India NGO Awards 2007

GOONJ.. named as Indian NGO of the Year!

The winners of the India NGO Awards 2007 were announced at the awarding ceremony at ITC Sheraton Saket in New Delhi on 5 March. There was one winner in each category – small, medium and large sized organisations – and one award for the best overall NGO.

The winners are:

Small Category:

• GOONJ..

Medium Category:

• A joint award between The Banyan and Childline India Foundation

Large Category:

• CRY (Child Rights and You)

NGO of the Year 2007

• GOONJ

To read more about the winners and other finalists, click here. 

You can also see coverage of the India NGO Awards in the media by clicking here. 

The Guest of Honour, Mr N. R. Narayan Murthy, Chairman of Infosys and the Chief Guest, the Hon'ble Minister for Finance, Mr P. Chidambaram were in attendence on the night to help honour and acknowledge the recipients of the awards.

The three category winners were each presented with a trophy and cash prize of Rs 4,00,000/-.each. The NGO of the Year received an additional cash prize of Rs 2,00,000/-.

Mr. Simon Collings, CEO, the Resource Alliance, followed the President’s message with a welcome address, who said, “India NGO Awards were launched with the aim of motivating NGOs in India, promoting financial and organisational stability, and strengthening community support of civil society, by recognising the excellent work that they do in the voluntary sector. This forum will be a strong force for the non-profit sector to contribute to positive changes and encourage other such organisations to focus on professional management and innovation in local resource mobilisation. It is only these organisations whose work can help achieve a benchmark for financial sustenance in the social sector and they must be given the right incentives” 

Mr. Don Mohanlal, President and CEO, The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation also shared his views on the initiative and said, “We congratulate the winners and indeed all the finalists of the India NGO Awards 2007. They epitomise best practices in self-governance and accountability. Leading by example, they are setting the ultimate standard for civil society organisations to emulate. We hope that other organisations will be encouraged to focus on transparency, effectiveness and impact on the ground.”

A short video with snapshots of the work being done by the 13 regional finalists was screened at the function followed by the names of the prizewinners being unveiled, and the basis the selection criteria made available to all participants. The awards were classified under three categories, National Winners in each category- Small, medium and large and the 'NGO of the Year 2007’. The Award Winners were chosen based on the evaluation and field visits and multilevel process of audits and screenings.

“These awards have encouraged the non-profit sector to exhibit excellent work towards excellence and other CSOs to enhance their practices in accordance with the National Policy on the voluntary sector,” said the Hon’ able Chief Guest Mr. P Chidambaram.

The event concluded with dinner and a performance by Perpetual Brotherhood.

About the Awards

The India NGO Awards were instituted in 2006 as a joint initiative of the Resource Alliance and the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, with an aim to advance the country’s non-profit sector by promoting financial and organisational sustainability, and strengthening community support of civil society.

The Awards seek to:

• Promote good standards and practices in resource mobilisation, accountability and transparency
• Recognise and celebrate excellence in the non-profit sector
• Identify and strengthen successful resource mobilisation practices
• Create examples and inspiration for other non-profits and promote cross-regional learning
• Promote the overall credibility of the non-profit sector for long-term sustainability

All organisations registered in India as Trusts, Societies and under Section 25 that have been working for a minimum of 5 years towards social and environmental transformation are eligible to enter. The eligibility criteria excludes organisations with political or religious affiliations.

Organisations are evaluated on:

• The effective and sustainable mobilisation of resources from the local community
• The demonstration of efficient management of resources, good governance practices and transparency and accountability
• The impact of the services it provides to its beneficiaries

Profiles of the winners and other success stories have been published in a casebook, which can be downloaded below.

India NGO Awards 2007 Casebook

2-Day Seminars in Resource Mobilisation

To promote effective resource mobilisation among local NGOs and advance good governance, accountability and transparency, two-day seminars were held in each of the four regions and one in the North East. Each seminar was evaluated on its overall performance, and the evaluation results can be seen below:

Partners

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation is a private, independent Indian Foundation whose mission is to develop and promote institutions and initiatives that make a substantial impact on poverty, deprivation and disempowerment of the human and natural environment through an approach which is long term, strategic and leveraged.