GuideStar India www.guidestarindia.org is an initiative of Civil Society Information Services (CSIS) India (a trust registered in India) in collaboration with GuideStar International. GuideStar India has been developed to help various user groups (donors, volunteers, foundations, CSR Managers, media, government, academia) that would like to find and utilise information to effectively and efficiently power their philanthropy and decisions impacting non profit organisations. Every organisation that is registered as a Trust/ Society/ Sec 25 Company in India is eligible for registration in the GuideStar India database, if it can provide a copy of its registration certificate and a verifiable address proof. GuideStar India currently lists over 1600 Indian NGOs. View GuideStar India’s profile on the site.

CSIS India’s vision is Indian philanthropy and non-profit practice revolutionised by the use of civil society information. Their mission is to educate and equip Indian NGOs to voluntarily share, in the public domain, information that advances transparency, enables better decision making and encourages charitable giving.

CSOs are popularly referred to as NPOs, NGOs or voluntary organisations in India. There is no one structural definition as CSOs are incorporated under different laws. The operational definition derived from the PRIA-JHU study, which is used by GuideStar India, requires a CSO to be: legally registered with ongoing activity, institutionally separate from government, non-profit distributing and self-governing (independent of government and private business control). It requires a CSO to be a registered in India as a Trust, Society or Company incorporated under section 25 (of the Indian Companies Act). Micro finance institutions, cooperatives, political parties and religious worship organisations are excluded. India is estimated to have over 3 million registered NGOs as per the Central Statistical Organisation in India.

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