Tag: Management Innovation

Raising funds is a challenge witnessed by most non-government organisations (NGO) across all social sectors… Each organisation requires a funding strategy tailored to its own requirements. The development sector in India is increasingly witnessing drastic new changes. The inflow of foreign funding is expected to steadily decrease, directly impacting the resources of NGOs.

1. Service Orientation

• The NGOs provide services in collaboration with other parties as well.
• Service Orientation Non-governmental organizations include those NGOs which campaign dedicatedly towards the promotion and awareness of education, health, family planning for the underprivileged section of the society.
• They actively work towards the goal and target the specific services and goals in their mission.

2. Charitable Orientation

• The NGOs fall under this category, in which they play as an authoritarian and has all the powers on the other hand beneficiary party has least or no involvement in their activities.
• NGOs who were primarily involved in campaigns focused on fulfilling the necessities of the lower income group communities with the aid of clothing, medicine, food distribution drives, housing facility, school, transport, etc.
• These NGOs work actively during natural calamities and emergency situations. They play an important role by providing necessities to affected families.

3. Participatory Orientation

• In these types of NGOs Participatory approach is employed and is signified by self-help missions and plans in which localities play a primary role by engagement with the organization of a project.
• They organize, manage in every possible way by themselves, they collect donations in terms of money, land, tools, labour, material, etc.
• In the traditional public development project, participation instigates with the fulfilment of requirements followed by the planning & deployment phase. Co-ops habitually adhere to participatory coordination.

4. Empowering Orientation

• The NGOs fall under this category, with emphasis upon Empowering Orientation.
• Their aim is to provide aids to the deprived section and nurture the understanding of the social, political & economic aspects affecting their lives,
• They have a mission to harden their consciousness to enhance their ability to get equal rights.

The Absence of Strategic Planning and Development Approaches

It is a common mindset for Indian NGOs to favour a “hardware” approach to development. This focuses on building infrastructure and providing services instead of empowering people and institutions locally, which often have stronger impacts. Resultantly, NGOs’ development approaches are not as flexible, sustainable and relevant to the community as they have the potential to be. Furthermore, many NGOs suffer from the lack of a cohesive, strategic plan that would facilitate success in their activities and mission. This renders them unable to effectively raise and capitalise on financial support.

Many NGOs do not maximise the use of current technologies that could facilitate better communication and networking. More effective use of technology can assist NGOs in staying abreast of important regional, national and global concerns.

Lack of Fund

Many NGOs find it difficult to garner sufficient and continuous funding for their work. While CSR partnerships offer a steady income, the majority of NGOs are excluded and for them, gaining access to appropriate donors is a major component of this challenge. Often, they have limited resource mobilisation skills locally, and instead, they wait for international donors to approach them. This is both time-consuming as well as inefficient. In addition, many-a-times NGOs have to make matching contributions, which they are unable to manage, and are, therefore, unable to avail themselves of the grants.

Poor Governance and Networking

Poor or disorganised networking is another major challenge, as it can cause duplicated efforts, time inefficiencies, conflicting strategies and an inability to learn from experience. NGOs in India often fear to connect with International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs), as they are perceived to be threatening to their mission. However, this belief ignores the possibility of collaboration, where local NGOs can tie up with INGOs and the community at large, to become more effective and deliver better results.

Another area wherein NGOs lack communication is their inability to maintain a healthy relationship with various government agencies local, state level and the central government. NGOs are commonly viewed as ‘opposition to the government’, which masks the need for NGOs to liaison with the government and be a partner wherever needed.

Misuse of Funds

It is not unknown that some unscrupulous elements have made fortunes by floating NGOs for their personal gains and managing grants from the government. It is a common experience to hear of serious charges of misuse and misappropriation of funds received as grant-in-aid from the government, foreign donors and raised through their own resources by most of the NGOs. These NGOs may reflect a negative image, due to high levels of corruption, and therefore ruin the reputation of other NGOs who are working with dedication and commitment.

Lack of Volunteerism/Social Work Among Youth

Earlier the NGOs were assumed, to be served by unpaid social workers imbued with the spirit of service and by those who did not require any special education or training. But the present trend is that youth are choosing to pursue a professional education and are not interested in working with NGOs. Their vision has been altered to include an urban lifestyle and professionalisation, which, in their minds, rejects all possibilities of basing their career on working with NGOs and rural India. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get trained personnel to work in rural societies, where most NGOs work.

