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Your Gateway to the world of NGOs in India
GuideStar India is India’s largest and most reliable NGO information repository. Our portal www.GuidestarIndia.org is India's most exhaustive, fully searchable database of reliable and comparable information on
over 10,000 NGOs. More than 1,400 of these organisations have undergone varying levels of due diligence forming India's largest pool of certified NGOs. With another 60,000+ NGOs on our offline database and NGO due
diligence solutions, we have brought down the cost and time of
connecting with NGOs. GuideStar India is transforming how Indian NGOs report
and share information, and, is changing the way the people perceive, interact
and engage with NGOs.
Our powerful search allows users to find and connect with NGOs within minutes.
By joining GuideStar India, an NGO demonstrates its commitment to being a transparent & accountable organization. Registration on GuideStar India is free for NGOs. In 8 years, GuideStar India has created a vibrant community of NGOs who you can reach easily to provide resources and opportunities.
www.guidestarindia.org was launched on Sep 23, 2010.
In a country like India that has a vast but highly scattered NGO sector, lack of reliable information is a serious bottleneck for philanthropy to grow. While the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) reported a figure of 3.3 million not for profit institutions in India based on registration documents, it is largely believed that about 2 million could be operational, making it arguably the country with the largest number of NGOs in the world. Around 200,000 organisations are reported to have filed income tax returns in form ITR-7, which applies to tax exempt organisations.
As an aggregator of NGO information, GuideStar India provides the information infrastructure for the philanthropy ecosystem. GuideStar India pursues a ground up model to collect information from NGOs. It also receives data from Government bodies like CAPART, Charity Commissioner's Office, Maharashtra, the National Trust of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and YASHADA. This data is often historic and incomplete. GuideStar India persistenly follows up with NGOs to clean up and update the data, while also educating NGOs to embrace transparency by consenting to put their information in the public domain. Verified information is made available in the public domain and is also fed back to the source, including government sources.
The state of Maharashtra alone has over 800,000 registered trusts and the Charity Commissioner's Office has undertaken an ambitious initiative to digitise records and launch online registration, filings and submissions to the Charity Commission. GuideStar India is closely working with the Charity Commissioner's office to inform system design, engage NGOs in user testing, disseminate changes in rules and increase adoption. We are also playing an active role in the process of bringing about charity reforms in the state of Maharashtra.
How we serve NGOs
NGO Registration
We do not charge NGOs for registration with us and for using the site. NGOs get registered for lifetime, for FREE, through a simple online application process that takes less than 30 minutes.
NGO Certification
NGOs that seek higher levels of certification, participate in our certification programme to undergo different levels of due diligence. Depending on their level of transparency and demonstrated public accountability, they are awarded GuideStar India Platinum or Gold seal. Beginners receive the GuideStar India Transparency badge or key.
What kinds of opportunities come to NGOs through GuideStar India
- Free webpages which NGOs can update themselves
- Online Repository to upload important documents for access to public and other users
- NGO information organised in a searchable and globally comparable fashion to facilitate decision making
- Display of information on Memberships & Accreditations
- Seamless connections and links to organisation’s pages on other websites
- Leads for Donations in cash/ kind
- Fundraising Opportunities
- Capacity Building Workshops
- Opportunities to showcase/ sell products work on-the-web and on-the-ground (campaigns/ exhibitions/ events)
- Fast track registrations with other partners to gain access to their user communities and services
- Free/ discounted products (software, books, etc.) and services
- Opportunities to get recognised (awards)
- Information on key issues affecting NGOs and links to experts/ networks
Here are the benefits driven to NGOs through GuideStar India:
Who uses GuideStar India
Nearly 50,000 pages of NGO information are viewed every month by over 6,000 users including foundations, philanthropic intermediaries serving donors and volunteers, students and academic institutions seeking internships, corporates wanting to work with NGOs, institutions and experts seeking to provide capacity building to NGOs, media wanting to do stories on NGOs, and people wanting to connect with NGOs. Corporates use GuideStar India to run online and on-the-ground campaigns to connect NGOs with their employees, customers and associates.
Users include:
Corporate/ Corporate Foundations/ Initiatives: CII’s India@75 initiative, Benow, Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry, My Bskool, Deustche Bank, eBay India, EdelGive Foundation, Educational Initiatives, Ezy Vidya, Global CSR Congress, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, ICICI Foundation, NASSCOM Foundation, NGO India, Hindustan Unilever’s Surf Excel brand, Times of India Social Impact Awards, Tata Tea, UBM India, World CSR Congress
Government: CAPART, Charity Commissioner's Office, Maharashtra, the National Trust, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) of the MInistry of Corporate Affairs, Voluntary Action Cell of NITI Aayog.
