A message from GiveIndia's Director - Venkat Krishnan N

The message below, which comes straight from our Director Venkat Krishnan N., explains GiveIndia's costs and a change in the way we will go about recovering them.

Read responses that we received to this message that went out to all our users. We would love to hear your thoughts, questions and views on the same. Do write in at: info@giveindia.org
GiveIndia migrated to a new website in July 2008. While no changes have been made to the look and feel of the site or the user experience, we made a lot of changes in our backoffice processes to try and improve the quality of service we provide you.
The new site has been designed such that all online donors (except payroll givers), while donating, add a small contribution to help meet GiveIndia's own operating costs. This cost has been kept down to 9.1% of the gross donation (i.e., when you donate Rs110, Rs100 goes to the NGO and donation option you chose). For Payroll Givers using "My Account" as the mode of payment, your company continues to pay this amount to GiveIndia directly, so you don't need to pay this additionally.

This contribution of 9.1% of the donations will help us recover most (but not all) of our operating costs, thus helping GiveIndia get closer to self-sustainability, so that we can continue providing you the support to make your donations to trusted organisations. Do note that even after this, GiveIndia will continue to incur deficits that will be grant-funded. As and when our costs are lower than 9.1%, we are committed to reducing the percentage we retain for ourselves. GiveIndia's financial statements are available online. This includes transparent disclosures of our cost structures, so that you can make an informed judgement on our operations.

We would also like to inform you that At 9.1%, our cost of funds raised was one of the lowest in the world, last year. Most secular International and Indian fundraising agencies spend anywhere between 25-50% of the donation amount on fundraising and advocacy/ promotion. Even websites that offer only a "pure transfer" facility without offering any NGO due diligence/ assurance, or feedback reports on how the donations are used, charge anywhere between 5-15% of the donation amount. We are able to keep our costs relatively low, thanks to a highly committed team of staff that works at a fraction of their "market rates", a large band of very dedicated volunteers, zero outlay on Board members and our deep belief in the need to keep ourselves as "thin" an organisation as possible.

We have chosen to seek contributions for our own costs directly from you, our donors, rather than from some large funding agency. We believe that you, as a valued donor, will continue to "force" us to be as efficient as possible and set higher standards for us than funding agencies would, and we value that pressure.

We look forward to your continued and strong support in our endeavour to get more and more people to give back to society and to support the wonderful work of the organisations listed on our website, while keeping ourselves as thin, transparent, efficient and professional as possible. We need your help in strengthening the culture of "giving", and in providing opportunities to the less fortunate in an India where the gaps continue to widen at a frightening pace.