Donor agencies increasingly support NGOs in providing services to the poor in Third World countries where markets are inaccessible and where governments lack capacity or resources to reach the poor. In most Third World countries including those in Africa, both states and markets are weak or in decline. In Africa, the persistence of the dual crises of weak states and nascent or declining markets pose a classic dilemma for proponents of either market- or state-led economic development. The failure of both markets and governments in Africa to deliver economic development has contributed to the rapid growth and expansion of NGOs on the continent.

Evidence accumulated over the past three decades shows “the inability of the African State to deliver on its development promise. “In fact, the African State is now perceived as “The inhibitor of social, economic, and political development. “The demise of the African State has inevitably given rise to the ascendancy of NGOs to fill up the “Development vacuum” that has been created. The expansion of the NGO sector in Africa is most clearly reflected at the country level. For example, in Kenya there are about 500 NGOs and in Uganda there are more than 1,000 registered foreign and indigenous NGOs. Similarly, other African countries have a large number of active NGOs. These countries include: “Zambia with 128, Tanzania with 130, Zimbabwe with 300, and Namibia with over 55.”The growing role of NGOs in all sectors of development is an indication of the decreasing capacity of the African state to undertake meaningful development. Besides increases in NGO numbers, the amount of development resources they receive or handle for development purposes has grown over the years. It is estimated that “official aid to Kenyan NGOs amounts to about US$35 million a year, which is about 18 percent of all official aid received by Kenya annually [and] . . . in Uganda, NGOs disburse an estimated 25 percent of all official aid to Uganda.”

The weakening financial situation of Uganda and Kenya, like that of other African countries, is due to a combination of huge external debts, corruption and the effects of structural adjustment programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In particular, the structural adjustment programs have “strained the ability of the African states to provide services and has attracted more NGOs to cushion the adverse short-term effects of adjustment programs, such as by providing affordable healthcare services.”30 Given the prevailing political and economic conditions in Uganda and Kenya, as well as elsewhere in Africa, the role and contribution of NGOs to the development process is expected to increase.

Donor agencies increasingly funnel development assistance through NGOs and other non-state institutions because the states in Sub-Saharan Africa are considered both inefficient and corrupt. As Dicklich observes, the “failure of the [African] state to provide for basic services has led to many official donors to use NGOs rather than the local state to provide services.”In Uganda, a succession of inefficient, violent and corrupt regimes since 1971 has contributed to the emergence of over 1,000 indigenous NGOs to provide self-help solutions to the poor. Most “Ordinary Ugandans have had to fend for themselves, relying on organizations outside of the state rather than on the state itself to provide basic necessities. “In general, most service-oriented NGOs have generally “moved into service provision where the state has moved out. “No doubt, NGOs have been necessary in Uganda and other African countries to fill up the “Developmental gaps” caused by the weak post-independence state.

While African States have become increasingly weak, formal markets have steadily declined and in some cases have been replaced by informal or parallel markets. According to Callaghy, most African economies are faced with

“Declining or negative rates and stagnating or falling per capita income figures; balance of payments and debt problems (which have become more severe (since) the 1980s, requiring IMF and the World Bank programs with their attendant conditionality packages and consequences. Many (export) commodity prices remain low while most import prices remain high. In many countries, agricultural production is falling while aid levels stagnate. Health and nutrition levels are falling while informal or magendo economies (have) become more important as states weaken and formal markets decline. ‘Socialist’ states have performed poorly and ‘capitalist’ ones are not significantly better. Hopes for economic growth and development have shriveled on all sides.”

In Uganda and other African countries, authoritarian regimes “induced an ‘exit’ from the formal economy [as well as] a general avoidance of state institutions by a wide range of groups and occupations. “Furthermore, economic restructuring due to structural adjustment programs and privatization contributed to the retreat of African states from their responsibilities of promoting economic development and providing “basic social services such as health care, education, sanitation and basic security,. . . “Given the weak private sector and the state withdrawal from the provision of basic economic necessities and social services, “many NGOs are being pressurized into dealing with poverty alleviation (not eradication), and the provision of basic social services . . .”Thus, NGOs increasingly fill in social and economic spaces created by weak markets or retreating states. As a result, “NGOs have been heralded as . . . new agents with the capacity and commitment to make up for the shortcomings of the state and market in reducing poverty.” Some critics of NGO participation in economic development contend that such involvement provides legitimacy and support to governments that have failed to deliver economic development or provide basic social services to their citizens. Other critics charge that NGOs save “donors money and allow them to avoid addressing implementation difficulties, while also allowing them [the donors] to retain ultimate control over activities.”

