Practical Tips on Attracting Foreign/CSR

Donations & FCRA A/c Maintenance

We have received many calls asking us to help NGOs to collect Donations.
Though we have restricted our scope of work to Legal and Documentary
compliance only, we thought that , few NGOs need some Tips to boost up their
social work by attracting more donations.
Following Tips may help you to attract donations
1. Prepare a Nice Audio Visual presentation of your social work / projects.
Video shutting professionals /photographers or even you can do this with
your smart phone. Making it through a professional will help you in long
run since his camera and skills can not be acquired by you in a day.
2. Upload this Video on u tube through your gmail account. A u tube link will
be generated which can be saved with you
3. Take Photogaphs of your social projects
4. Scan your address proofs, PAN Card, BPT Reg Certificate, Societies Reg
Certificate, Income Tax Registration u/s12AA, 80G Certificate,FCRA
Registration Certificate, FCRA Bank A/c no, its IFSC code etc
5. Prepare following 4 pages in simple ms word
A.Home/about you and your trust,
B. Social Work/ Projects,
C. Major trustees and their background, and regular Donors
D. Contact / Donate Us
Handover aforesaid material- video, photo & 4 pages to your website
designer.
6. Prepare a nice website for you and insert the aforesaid u tube link
and photos on your website. ( you can watch www.barpute.com
home page video to know how it appears)
7. Insert name of Your Organisation,its address, PAN no, BPT Reg
No, Societies Reg No, FCRA no, FCRA Bank A/c no, its IFSC code on
your site
8. Insert Contact/ Pay us page to enable donors to send money.
9. If you cant do this, we can do work mentioned in pt no 6 to 8 for you on
your request.
10.This website is Marketing infrastructure for you. Now make it popular by
investing money for SEO( Search Engin Optimisation, Google Adwords etc)
11.Start visiting foreign countries and meeting Foreign donors, NRIs, your ex
friends/students/ patients/associates who are settled in foreign Countries.
Physical meetings brings good results. Show your website to NRIs, discuss
with them about your forthcoming projects. Remain proactive in foreign
countries . Appoint social PROs if needed.
12.Apply for CSR of various Multinational companies giving your website link
to them.
This may bring you good results if done continuously for more than 3
years. But success depends on- which social projects are undertaken by
you, its need for society, your ability to convince donors, your ability to
execute these projects for people, transparency in its accounting and your
integrity and commitments for social work undertaken by you.

Once Foreign donations start rolling, keep donors in touch, publish their
name, photos etc on your website/souvenirs etc ,try to involve them in
your social projects . Use this website as Public relation infrastructure to
maximum possible extent.

Practical Tips on FCRA A/c Maintenance :

We are working for our FCRA Clients from last 20 years during which we
observed few things. Here are some practical tips to deal with them. :
1. Many clients have mixed their FCRA Account with Indian Donations. This
is cognizable offence under FCRA. You needs to keep seperate set of books
of accounts and separate Bank Account for FCRA . Separate set of books
means separate cash book, seperate ledger , seperate Receipt Book,
separate Vouchers and separate financial statements such as Income &
Exp Account, Recipt & Payment A/c and Balance Sheet as if FCRA is your
Branch. Open separate Tally file for FCRA if you are using Tally
Do not mix project exp from both accounts. Try to take separate projects
for foreign Donations. This will enable you to produce separate balance
sheets easily
2 . Many a times bank have transferred FCRA accounts to dormant or in
operative accounts or close ur FCRA bank account, because there is no
transaction in your FCRA account. This is on account of ignorance of FCRA
provisions by Banks. Many a times banks have changed their software
from previous one to CBS which results in to generating different account
number. For all above things you needs to complete "Change in Bank
Account Process" We charge separately for such services if you get it
done from us. Hence while opening new FCRA Account keep balance of
Appx 20000/- , because minimum balance charges of banks are applied if
balance goes below 10000 . Sometimes the bank accounts are closed
automatically. We found Axis Bank normally offers Zero balance saving
Account to NGO . You can take advantage of such bankers for FCRA a/c
opening.
3. You may also have separate account for your Indian donations. you can
prepare separate Financial Statement for Indian Donation/ Transactions.
While uploading your Income Tax or BPT return, you have to merge both
balance sheets and put the figures of Consolidated Balance sheet in ITR
( income tax return) Many Assessees or Auditors are not aware about it
hence choose the Auditor who knows both Income Tax and FCRA like Barpute consultancy for FCRA and Anand S Barpute & Associates for
Audit.
OR at least choose the Auditor who can work in Team with your FCRA
consultant.
We File Income Tax Returns and do regular Audit too. This becomes a
One point solution to all needs of the Trust.
4. Most of FCRA Registered trusts ( even 90%) failed to attract Foreign
Donations . But remaining 10% clients brings Donations in Lacs or even in
Crores . All of them have to incur FCRA legal Compliance cost . The only

