Charity- concepts & contacts of charitable organisations(India)

Friends-

Off late, I am grappling with the issue of what my approach should be to charitable contributions. Some of the questions within my mind are..

a. When I have so many needs (buying a house, paying for my parent's medical needs, saving for a decent retirement etc.) should I be even thinking of charity?
b. If I decide to give, how much of my income should I contribute to charity?
c. With so many noble causes to contribute to, which one should I give for?
d. Should I contribute to US organizations or Indian organizations? US organizations tend to make it a lot easier and also share with you the uses of your money. Dealing with Indian organizations tend to be a little more difficult and it is hard to get them to share the uses of our money.

Would like to hear your thoughts and perspectives..

Shalini

Hi-

If you are involved in a charity, can you please share information about the charity? What does the charity do? Who runs it? How efficient they are? I am interested in giving a certain percentage of my earnings to charity and would like to decide a cause/charity that I can espouse.

As I am able to google and find generic information about all charities, what would be most helpful is your personal insight and reflection on their work. I am most likely to make a good choice if I am guided by someone who is involved.

Thank you.

Shalini

Dear Shalini,

My family supports the following charities. We have done a lot of research into how well they use their funds, how transparent and accountable they are, and how effective the outreach is.

I must say right now, that we are not exactly rich, and our money is hard earned- just like that of many others. So we were very strict and stringent in choosing charities.

1) www. akshayapatra.org (pls click on the ad in my signature)

2) The Tanker Foundation in Chennai.

They provide free dialysis and renal medication, surgery assistance to needy clients.

The only disadvantage in this charity is that they do not send receipts properly. I find that extremely irritating, especially since the contributions are exempted from income tax in India under 80G. Also, it shows indifference on the part of the foundation.

But having said that, I will also be the first to say that they use their donations fully to the charitable cause and there is no siphoning off. They just need better administration.

3) Ashraya in Regional Cancer Center in Trivandrum. We wanted to do something in our area and this is a credible and efficient charity. For Rs 300 a week, they provide free food (breakfast, lunch, tea-snacks and kanji at night) to a cancer patient and by-stander.

Most in-patients are very poor and from rural areas and cannot cook their own food or get it from family. Ashraya gives them coupons from the Medical college Canteen for the food.

4) Sankar Netralaya is also good. We have done cataract surgeries, you can do retinal transplant and many other surgeries. Contributions are exempt in US also.

5) Aseema Foundation in Bombay for street children. They accept cash, old clothes and toys. We have not given them any cash, have collected a sack of stuffed toys and clothes for them.

6) Other lesser contributions are buying CRY greeting cards, shwals made by the children of Spastics Society, candles and candy from SCARF Chennai etc.

hi Vidhya,
I was going through the charities you have mentioned. I am from Trivandrum and I would like to know how I can donate for the Ashrya cancer center in Trivandrum. My chitti(aunt) and grand father died of cancer and i have been wanting to do something for cancer patients ever since. I would really appreciate it if you could let me know if there is an organization or something here that I can send money through..

Thanks,
lakshmi

Dear Lakshmi,

Glad to hear that u r also from TVM.

I send money to Ashraya thru a friend in TVM. I really do not think that there is any central agency, especially in the US from where u can send money to Ashraya.

The best bet will be to get yr relatives in TVM to call Mrs Shanta Jose (she is the Head of Ashraya) and get details abt what they need and how to send it.

The link below might give u more details.

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/01/06/s...0600100200.htm

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There is another Palliative Care unit called Care Plus

http://www.ananthapuri.com/careplus.asp

Try this, it has secure approved gateways of cash transfer. You can write to Mr Cherian Philip first and ask him what they want etc and how you want yr money to be used. I have not sent money thru Careplus but it seems credible.

regards
Vidya

Dear Vidhya,
Thanks a lot for the information. Sorry for the delayed response.. Though I browse this site a lot.. I think i am still in the process of figuring out what is posted where.. i will ask my brother to contact mrs. Shanta Jose.

Thanks,
Lakshmi

Hi Shalini,

My husband and I regularly contribute to a few organisations based in Chennai.

1. Sivananada Ashram - they run an orpahanage and also an old age home for destitutes. We don't have any rule as to what percentage, but we do send once or twice a year - like during beginning of school term to supplement the educational expenses of the kids.. etc.,

2. Udavum Karangal - we sponsor a couple of girls for the education and upkeep. I strongly feel that poor Indian girls must be educated to support themselves. Udavum Karangal is a big organisation with various activities like orphanage, old age home, handicapped children's rehab, mentally retarded kids rehab etc., But they charge like Rs. 24,000 for the complete education expenses for a girl /boy until grade 10.. I think. They also keep you informed about your sponsored kid's progress and you can visit them whenever you visit India.

Alternatively, we do send Rs.5000 or so for every birthday or wedding day to feed them on this special occasion.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter how much you do, it matters only that you want to do something for the needy and that is a great thing...

There are tons of orphanage and old age homes that need help in India, but we can't support every one of them.. so we do send few dollars as and when we can to the above two organisations and we do visit both organisations regularly during our visit to India.. like visiting our family and spend a day with them. It is a great feeling and I always come out of there with tears in my eyes.

you can check them out in the net before you make a decision.

If we start digging in the net about the charitable organisations, it is impossible to decide.. So pay a visit once , see for yourself and then decide to send money periodically for your favourite cause, if it is worth it.

I would rather donate money to charities than buying gifts to the worthless relatives and spending money on restaurants by taking them out is a waste..

In the US, I do donate 10 to 25$ per charity like cancer society, home for habitat and such organisations as I live and enjoy here and this country gave me so much, and so I will be grateful to US to some extent.

Geeth Priya

Hi,
Are there any reliable, genuine charitable trusts in India. I heard from many of our friends(it came out in news also) here that the charitable organizations located in Ashramams are also not reliable. If we donate money for some poor kids education and things like that, they even have some typed text for each purpose and they send that to us from time to time saying the kid has now studying this class, now got books etc etc.
Ashramams are considered to be very ethical, if there itself is going on so much fraud I'm just wondering is there any reliable one.
We actually want to help some body but don't know which organization to choose.

I read all our mails with great interest. understand that there is a lot of concern about the money being used properly-however the truth is that it is a huge mix of
the very good to the bad to the ugly.Some of the mails had the names of some great org-some of course were hospices.
I however can give you all some great ideas-some require you to be a part of it and some of course don't
Here are four ideas that require your help:
1)Education-lots of poor kids-brilliant kids need your support.One heartening thing is the way the very poor see education as a away out of poverty-please help
2)Help train women in the villages
3)support businesses for women
4)help conduct health camps and support through your network talks on health,hygiene and anything
I focus on teens health ad hygiene educating them on the need to maintain it.
Also for all the above I can personally give you contacts.
If you would like to send books,pencils,erasers,anything that will make a kid happy pl do
Finally if you are coming to India from elsewhere and would like to come and see and be with the people you support through Aulia,my organization you are welcome to do so.
Aulia means someone who answers prayers-please be one
Shashwathi(Shobha Gowri)

We have been donating to charity as and when possible.

Apart from dresses,rice and other things to a gurukulam in south chennai, We give a reasonable amount to a teacher who is our neighbour to fund the books and uniform of the kids in need. (She is from a government school who used to introduced us to children who were too good in academics and were forced to leave. ) so every year come may-june, we give an amount.. and ofcourse, she brings those kids home. so we are happy that what we give is definitely being used properly and goes to the needy.