The absence of viable states or markets in most Third World countries including African states has left NGOs as the most important alternative for promoting economic development. Thus, the failure or inability of both states and markets to meet the basic needs of the majority of the people in the Third World has given rise to the growing importance of the NGO sector in the development process. Such inability has also exposed the inherent limitations of the state or private sector as major agents of promoting economic development in the Third World.

NGOS AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE THIRD WORLD

The rapid growth and expansion of NGOs worldwide attest to their growing critical role in the development process. At the international level, NGOs are perceived as vehicles for providing democratization and economic growth in Third World countries. Within Third World countries, NGOs are increasingly considered good substitutes for weak states and markets in the promotion of economic development and the provision of basic services to most people.

NGOs are seen by their proponents as a catalyst for societal change because they are responsive to the needs and problems of their clients, usually the poor, women and children. Because of targeting and being responsive to marginalized groups in society, NGOs are being heralded as “important vehicles for empowerment, democratization and economic development. “In fact, some NGOs are “driven by strong values and . . . interests . . . , geared toward empowering communities that have been traditionally disempowered. “International donor agencies see NGOs as “having the capacity and commitment to make up for the shortcomings of the state and market in reducing poverty. “Perhaps the greatest potential NGOs have is to generate self-help solutions to problems of poverty and powerlessness in society. This is based on the view of NGOs as independent, “efficient, less bureaucratic, grassroots oriented, participatory and contributing to sustainable development in grassroots communities. “But for NGOs to remain independent of donor or elite control and achieve their social and economic goals, they have to work diligently toward capacity building and financial sustainability.

NGOs are increasingly playing an important role in the development process of most Third World countries as discussed in section three of this paper. The growing importance of NGOs in the development process is attributed to the fact that they are considered suitable for promoting participatory grassroots development and self-reliance, especially among marginalized segments of society-namely, the poor, women and children. In fact, some NGOs seek to organize and involve the marginalized groups in their own development. And sometimes, they try to link their clients to the powerful segments of society by providing access to resources that are normally out of reach to the poor. For example, within development-oriented NGOs, microfinance institutions (MFIs) try to contribute to the economic improvement of the poor by: “bringing in new income from outside the community, preventing income from leaving the community, providing new [self] employment opportunities and stimulating backward and forward linkages to other community enterprises.”

Non-profit organizations may provide a wide range of services, or they may offer just one or two. However, they all have something in common: they create objectives, visions, and missions to help them to carry out their work in a clear and organized way. They each play an important role in helping the organizations to carry out their tasks in a driven, motivated way, and they keep them on track and moving forward. They serve as a roadmap of how to reach their end goals and to identify what those end goals are.

Objectives of NGO’s

• To work for the social development of underprivileged individuals, groups and communities;
• To encourage healthcare development and health promotion;
• To assist in the process of social integration and personal realisation of underprivileged children, young people, adults and families;
• To endorse the human rights and in particular the rights of the children and young people as well as the rights of underprivileged groups and communities;
• To encourage and popularise voluntary work.

Characteristics of NGO’s

• They are formed voluntarily;
• They are independent of government;
• They are not for private profit or gain; and
• Their principal is to improve the circumstances and prospects of disadvantaged people.

Functions of NGO’s

The function of NGO is to focus on all the issues concerning human rights, social, environmental and advocacy. They work to promote and improve the social and political conditions of the society on a broad scale. Some of the functions of NGO are:

• Human rights and child rights
• Poverty eradication
• Animal Rights
• Prevent Social Injustice
• Conservation of Environment
• Aged people care routine
• Empowerment of women
• Disease Control and others
• Health and Nutrition plans
• Conservation of Wildlife
• Hygiene and Sanitation conditions
• Humanitarian Relief
• Education plans and literacy
• Refugee Crisis

Scope of NGO’s

Non Government Organizations are the non-profit voluntary groups established at local, national or international level. They perform different tasks for solving problems and development of society. NGOs are connected with government or private sector firms. They deal with some social issues like women empowerment, girl child, gender issues, education, pollution, street children, slum dwellers, health, urban development, human rights, concerns of less privileged etc. NGOs bring up people’s concerns and issues to the government and policy makers non-profit making, voluntary, service-oriented/development oriented organization, either for the benefit of members or of other members of the population.

