India
The GuideStar initiative in India is operated jointly by GSI and Murray Culshaw Consulting (MCC), a private consulting group based in Bangalore, India. This initiative has been set up to develop a system that will:
1. Establish a new formal institutional base and operation of GuideStar India and
2. Present CSO information on a free public website in a highly searchable form from a contracted valid government source with additional information provided by organizations themselves.
Status
Development Phase
Commencement of Current Phase
April 2008-March 2010
Project Progress Statement
The exploratory phase for a Civil Society Information System in India was conducted in 2005-2006. Substantial data was collected from different sources (e.g. umbrella organizations, individual CSOs, different NGO databases) and records presented on a pilot basis.
Currently, www.guidestarindia.org is an online pilot database of Indian voluntary organizations with aggregated transparent, readily-searchable self generated reports about the activities, finances, leadership, objectives and requirements of non-profit organisations regardless of their size or area of work.
The recent development of the project will present comprehensible CSO information from a contracted valid government source with additional information provided by organizations themselves by 2010 on a free public website in a highly searchable form.
Expected Challenges
- Very large and complex voluntary sector
- No single source of data for the voluntary sector
- Multiple languages
- Internet connectivity in rural and semi-urban centers
Important Dates
- Exploratory phase: March 2005
- Pilot on Voluntary submitted data: October 2005 – April 2006
- Incorporation of an India entity: will be announced later
- Launch of pilot web-site with voluntary data completed
- Valid, renewable data presented on the site from the end of 2008 onwards.
Supporters
David and Lucille Packard Foundation (May 2008- May 2009)
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