How to Donate to an NGO in India: A 7-Point Donor Checklist

Donating to an NGO in India has never been easier. A UPI ID, a QR code, two taps, done. That ease cuts both ways: the same two taps can put a school kit in a child's hands in Noida, or vanish into an account that has never fed anybody. This is the checklist we would want our own family to run before giving to any organisation — including Jivanam Foundation.

1. Look for registration numbers, not photographs

Emotional photographs cost nothing to download. Registration numbers cost years of compliance. A genuine Indian NGO publishes, in plain sight, how it is registered — Trust, Society or Section 8 company — along with its PAN, its 12A and 80G numbers and its Niti Aayog Darpan ID. Ours are on our About Us page, and every certificate behind them is downloadable from our legal documents page. If you cannot find these on a website in under a minute, treat that as the answer.

2. Understand what 80G actually gets you

80G is the section of the Income Tax Act that lets you claim a deduction on your donation. It is also the most-claimed and least-checked line in Indian fundraising — plenty of appeals say "80G available" without holding a valid certificate. Ask for the certificate number, and ask whether your receipt will carry it. We have written out the full explanation of 80G, 12A and Section 8 in this donor guide.

3. Donate to a costed cause, not a vague appeal

"Help the needy" is not a plan. "₹500 = one complete school kit" is. A credible NGO can tell you the unit cost of the thing you are funding and exactly how many units your money buys. Every appeal on our open cases page carries that breakdown — ₹50 for one hot meal at the weekend food drive, ₹200 for one patient's complete check-up and medicines at a free health camp, ₹800 for a full week of sessions at our special child care centre.

4. Pay the organisation, never a person

This one is not negotiable. A registered NGO holds a bank account in the organisation's legal name. If a fundraiser asks you to transfer to an individual's UPI ID or personal account because "the NGO account is being updated", stop there. Our account and UPI details appear only on our own donate page and on the receipt we send you — nowhere else, and never over a phone call.

5. Insist on a receipt, even for ₹100

A receipt is not a formality. It is the audit trail that makes the organisation accountable to you and to the Income Tax Department. We issue an 80G receipt for every single donation regardless of size — a point we made at length in why ₹500 is never "just" ₹500. If a receipt is suddenly "not possible", the money is not going where you were told.

6. Ask what happened to the last donation

Any organisation doing real work has evidence of it: dated photographs, camp numbers, the names of the sectors it served. Ours is public — the photo gallery and video gallery are updated from the field, and field diaries like our health camp diary put hard numbers against a single day. Vagueness about the past is the loudest possible signal about the future.

7. Meet the people, if you can

The fastest verification is the oldest one: turn up. We are in Noida and visitors are welcome at the centre and at weekend drives. You can see who actually runs the organisation, talk to volunteers who have no reason to flatter us, and watch the work happen in front of you. If visiting is not practical, write to us and ask the hard questions. We would far rather answer them than have you donate uneasily.

The short version

Registrations visible. Costs itemised. Money to the organisation's account. A receipt every time. Past work documented. People reachable. Six of those seven can be checked from your phone in about ten minutes, and the seventh is a Saturday morning. Once you are satisfied — with us or with anyone else — give with confidence, and then ask the same questions again next year. Good NGOs expect it; answering well is part of the job. If something here is still unclear, our FAQs probably cover it.