It is an organization of private individuals who believe in definite basic social principles and who structure their activities to bring about development to communities that they are servicing. An independent, democratic, non-sectarian peoples organizations working for the empowerment of economic and/or socially marginalized groups. As a result development of courses in the non-profit stream had also taken a back seat. However, now the scene is entirely different. Government policies, work of the existing NGOs and the media have a lot to do with bringing Non-profit management into a normal career option.

Classifications of NGO’s

Types

NGOs further the social goals of their members (or founders): improving the natural environment, encouraging the observance of human rights, improving the welfare of the disadvantaged, or representing a corporate agenda. Their goals cover a wide range of issues. They may fund local NGOs, institutions and projects, and implement projects.

NGOs are classified by their:

• Orientation, i.e. the type of activities an NGO undertakes, such as activities involving human rights, consumer protection, environmentalism, health, or development.
• Level of operation, which indicates the scale at which an organization works: local, regional, national, or international.

Orientation

• Charity: Often a top-down effort, with little participation or input from beneficiaries. They include NGOs directed at meeting the needs of disadvantaged people and groups.
• Service: Includes NGOs that provide healthcare (including family planning) and education.
• Participatory: Self-help projects with local involvement in the form of money, tools, land, materials, or labour
• Empowerment: Aim to help poor people to understand the social, political, and economic factors affecting their lives, and to increase awareness of their power to control their lives. With maximum involvement by the beneficiaries, the NGOs are facilitators.

Level of operation

• Community-based organizations (CBOs): Popular initiatives which can raise the consciousness of the urban poor, helping them understand their right to services, and providing such services.
• City-wide organizations: Include chambers of commerce and industry, coalitions of business, ethnic or educational groups, and community organizations.
• State NGOs: Include state-level organizations, associations, and groups. Some state NGOs are guided by national and international NGOs.
• National NGOs: An NGO that exists in only one country; they are rare. These include national organizations such as YMCAs and YWCAs, professional associations, and similar groups. Some have state or city branches, and assist local NGOs.
• International NGOs (INGOs): Range from secular agencies, such as Save the Children, to religious groups. They may fund local NGOs, institutions and projects, and implement projects.

Non-governmental organization (NGO) movements to alleviate poverty, protect the environment, or advocate for human rights are widespread throughout the developing world, and, as of 2002, are estimated to account for over 30% of international development aid. While many of the smaller NGOs in this group are seen as providing positive, uplifting services to local communities, larger multi-national examples of social organizations are prone to the same types of endemic corruption as other corporate entities. As well, NGOs often promote ideologies such as equal rights for women that are in direct conflict with a local government’s political aims.

Advantages/Merits/Pros

• It’s have a strong network.
• NGO’s introduce new technologies to farmers such as new variety, new crop, and new equipment.
• NGO’s help farmers to increase crop production.
• NGO’s help farmers to improve their living standard.
• There is a special programme for rural women and youth development.
• It improves the leadership ability of the rural women and youth.
• Its help to rural women and youth to develop their social economic condition.
• It provides good employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth.
• It helps to initiate the creativity of youth and rural women.
• It provides handsome salary for their employer.
• It encourages the unemployed young and rural women to establish themselves.
• It increases the economic contribution power in rural women.

Disadvantages/Demerits

• By giving small money, they can take over money by the high rate of interest.
• It provides a vicious cycle of interest.
• It’s have a strong network.
• It forces people to buy their attractive and developed things.
• It creates a source of depression, when the consumers pay their loans they suffer a mental depression.
• When rural people cannot pay their loans, they take some punishable action against them which cannot tolerable to mankind.
• It sometimes creates the source of a quarrel between husband, wife, and other members of the family.

Vision is the essence of not only a NGO but also any organization, vision of your organization can be considered as answers to your existence as Organization and deepest goal to achieve through your organization.

As far as vision of an NGO, there are different context in which you can set your vision and it mostly depends on in which area you are working as an NGO As this question is too vague to answer specifically, below points can be considered while defining your Vision.

Vision:

Change you want to see in next 10 years.

Impact you are going to make on society

Long term sustainability

Your organizational values

Mission:

Your upcoming 5 years plan to accomplish.

Reaching out to maximum beneficiary

Long term resource and sustainability management.

Goals:

NGOs include promoting the use of appropriate technology and assisting research and development into new technology. This type of NGO may concentrate on problems in agriculture such as crop diseases or harmful insects. NGOs also may research improved agricultural equipment that is appropriate for a region’s particular agricultural conditions.

