Hari Chopra Social Awards 2010

The Hari Chopra Social Awards 2010 (HCSA) will identify and support innovative and deserving non profit organisations that improve the health and wellbeing of girls in India. The Hari Chopra Trust was founded by the late Dr. Hari Chopra, a physician and visionary committed to improving the lives of girls and women throughout India by providing educational opportunities and support. HCSA is particularly interested in supporting organisations that integrate girls’ education, training and livelihood with health. HCSA will provide unrestricted grants for program as well as organisational support.

Apply today! All you have to do to apply for the HCSA is register your organisation on Samhita. This makes you eligible for:

• Unrestricted grants of up to Rs. 5,00,000 (Rs. 5 lakhs) to strengthen your organisation’s capacity and increase your outreach and impact
• Free online profile on the Samhita portal, through which you can reach out to donors, volunteers, potential employees, service providers and sector experts around the globe
• Registration fee waiver and free access to services offered on Samhita for the first few months

How to Apply

• Go to www.samhita.org and click on the register button
• Fill out the registration form and confirm your registration
• You can then start filling out your organization’s profile form. Please note that there are a few compulsory sections that include
  • Basic information about your organization
  • Legal registration and certifications
  • Circle of trust (use this page to invite recommenders to provide testimonials)
  • Projects and funds (use this page to list your program and organization needs for which you require funding)

As soon as you have completed all compulsory sections and have been rated by 5 recommenders, your profile will go “live”, i.e. it will be visible to the public, your potential supporters and HCSA judges. You will then become eligible for the HCSA and can start reaching out to donors and other supporters

Eligibility and Judging Criteria

• Any registered Indian non-profit organisation can apply by registering on www.samhita.org
• Organisations will be judged on the completeness and clarity of their application on Samhita, number of beneficiaries reached through the proposed activities, depth of impact, efficacy of past work, and rating and testimonials received from donors, partners, volunteers and beneficiaries
• Your Samhita profile allows you to list and publicise financial requirements for your projects and organisational needs. These financial requirements will be considered as proposals for funding under the HCSA. Funding needs will be evaluated on the basis of cost efficiency, sustainability and scalability of the project and/or the organisation
• The application process will close on August 20th. Before this date, organisations will need to complete their profiles and receive a total of at least 5 references (at least 2 of which need to be provided by donors and/or partners)
• All applications will be screened by Global India Fund, Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy and Samhita . Final decisions will be made by members of the Chopra family
• Awards will be announced on Samhita in October 2010

Terms and Conditions

• Registration for the HCSA will help organisations create a free online profile which can be seen by donors, volunteers and anyone else who visits the portal.
• Grants made may be up to Rs. 5,00,000 per organisation/project. A single organisation is eligible for multiple grants, but the total amount granted to a single organisation will not exceed Rs. 5,00,000
• While a complete profile on the portal will ensure most required information being provided, we may request you for some information and documents before the disbursement is made
• Organisations that receive grants will be expected to provide regular feedback on the utilisation of grant money. Such reporting will be at reasonable intervals (either quarterly or half yearly) and in a simple format (which will provided on your Samhita profile page). We will also monitor your usage of grant monies through phone discussions, meetings and/or site visits at reasonable intervals
• Grants will be disbursed on the basis of the funding need, period of usage of funds, achievement of milestones as well as compliance with monitoring and reporting requirements.
• All organisations will be required to comply with the terms and conditions stated on Samhita
• More detailed conditions will be specified in the agreement that grant recipients will have to enter into with Samhita, Global India Fund and Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy

To Note

• Please start filling out your profile as soon as possible. The profile is long and will take a few hours to complete
• Although it takes only a few minutes for recommenders to rate your organisation, you may have to send several requests and reminders to recommenders to complete your testimonial. Please ensure that you send them an invite as soon as you start creating your profile
• The profile form asks for scanned copies of certificates. If you don’t have access to a scanner, please send us photocopies of all your documents. We will scan and upload them on to your profile.
• You can download the scanned copies for your own use at any point in time

Useful Tips

• A well written, complete and accurate profile will give the judges and potential donors an overview of your organisation and answer most questions that they may have. Make sure that you explain your activities and their impact clearly. Use numbers to report impact and back them up with verifiable data wherever possible
• Ask for support for capacity building. We understand that organisations require funds for staff training, skills building, knowledge creation, implementing systems and processes. We are happy to support capacity building costs if they lead to greater productivity and effectiveness. Make sure that you are able to demonstrate or explain the impact of such support on the overall efficiency of your organisation
• Provide information on past projects. Completed projects will help the judges evaluate your work, impact and efficacy. They will also reassure the judges that your organisation is capable of successfully implementing your proposed projects
• Get rated. Ratings and testimonials from your supporters will enhance your credibility rating. You do good work. People know it. Now get them to tell others about it.
• Bring your work to life through pictures, videos, stories and anecdotes. Pictures, videos, beneficiary stories, research reports and news articles bring your work to life and help judges and potential donors visualize your work, the challenges that you face and the remarkable impact that you create
• Be honest. We trust you to provide accurate and updated information. Be honest about your work, your needs and the challenges that you face. We understand that you are trying to solve tough problems and that you may not have all the resources that you need. Make sure that your estimate your needs, project milestones and impact carefully
• Think long term. Please make sure that you will out your HCSA application carefully since it will help you automatically create a free profile which you can use to promote your organisation, raise donations from hundreds of potential donors, find volunteers, potential employees and service providers and get advice from experts.

We are happy to address any questions or doubts you may have about the portal or the HCSA. Feel free to contact us at info@samhita.org or at +91 22 42641892 between 9 am and 7 pm on weekdays.

The grants made under the HCSA are made on behalf of Mrs. Karen Chopra, Trustee for the Hari Chopra Trust and her family. The HCSA is a joint initiative of Mrs. Karen Chopra, Global India Fund , Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy and Samhita

About the Hari Chopra Trust

The Hari Chopra Trust was founded in memory of the late Dr. Hari Chopra, a dedicated family man and visionary who believed in the value of education. Hari was one of eight children and spent a great deal of time helping his brothers and sisters with school work and other educational activities. As a young child he insisted that his father get the newspaper so that he and his brothers and sisters could read and learn about world events. He was especially insistent on ensuring that his sisters received a good education. When Hari’s youngest sister was about to get married, he convinced his father to delay the marriage so that his sister could finish her education and become a school teacher. His father reluctantly agreed. Hari always admired his mother’s intelligence, and often believed that she could have accomplished much more had she been educated.

As a result of his own inner convictions and beliefs, he encouraged and supported his own children as well as his nieces and nephews to purse the highest levels of education. When Hari died in 2002 at the age of 65, it was his express wish that the Chopra family follow through with a legacy to educate girls in India in memory of his Mother. As Hari died of Multiple Myeloma, a blood born cancer, the same disease that took his Mother’s life, the Chopra family also wants to contribute in his name to the research and development of a cure for this deadly disease that as of now, has no cure so that others need not suffer the effects of this terrible disease.