Foundations & Institutions: AmeriCares India, Ashoka University, ATE Chandra Foundation, Bridgespan, the British Asian Trust, the Centre for Asian Philanthropy & Society (CAPS), Hong Kong, Chintugudiya Foundation, the David & Lucille Packard Foundation, Digital Empowerment Foundation, GoodCSR, ICRIER, India Development Review, the Nudge Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research and Toofles Foundation.
Philanthropic Intermediaries/ Initiatives: CAF India, Credibility Alliance, DaanUtsav, DanaMojo, Dasra, DonateKart, GiveIndia, Give2Asia, GlobalGiving, Global India Fund, Global Action on Poverty, Goonj, IndiaCares, iVolunteer, SevaKitchen, SmallChange, the Resource Alliance, ToolBox and WhiteBoard.
How you can use GuideStar India
There is no charge for online use of data on the website.
We do provide a range of bespoke solutions to organisations and individuals who would like to reach out to a large number of NGOs in India through targeted mailers, workshops, etc. We can connect you to more than 9,500 NGOs featured on our site and the 60,000+ other organisations we have on our offline database through mailing solutions. In some cases, we provide datasets in a ready to use format that could save your time in accessing information that you need. We have a pool of certified NGOs whose due diligence reports are available. You may also refer specific organisations to get certified by us. As these solutions require additional effort, we require a contribution to cover our costs.
Read more about our suite of solutions and some of the CSR campaigns powered by GuideStar India.
Why GuideStar India
India is estimated to have over 3 million registered NGOs as per the Central Statistical Organisation.
- Who are these organisations?
- Where are they located?
- What are their activities? and
- Which are the communities they serve?
If there were answers to these questions at the click of a button, we believe policy makers, foundations, donors and volunteers would be in a position to take informed decisions and consequently direct resources to the most deserving.
NGOs are constantly in search of support (money/material/people) and spend much of their time and energy in reaching out to potential sources of support. However, they are either not aware of or not equipped to provide the required information in the appropriate form so that resource providers could allocate resources effectively and efficiently.
To bridge the gap between the two ends, as stated above, through our NGO outreach programmes, we educate NGOs about the need for using information to showcase their work, articulate their needs, and make voluntarily, public disclosure, of programme and financial indicators in a manner that is easily searchable and usable.
We have developed GuideStar India keeping in mind the needs of various user groups (donors, volunteers, foundations, CSR Managers media, government, academia) who we would like to see using information to power their philanthropy and decisions impacting non profit organisations.
Our Vision & Mission
CSIS India’s vision is Indian philanthropy and non-profit practice revolutionised by the use of civil society information. Our mission is to encourage and equip Indian NGOs to voluntarily share, in the public domain, information that advances transparency, enables better decision making and encourages charitable giving.
Our Approach
We practise the following principles:
- We acquire data ethically.
- We apply no judgement or subjective criteria in featuring NGOs. Every organisation that is registered as a Trust/ Society/ Sec 25 or 8 Company is eligible for registration in our database if it can provide a copy of its registration certificate, its Income Tax Permanent Account Number (IT PAN) and a verifiable address proof.
- We avoid duplication of efforts - we try to collaborate with other organisations to reach out to NGOs, we share information and supporting documents available with us, we source information from networks before asking their members or partners to provide information.
- We withold no information- once an NGO gives us information, we include it in our database and would soon put it in public domain.
- We are into intermediation of civil society information only.
- We are open to new ideas and feedback.
Our Model
We believe the starting point of our model is for NGOs to showcase their work and keep their content regularly updated so that users find the organisation(s) that best match their search criteria resulting in actions that drive benefits to NGOs which in turn would motivate organisations to report their work and articulate their needs.
The Long term Impact we expect
Our Supporters
We thank our supporters who make it possible for us to serve the NGO community effectively. The Tata Trusts supported expansion of our work. We received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for our Data Interoperability Project. The Tata Trusts supported us in scaling up our activities from April 2015 to Sep 2016. Nilekani Philanthropies supported our outreach activities for NGOs in our compliance project.
Our #GivingTuesdayIndia initiative is supported by the ATE Chandra Foundation, Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy, Ashoka University, Nilekani Philanthropies and other philanthropists.
Benchmark Email makes it possible for us to communicate efficiently with NGOs and make several connections between NGOs and those who seek to support them in different ways.
Our Partners
Partners who use our data and recognise our NGO Certification are:
- ATE Chandra Foundation
- Bridgespan
- CSIP, Ashoka University
- danamojo
- Dasra
- DonateKart
- FSG
- GlobalGiving
- GoodCSR
- IDR Edit
- SnapDeal
How to Support GuideStar India
We recover a third of our costs through contributions from our institutional users. GuideStar International supports our technology platform. We certainly need resources to map the vast number of NGOs in difficult to reach parts of India and to build their capacity to leverage resources.
Please note:
We do not solicit donations through phone calls or through door-to-door visits. We do not accept donations in cash. We do not collect donations on behalf of other NGOs.
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