NGO Page - Contains all information about an NGO from their vision and mission to their contact details, financials and programs.

1. Impact Story - These are stories of how an NGOs past programs have affected the target group
2. Programs - These are flagship initiatives/activities of NGOs that they have already carried out or are being implemented.
3. Reach - Places where the NGO has centers and/or is present and doing ground work.

Innovation Bank - An interactive aggregation of working innovative solutions/models from across the globe tackling social issues.These have been handpicked for featuring with the idea that they can work well in India in certain cases and contexts. The innovators/in-charges of each of these are tagged, so that they can be contacted seamlessly in case of any enquiries/further information. Also a frame of reference for NGOs to understand what kind of projects can be created.
Project - This is the promising initiative of an NGO for which crowd-endorsement is to be done. A project should be sustainable in nature and should have a tangible (and measurable) impact. One-off charity initiatives and those with longer deployment cycles are not encouraged. The idea is that each success case of a project acts as a model template for others to plan and replicate the same project in another geography.
Endorsement - Every endorsement denotes support for the intent, plan and need of the project. It involves a monetary contribution to make the project reach its budgetary goals. More the number of endorsements, the more is the project accepted by the local community.
Funding Goal - This is the total amount that is required to implement the project.
All-or-nothing - This is a project format under which if the project is unable to raise at least 100% of the funding goal then all the funds raised are returned to the endorsers, after deducting payment gateway charges. This is because in such cases, partial funding would not enable the project reach fruition.
Flexible Funding - This is a project format under which even if the implementor manages to raise a part of the fund, he can execute a significant portion of the project. For example, projects where unit-wise installation/distribution is possible, like solar lights or books, if by the end of project period, we are able to raise a multiple of unit cost, the same would be transmitted to the beneficiaries.

There are a lot of ways in which you can make use of the innovation bank. F irstly, the innovations are laid out based on Global Goals (UN Sustainable Development Goals), so that one can drill down to the issue and agenda she/he is looking to explore. For example, if you care about "Inclusive Education" and within that "Early Childhood development", you can specifically look for models which cater to this.
After you have discovered an interesting solution, you can:

1. Evangelize - Act as a facilitator in helping your local NGO know of this solution, examine if this can be a good fit to their model and help them chalk out a project plan. Essentially empower them with the conceptualization, need assessment and planning of the project.
2. Spread the word - Everyone's network has got one or the other person, who can leverage the knowhow of this model and evangelize somehow. It would really help if you can spread the word about this model and help it gain visibility.

Please drop us a line at [email protected] and we shall do all the research and get in touch with the innovator to understand the model better. Soon, we shall include this in our innovation bank and promote across various social media channels.

We believe in funding projects with a tangible end goal. To be eligible for raising funds, an NGO needs to be present on LetsEndorse. Projects should be/have:

1. An inclination towards sustainability, where beneficiaries are strengthened to fuel/sustain the project/project-based livelihood on their own
2. Replicable across geographies
3. Measurable and tangible impact
4. Quicker deployment cycles (1-6 months)
5. Aligning with UN's Global Goals

LetsEndorse does not accept purely welfare-based projects, personal/event-based fundraising and hobby projects.

The representative of an NGO submits a project plan for the NGO, the details including the history of the organization in pulling off similar projects, budget break-up, unit costs, timeline etc.) are extensively reviewed by the LetsEndorse team. Once approved, the project becomes live for people to discover and endorse the same.

LetsEndorse is dedicated to enabling powerful models spread across places and leverages one's social network to reach out to a broader supporter base. As we are a community of do-gooders, comprising of social organizations, social enterprises, local communities, development professionals, students and responsible corporations, there is a potential of exploring synergies among these entities. Apart from assisting organizations in conceptualizing and designing projects, we also stand-out in terms of our costs of fundraising, which is only 6% as compared to the market average of 10%. We add our fee on top of the project cost to ensure that the entire requisite budget goes directly to the implementer. This is unlike other platforms where a part of the project budget is compromised as the fee.

A project page is the place where all the information regarding the project is mentioned such as the need, methodology, expected impact and budget. This is where users get to know all about your project and start the endorsement process.

A project page can be run for a maximum of 60 days.

Once a project is approved by the LetsEndorse team, none of the project parameters (including the funding goal) can be changed. The project creator can only add updates to the page.

This depends on the project format. If the format being followed is All-or-Nothing and if the funding goal is not reached then LetsEndorse would return the funds to the endorsers (after deducting a 1.9% payment gateway fee). But if the format is Flexible Funding then then the project creator gets to keep the funds (only multiples of the unit cost) irrespective of whether the goal is reached or not by the last date.

LetsEndorse charges a 6% fee (inclusive of the cost of payment gateway) plus a 15% service tax (effectively 6.9%) on all transactions.
When you donate Rs.100 to an NGO and Rs 7.41 to LetsEndorse, you donate a total of Rs.107.41. Of this, LetsEndorse retains Rs.7.41 and passes on Rs.100 to the NGO. Thus, what LetsEndorse retains as a part of your TOTAL contribution is Rs. 7.41/107.41, i.e., 6.9%.
Most intermediaries like UNICEF, Oxfam, CRY, GiveIndia etc. would report fundraising costs as a percentage of TOTAL contribution (i.e., what percentage of the TOTAL they have retained). In order to keep our percentages comparable to theirs, we compute it in the same way, and hence use 6% as the figure we report to you.
We transfer the project cost amount to the implementation NGO within 10 days after successful funding of the project.

Funds are transferred to the implementation NGO's bank account through NEFT.

Anyone who is an administrator of an NGO page on LetsEndorse can create a project.

This is not possible as the project would automatically stop receiving funds when the goal is reached.

LetsEndorse has a set criteria for accepting projects (see above). Hence, all projects need to be approved before going live. While we aim to make projects live in 24 hours within submission, it totally depends upon the amount of information the organization has disclosed about the project. In almost every case, we ensure a detailed call/visit to the organization to understand the project better and deeper.

While we do our due-diligence before making any project live, a lot also depends on the rate and mode of the organization in utilizing funds. We thus appoint few assessors/validators from within the endorsers' community to visit the site from time to time, note their observations w.r.t. progress and report back to the community. Anyone can volunteer to assume the role of the project assessor and we impart a small training to help them understand the KPIs better.

Yes, you can submit the project again but need to assert how and why it would be different from the previous time when it was unsuccessful. Things to keep in mind:

1. The project acceptance by the public might have been low.
2. The effort from your end to promote the same might not have been up to the mark.
3. The content might not have been well curated and the story might not have been communicated well to the public

Once a project is approved by the LetsEndorse team, none of the project parameters can be changed. The project creator can only add updates to the page.

Yes. LetsEndorse holds implementation NGOs accountable for providing monthly reports from the date of successful funding of the project. The KPIs or progress parameters shall be decided mutually and would differ from project to project.