way to save such compliance overhead is to increase flow of foreign

funds by remaining proactive in your social work and developing relations
with Foreign Donors .
FCRA, BPT, PAN, TAN, 80G , 35AC Registrations are legal infrastructure for
you like a Highway for a Car. How much kilometre a car can travel on
Highway depends on the ability of Driver, Car, and Petrol filled in its tank.
You needs to incur more exp on maintaining a junk car than a running
car. But remember, A small donation of $1000, becomes Rs. 70,000/when get converted in to Indian rupees. Hence don't loose this important
registration in your hand. Remain proactive in your social work and
developing relations with donors, Then only this legal infrastructure will
help you. Having only registrations will bring you nothing. But it can bring
lacs of Foreign donations for your social projects if you are proactive.
6. Every Charitable organisation works for improving Human Life. We have
a great respect for your work.
But we are not a chiritable organisation. We keep updated and trained
manpower, machines and office for our organisation which is not
available Free of Charge to us. Still we have maintained reason ability in
our charges. We also serve physically by visiting your places and projects,
for which you needs to pay more than double amounts and travelling
costs too. Hence we request you to avail our internet services, charges of
them are already mailed to you. Many of you have experienced our
professionalism of serving you on internet. We serve with the help of mail
, cell and couriers to avoid wastage of time in traffic and meetings .Pl
refer www.barpute.com for more details about it.
5. Few Tips for FCRA Annual compliance can be given in my next
mail if you get your Renewal/ annual compliance/ quarterly
compliance done from us. We restricted our scope of work to legal
and document compliance only , we are not broker in bringing donations
as normally inquired by many organisations. However we work as a Loan/
finance consultant for procuring Loans. We also prepare Project Reports as
per the requirements of the Donor or CSR companies format by charging a
reasonable fees.
We are thankful for your interest in FCRA . This is important Act to
regulate Acceptance and use of Foreign funds. The process of Renewal is
brought in by Hr. Chidambaramji and E governed by Hr Rajnathsinghji
through Ministry of Home Affairs. Your FCRA consultant needs to have in
depth knowledge of FCRA provisions and Computer to deal with your
case. Half knowledge in FCRA leads to unwanted penalties and
prosecutions. Implementing Authorities belongs to IB ( Intelligence
Bureau). Hence outsource such function to us and feel relax.
With your kind support, We are one of the Leading Consultant on FCRA , &
Trust Taxation.
Important Question Answer
Dear Sir
Thanks for information. Can we get image of fcra donation receipt as we
want to print fcra donation receipt.

Aijaz Ahmed Shaikh., BASSEIN URDU EDUCATION SOCIETY Vasai (West)

Answer -There is nothing special in FCRA Receipt book. However receipt
Book can be used as a basic form for creating your Donors Data Base.
And If used effectively, it can enhance regular communication with your
donors on mails . The same donor may donate you every year if contacted
regularly and kept in touch by providing him information about your social
projects. It can contain
1.Name of your organisation, your FCRA number ( which remains
same even after renewal), 80G Validity Details, BPT & Societies
Registration no, Your PAN no , your Address, name of your website, Your
FCRA Bank A/c No - where you can accept online donations, your mail id
and social networking Cell Number
2. Date of donation, Recipt no, Amount of donation in letter and words,
Name of donor, Address of Donor, Country of donor, PAN no of donor, All
aforesaid fields are necessary and required while complying with FCRA , or
Income Tax Act.
Thanks & regards
Meet us on www.barpute.com
barputeconsultancy@gmail.com

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Disclaimer : There can be different opinions on same Tax or finance situation, based on the ability , knowledge & experience of the Consultant, Tax
Authorities & Courts. Different Courts may take different stand on same situations. We accept and respect different opinions, but can not accept
any liability on our part for that. Clients are free to accept or reject our opinions as per their own judgement and responsibility associated with it