NGOs involve assisting small businesses in gaining access to credit and finding markets for their produce. These NGOs may, for example, provide microfinance, including loans to small business and savings and insurance products for low-income households. Such NGOs may support economic development by helping households to use any money they earn to accumulate assets and insure themselves against adverse situations.

NGOs concerned with the empowerment of women may include activities on a political or economic level. Such an NGO might be concerned with issues concerning the education and health of women and would help women’s groups to use their united strength to stand up for their rights in the political arena. Some NGOs also are concerned with helping women in business.

Goals of NGOs may include assisting producer groups to come together as pressure groups and find ways to influence policy on matters that concern them. An NGO can make these groups aware of their rights and educate them on ways to demand greater political participation. An example is the work of NGOs involved in fair trade issues. These may help producer groups to negotiate improved terms for selling their produce and may campaign on an international level for fairer world trade.

There are certain areas where the accounting of NGOs differs from that of other organisations that aim at earning profit. The components that are different in the case of NGO accounting are as follows:

• The NGO receives donations from different individuals and business entities. The donations can be general or specific donations, where general donations are used for any purpose in the organisation, whereas the specific or individual donations are used only for the purpose for which the donor has donated.
• The main motive of NGOs is to provide services for the welfare of society, and there are specific programmes that NGOs conduct for the same. The accounting for such programmes is done separately to separate surplus or deficit from such programmes.
• In standard profit-making entities, a different head reports shareholder’s equity, but shareholders and investors are not there in NGOs. Thus, there is no equity stake in NGOs, and in the case of these NGOs, net assets take the place of equity in the statement of financial position.
• In the case of NGOs, the statement of activities is prepared. It calculates surplus or deficit instead of profit and loss account and profit or loss in the profit-making organisation. The equity statement is not prepared in the case of NGOs as equity shareholders are not there.
• In the case of NGOs, the statement of functional expenses is prepared, which records the fund accounting of the company. This report shows the total expenses incurred by the NGO along with the details of the expenses spent by it by diving into funds and category wise.

Basis of NGO Accounting

An important section of NGO account management is the basis of accounting. It defines the basis on which the accounting starts and methods applied for managing accounts with day-to-day transactions. Points to be considered for this process are as follows:

• The NGO prepares its accounts on the basis of the historical basis of accounting, but assets are re-valued from their historical cost to reflect current values.
• The NGO applies an accrual-based accounting method. Revenues, grants, or donations are recorded in the accounting period it is received, and expenses are recognised when incurred. Loans and other grants are also recognised when received. Further, other revenues are recognised as per the accrual concept.
• Grants and donations are recorded separately and are shown with the non-operating income and expenses. They are not included in the retained earnings from operations but in the contributed capital or donated equity.  
• Contributions made in kind are recognised through journal adjustments which are supported by appropriate documents such as agreements, formal letters, memos, MOU, etc.

The account books are maintained in a set pattern, so all transactions are traced back and forth. The pattern is as follows:

1. Expenses
2. Cash memo
3. Voucher
4. Cash book
5. Ledger
6. Trail balance
7. Income and expenditure statement, balance sheet

Fund Accounting

Fund accounting enables NGOs to allocate money in different groups or “funds” to keep them organised and spend as per need. The groups under which money is separated are:

• Restricted Funds: 

The funds are for certain NGO projects and activities and are to be spent accordingly.

• Temporarily restricted funds:

The funds are spent on certain projects and activities at NGOs for a certain period of time. After that time period, the fund becomes unrestricted funds.

• Unrestricted funds:

This is also called the Annual Fund. These funds can be spent on anything that NGOs require. 

Advantages of NGO Accounting

The advantages related to NGO Accounting are as follows:

• In NGOs, the statement of functional expenses is prepared to record funds accounting of the company.
• Programs are conducted by NGOs, for which accounting is done separately.  
• NGO Accounting enables to analyse of every program properly.

Although NGO Accounting is beneficiary in the ways mentioned above, it also has disadvantages. The various disadvantages related to NGOs are as follows:

• NGO Accounting is more prone to fraud when compared with the accounting of other organisations.
• There are chances where the person authorised for accounting does not account properly and leaves some of the grants received by the organisations.

