NGOs in need of corporate funding

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Mar 1: Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) in collaboration with Resource Alliance India, an affiliate of Resource Alliance UK organised a day-long Workshop on `Communication and Fundraising for Odishan Voluntary Organisations’ at Development Resource Training Centre (DRTC) here on Saturday.The focus of the workshop was to make NGOs/voluntary organisations financially sustainable, by means of domestic fund raising activities, at a time when the sector is reeling under acute fund crunch, as foreign contributions had almost dried up.Many speakers at the workshop pointed out that NGOs in the country are not fully aware of the provisions of Sec 135 of Companies Act 2013 wherein about 16000 companies are mandated to spend 2% of their profits in corporate social responsibility (CSR) which comes to a whopping Rs.20,000 crore.This is a great opportunity for NGOs to engage with corporates and together make a big difference to the development sector.This has opened new opportunities for communities.This aspect was discussed at length in the workshop.According to a press release, Resource Alliance India through a unique event called “The India NGO Awards”, incepted almost 9 years ago, has benefitted more than 2000 NGOs, those who have taken advantage of the many benefits this program offer, mainly bringing more credibility and sustainability to the sector.Resource Alliance India through this initiative builds the fundraising capacity of NGOs and also promotes excellence in their work. It promote good standards and practices in resource mobilisation, accountability and transparency, recognise and celebrate excellence in the non-profit sector, identify and strengthen resource mobilisation practices, create examples and inspiration for other non-profits and promote cross learning and promote overall credibility of the non-profit sector for long term sustainability.“Times are changing.NGOs too must change.This is a great opportunity to bring about that change.NGOs are an important Sector and do much work but not recognised.Let’s now do that to encourage them to do even more good work,” General Surat Sandhu, Chair Resource Alliance India said during the fund raising workshop.Mentor of CYSD Jagadananda spoke about the challenges and opportunities for the voluntary sector such as resource mobilisation and innovative solutions.About 65 NGO representatives attended the workshop.