Philanthropy/Giving in India
Instill faith in potential donors
A common man in this society generally wills to help needy for he knows the value of things.
Considering the people who will to donate, there are some things which need to be taken care of.
Many people lost faith on NGOs or other non-profit organisations who collect donations and use them properly.
There are some incidents which made them think so.
For example, a Government medical college gets a lot of funds to facilitate the education of poor students and patients. These donations were not subject to proper utilization.
The machinery worth crores would be purchased and then kept unused or not maintained properly.
There were reported incidents of a dog taking away a new born baby.
This clearly shows that funds, when not properly utilised, would discourage a potential donor.
The solution to these types of scenarios/cases would be appointing personnel to take care of funds, track them and ensure they get utilised properly. An effective way would be logging down each and every donation.
Writing/noting down the flow of funds including the timestamps. i.e., the origination, the current state -> who is responsible for the fund on the current day. What part of it is allocated to which NGO. When will it reach the needy. The details of the NGO/individual who got benefited
'Fake' Donations
Its an open secret that many people (I repeat, many people but not all) fake donations for tax benefits. A simple scenario would be a person contacting the fund collecting personnel and making a proposal - 'Note down Two hundred rupees against my account, and I would give fifty rupees to you'
Sadly this neither helps the Government, nor the NGO.
To avoid these kind of situations, its best that the NGO personnel (or for that matter any fund collecting body) should be an independent organization and should be answerable to any court all over India. It would be even better if this organization has linkups with ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau) and has all the transactions and work flow transparent to both Government and public. This NGO/independent fund collecting body should have the list of all registered NGOs and thus should be able to direct the funds only to the recognised NGOs. This might instill faith in the potential donors as well that the fund/donation wont fall into the hands of greedy.
Taking up the challenging tasks
A potential donor would get enthusiastic if he/she knows that the funds they give would create a major impact on the society and ultimately on the nation. For example, there might be more chances in getting funds for starting non-profit free educational institutes that provide education to the poor students. Poverty can be taken care of only with education.
Also, this would be more efficient way of utilizing the funds. The donors can either fund the students directly or provide economical support to the educational institutes for maintenance and man power. Also, apart from the funds, people would be more willing to provide services as all of them might not be economically sound. It would encourage them if tax benefits are provided on services as well. The services might include providing food/clothes/ part-time or full time teaching etc etc
Awareness camps
The children in school must be given moral classes, in which the importance of donations and the way they could help the nation prosper should be taught.
Children get impacted by the teachers' words more than their parents. At such tender age, what they learn directs their way of thinking for the rest of their lives.
So the NGOs should start setting up awareness camps at schools and tell the students the way the NGOs work and inspire them by telling them what they have accompished and also how the children can be a part of the NGO.
How to help the needy and how to make the donations?
More often the potential donors think of this question along with 'How to save tax'
This could be taken care of very effectively
This segment of people should be able to find the NGOs or other organizations easily.
A sound solution would be placing the NGO or the independent fund collecting organization personnel at libraries, temples, churches, mosques, bus depots, railway stations, airports . . . where more people visit often.
The personnel should have the power and responsibility to take the donations, register the donor for tax waivers and other benefits based on the amount of donation, and if possible, give them an ID/tracking number using which they can track their donations either online or through the NGO outlets.
It would be the best if the NGO or the independent fund raising body has tie-ups with Multi National Companies, Banks, Hotels, Transport department and Social networking sites. This would help the common man to find the 'donating' option wherever he goes, and can thus donate without any hassle. Tax benefits in these donations would only encourage more donations.
Some more ways of encouraging donations (with or without tax benefits)
Place a fund collecting box in public places, so that those who are willing to drop money as easily as they put money into God's hundi.
To encourage this way of collecting funds, there should be banners or something placed next to the fund collecting boxes, displaying catchy words like
'Service to mankind is service to God' , 'Your donation wont go waste'. or statistics like 'You can make a difference in 12 lakhs of children' etc
Also, the possibility of getting funds is more likely in case of local needs rather than distant ones.
People would readily help those living next doors (when they need help in case of health problems/education problems/accidents) rather than those who are in other states/countries.
So the NGOs should start appealing to the potential donors to help those living next/near to them. Like students/patients etc living in the same city/locality.
Later on when the NGO gains popularity, funds would come from neighbouring states or countries as well, empowering it to become global.
To summarize, its quite possible to set up the independent fund raising body/NGO as described above, and to collect funds efficiently.
