disclose in its annual report the total cost of international travel by all its personnel (including volunteers) - segregating those incurred on organisational expense and those that were sponsored, along with the name and designation of the person(s) who traveled, and the purpose(s) of travel.

For further details, please contact listing@giveindia.org