Books and Documents maintained for NGO Accounting

Following is the list of books and documents that NGOs maintain for proper and systematic account management:

• Cash payment or receipt vouchers and book
• Bank payment or receipt vouchers and book
• Summary of daily petty cash book
• Journal vouchers and journal
• General Ledger
• Fixed Assets Register
• Contract or Registration Documents
• Attendance Register
• Budget copies of various grants
• Utilisation Certificates
• Any other relevant Registration papers
• Copies of consultancy agreements
• Capital assets approvals
• A file of original bills of assets purchased
• Copies of contracts and agreements
• Stationary Register
• A file containing bank mandates and authorised signatories
• Quotation file for all purchases
• Advance payment register
• Check issue register
• Cancelled check register
• Donation receipt issue register

The Foreign Contribution (regulation) Act, 2010 is an act of the Parliament of India, by the 42nd Act of 2010. It is a consolidating act whose scope is to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It is designed to correct shortfalls in the predecessor act of 1976. The bill received presidential assent on 26 September 2010.

Amendments

The Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah introduced the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020, which made several changes to the existing Act, including making it mandatory for office bearers of any non-governmental organisation (NGO) to provide their Aadhaar numbers. It also gives the government the power to hold a “summary enquiry” to prevent an organization from using foreign funds. These changes were intended to increase transparency regarding the use of foreign money for non-governmental organisations.

The Bill was unanimously passed by the Lok Sabha on 21 September 2020. The Rajya Sabha unanimously passed the bill on 23 September 2020.

Amendment 2022

The Centre has also omitted provision ‘b’ in rule 13, which dealt with declaring foreign funds including details of donors, amount received, and date of receipt every quarter on its website. Now only once a year the organizations in FCRA can file the audited balance sheet in the website of the Ministry or also on their own website.

Controversies

A number of NGOs receiving foreign funding are seen by the India’s central government as involved in anti-development activism and hence posing a negative impact on the economic growth by two to three per cent. An Intelligence Bureau report titled ‘Impact of NGOs on Development,’ claims the NGOs and their international donors are also planning to target many fresh economic development projects.

Home ministry has cancelled some more registrations including top 8 national educational institutions such asJawaharlal Nehru University, IIT-Kanpur and Jamia Milia Islamia saying that these institutes are not maintaining proper FCRA account. So, unless their registrations are restored, these institutions cannot receive contributions from abroad. Later the FCRA status of Jamia Milia Islamia was restored in September 2012 following the submission of its report to the government. The Ministry of Home Affairs has since clarified that Jamia is exempt from all provisions of the FCRA and therefore there is no bar on Jamia to receive/spend foreign contributions.

The Union Home Ministry has cancelled renewal of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of Greenpeace India and two NGOs run by activist Teesta Setalvad who is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. Greenpeace has been charged with obstructing development activities in India by the Government of India in 2013 (Under congress led UPA government) after intelligence Bureau inputs. Greenpeace India is charged with undertaking protests against thermal power, nuclear power, coal and aluminium mining across the India. GreenPeace has also been charged with promoting Solar energy equipment of US based Zemlin Surface Optical Corporation especially in Bihar. Greenpeace India admitted to anchoring local protests against coal mines and participating in seminars where foreign funding is sought for protests but clarified that the source of funding does not lessen the seriousness of harm to the environment. According to IB (Intelligence Bureau) report, Greenpeace poses threat to national economic security, growing exponentially in reach, impact, volunteers and media influence.

Foreign Source

It includes:

• Government of any foreign country or any agency of such government;
• Any international agency except United Nations or any of its specialised agencies, World Bank, International Monetary Fund or such other agency as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify;
• Foreign company;
• Corporation, other than foreign company, incorporated outside India;
• A multinational corporation;
• A company where more than 50% of its share capital is held by a foreign government or citizens of a foreign country or foreign entity (includes company, corporations, trusts, societies or other associations of individuals registered in foreign country);
• A foreign trust or foreign foundation and includes trust or foundation mainly financed by a foreign country and;
• Citizen of a foreign country.
• Foreign Trade Union, Society, Club or Other Association.

Restrictions on Accepting FC

The person having a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme can accept FC, only if:

• It is registered with the Central Government under this Act or takes prior permission before receiving each contribution.
• It receives FC only through one designated bank account.
• Central Government is kept intimated as to the amount, source and manner in which FC was received and utilised.

Prior Permission

• Application for prior approval to be made in Form FC 4.
• Prior approval to be donor specific, donee specific and purpose specific.