I hope to see this 'possibility' become 'reality' :)
A common man in this society generally wills to help needy for he knows the value of things.
Considering the people who will to donate, there are some things which need to be taken care of.
Many people lost faith on NGOs or other non-profit organisations who collect donations and use them properly.
There are some incidents which made them think so.
For example, a Government medical college gets a lot of funds to facilitate the education of poor students and patients. These donations were not subject to proper utilization.
The machinery worth crores would be purchased and then kept unused or not maintained properly.
There were reported incidents of a dog taking away a new born baby.
This clearly shows that funds, when not properly utilised, would discourage a potential donor.
The solution to these types of scenarios/cases would be appointing personnel to take care of funds, track them and ensure they get utilised properly. An effective way would be logging down each and every donation.
Writing/noting down the flow of funds including the timestamps. i.e., the origination, the current state -> who is responsible for the fund on the current day. What part of it is allocated to which NGO. When will it reach the needy. The details of the NGO/individual who got benefited
'Fake' Donations
Its an open secret that many people (I repeat, many people but not all) fake donations for tax benefits. A simple scenario would be a person contacting the fund collecting personnel and making a proposal - 'Note down Two hundred rupees against my account, and I would give fifty rupees to you'
Sadly this neither helps the Government, nor the NGO.
To avoid these kind of situations, its best that the NGO personnel (or for that matter any fund collecting body) should be an independent organization and should be answerable to any court all over India. It would be even better if this organization has linkups with ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau) and has all the transactions and work flow transparent to both Government and public. This NGO/independent fund collecting body should have the list of all registered NGOs and thus should be able to direct the funds only to the recognised NGOs. This might instill faith in the potential donors as well that the fund/donation wont fall into the hands of greedy.
Taking up the challenging tasks
A potential donor would get enthusiastic if he/she knows that the funds they give would create a major impact on the society and ultimately on the nation. For example, there might be more chances in getting funds for starting non-profit free educational institutes that provide education to the poor students. Poverty can be taken care of only with education.
Also, this would be more efficient way of utilizing the funds. The donors can either fund the students directly or provide economical support to the educational institutes for maintenance and man power. Also, apart from the funds, people would be more willing to provide services as all of them might not be economically sound. It would encourage them if tax benefits are provided on services as well. The services might include providing food/clothes/ part-time or full time teaching etc etc
Awareness camps
The children in school must be given moral classes, in which the importance of donations and the way they could help the nation prosper should be taught.
Children get impacted by the teachers' words more than their parents. At such tender age, what they learn directs their way of thinking for the rest of their lives.
So the NGOs should start setting up awareness camps at schools and tell the students the way the NGOs work and inspire them by telling them what they have accompished and also how the children can be a part of the NGO.
How to help the needy and how to make the donations?
More often the potential donors think of this question along with 'How to save tax'
This could be taken care of very effectively
This segment of people should be able to find the NGOs or other organizations easily.
A sound solution would be placing the NGO or the independent fund collecting organization personnel at libraries, temples, churches, mosques, bus depots, railway stations, airports . . . where more people visit often.
The personnel should have the power and responsibility to take the donations, register the donor for tax waivers and other benefits based on the amount of donation, and if possible, give them an ID/tracking number using which they can track their donations either online or through the NGO outlets.
It would be the best if the NGO or the independent fund raising body has tie-ups with Multi National Companies, Banks, Hotels, Transport department and Social networking sites. This would help the common man to find the 'donating' option wherever he goes, and can thus donate without any hassle. Tax benefits in these donations would only encourage more donations.
Some more ways of encouraging donations (with or without tax benefits)
Place a fund collecting box in public places, so that those who are willing to drop money as easily as they put money into God's hundi.
To encourage this way of collecting funds, there should be banners or something placed next to the fund collecting boxes, displaying catchy words like
'Service to mankind is service to God' , 'Your donation wont go waste'. or statistics like 'You can make a difference in 12 lakhs of children' etc
Also, the possibility of getting funds is more likely in case of local needs rather than distant ones.
People would readily help those living next doors (when they need help in case of health problems/education problems/accidents) rather than those who are in other states/countries.
So the NGOs should start appealing to the potential donors to help those living next/near to them. Like students/patients etc living in the same city/locality.
Later on when the NGO gains popularity, funds would come from neighbouring states or countries as well, empowering it to become global.
To summarize, its quite possible to set up the independent fund raising body/NGO as described above, and to collect funds efficiently.
I hope to see this 'possibility' become 'reality' :)
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