Fisherman going about their routine, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Victoria Terminus, are a few of the pictures by photographer Jagdish Thackersey that make his ‘Seeing Things’ exhibit at the Cymroza Art Gallery. More importantly, the proceeds of the show will be donated to Save the Children India, so make sure you stop by.

Venue: Cymroza Art Gallery, Cumballa Hill

Date: Until August 25

Time: 11am to 7 pm

GiveIndia is back with the second edition of its India Giving Challenge, an online fundraising event. The event encourages NGOs and companies to raise funds online and get rewarded for their efforts in turn. 

How so? Through a matching grant that is given, for fundraising in different categories, to winning NGOs, during the course of the event.  Last year, 60 NGOs raised over Rs 90 lakh from 5,000+ donors. This effort became even more rewarding with a matching grant of Rs 50 lakh from GiveIndia. This year, the stakes are higher.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Dates for the Event: September 8, 2010 to October 20, 2010

Dates for creating your fundraising page on GiveIndia: starting August 10, 2010

Dates for registering your NGO: You can complete your registration till as late as October 15, 2010 but the sooner you register the longer the time you get to raise funds and win prizes.

See details.

In our times, the Internet is easily the most powerful medium that people can turn to when they want to make a request for help. So, social psychologist Chandni Parekh decided to create an online platform where individuals and NGOs could make requests for donations or receive information about available funds.

Parekh started Fund A Cause in 2009 by simply collating information that she received in emails from friends or other e-groups that she was a part of and retweeting them to her followers. She says she was inspired by the fact that there’s no comprehensive forum for those seeking or providing funds. “Where is the platform? Even for someone to critique a request for money, there should be awareness about it.”

The most common requests are from families of patients seeking donations for medical treatment and from NGOs. But you will also find information about scholarships and other initiatives.

Fund A Cause is on Twitter and Facebook and blogs at FundACause.posterous.com

– Hindustan Times

In an indication that high net-worth Indians are becoming increasingly open to the idea of contributing money and time to charity, an elite group of business executives came together in Mumbai to pledge that they would donate almost Rs 5 lakh a year and dedicate 40 hours of their time to support non-profit organisations in the country.

Over the next year, the 100 men and women who made the pledge at a ‘Giving Summit’ organised last week by voluntary group GiveIndia, will participate in five workshops to understand areas that need attention and learn to choose an NGO or method in which they can lend their support.

Inspiring the gathering was a family from the US, Kevin and his wife Joan Salwen, who, with their two children, decided one morning that they would give away half of their “things” to help others. The Salwens sold their 6,000 sq ft “dream” mansion and moved to a home half that size. “After a year of research and discussion within the family about areas we wanted to work, we decided we wanted to work in Africa. We associated ourselves with the hunger project in Ghana for a five-year programme,” said Kevin.

Indian couple Amit and Ardhana Chandra are emulating the Salwens. Amit, a former managing director of DSP Merrill Lynch, and Aradhana already have several support programmes. Now they also support Jai Vakil, a group which helps mentally challenged children, and Hear India, which supports children with hearing challenges… Both decisions were based on experiences of Amit’s own problem with hearing and Archana’s health issues.

Explaining the idea behind such pledges, Narayan Vaghul, former CEO of ICICI and now chairman of GiveIndia, said, “the idea is not to narrow down our contribution to writing a cheque… We should be interested in betterment in society to create equality in opportunity.”

– Indian Express