www.karmayog.org / karmayog.com are free platforms for the Indian nonprofit sector, & for addressing civic issues in Mumbai.

Nonprofits can provide information about themselves & their needs through an individual, free  'website' that is formed on registration. Through this, NGOs can display their profiles, events & job vacancies & ask for volunteers, materials, services and funds.

Citizens & corporates can list the availability of their time, talent, materials, services, money, & indicate their interest in supporting
particular types of projects & nonprofits. Karmayog lists 1000+ nonprofits in Mumbai & 3000+ in the rest of India.

Karmayog also provides a platform for you to share your work, ideas and concerns via a discussion group of 5500+ members, and a 28000 email group.

Since January 2005, Karmayog also carefully selects a "Nonprofit of the Month". The idea is to facilitate people to make small donations to good NGOs identified by a credible, neutral, third-party. This also helps small NGOs in finding new supporters.

Karmayog has also begun a sector-mapping exercise. The idea is to map the capacity and capability of each sector in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai with a brief note on their capacity, activities and services. We will also put together a Resource list for each sector. We hope this would help beneficiaries and their families, volunteers, funding agencies, policy makers, and NGOs themselves to use Karmayog as a starting base for their various initiatives.

Karmayog began with the hearing-challenged sector. It's people visited most of the deaf schools and connected NGOs to profile them and put their data on the website for free access by parents, beneficiaries, donors, etc. Lists of material providers e.g. hearing aid suppliers, and of service providers e.g. ENT hospitals, surgeons & doctors, were also compiled and posted on the website. A well-attended meeting was organised for everyone connected with the sector. Many interacted for the first time!

Karmayog also holds networking meetings of NGOs and supporters in various areas. Meetings have been held at Byculla and Fort.
 
When the tremendous rains hit Mumbai on 26th July, Karmayog played a very valuable role in helping relief and rehabilitation efforts. On 27th July itself, Karmayog set up a flood resource website which included needs and offers of materials, services, volunteers and money. The flooding crisis in Mumbai showed that there is no established way for the Government authorities (or for anyone else, including NGOs themselves,) to interact easily with a group through which information to and from NGOs could be conveyed. Karmayog took the lead in forming an NGO-coordination committee duly recognised by and working with the BMC. And the website became the nodal point for flood reports and feedback from & to NGOs. 
 
Karmayog then took the initiative to set up a formal NGO Council comprising more than 60 leading NGOs representing the breadth and depth of the NGO sector. The objective is for NGOs to be included in Government program and policy planning, as well as implementation and delivery of Government services to the public. This initiative is being well-recieved. Karmayog is the Convening NGO of the NGO Council, that has entered into an MoU with the MCGM to collaborate on civic issues.

Karmayog.com is thus evolving into two broad directions:
a) an internet platform for nonprofits and supporters to inform about themselves and their needs / offers
b) a ngo - citizen - government interface which can enable a holistic view of the various problems that society faces

Karmayog.com is an initiative of the Shri R. O. Somani Charitable Trust which is a trust duly registered with the Charities Commissioner, having 80 G registration.
 
It is currently funded by Vinay's personal resources. 
 
Our Team:

Burzin Mistry - M. Com.; doing MBA; website and software development of Karmayog and FindStone.

Jayant Upadhyay - accounts and administration; co-ordinating with donors for the Karmayog Nonprofit-of-the-Month. 

Leena Desai, Ganesh Mudaliyar, Aavishkar Salvi, Taher Malampatiwala - various activities

Vinay Somani - overall

The address of Karmayog is
C/o. Shri R. O. Somani Charitable Trust
Shreeniwas House, 2nd floor,
(Behind Bombay Gymkhana)
H. Somani Road, Fort,
Mumbai - 400001.
Tel: 2200 0004 / 2201 3535
Fax: 2203 5410 

Karmayog is a completely free site. We look forward to your active participation and support. We would also appreciate ideas for revenue generation.
 
We would also very much like to meet you if you are connected with or have an interest in the nonprofit sector. 

You can support Karmayog in different ways!

Advertise on Karmayog:
 

a) Free reciprocal links are possible. A selection of links is available at www.karmayog.com/links.htm .  

b) You can advertise on the home page of Karmayog by paying Rs 10,000 per month  (exclusive). 

c) On some of our key section the cost would be Rs 20,000 for three months.

    These sections include:

1)       Hot topics (individually)

2)       BMC ward information

3)       All India Hospital list

4)       Non profit profiles in India

5)       Library of articles

6)       Volunteers available  

7)   Services available

8)   Nonprofits by Category

9)   Nonprofits by Location

d) You can get a banner ad for Rs 5000 per month or Rs 10000 for three months. On any such issue / cause section, we will also add more information and thus increase the pages of the sector selected by you. 

We also have sectors for specific issues / causes e.g. cancer, hearing-challenged, children-education, etc.   

Provide in-kind support:

We would appreciate your in-kind support by:
 
- providing free meeting space for 15 - 30 people in different parts of Mumbai

- depute a staff member on a full-time or part-time at our office for data entry, internet research, co-ordinating with NGOs, etc.
 
- photocopying / printing of lists, articles, etc.
 
- volunteering when we hold events or attending events on our behalf

Sponsor events -- support groups, meetings, get-togethers, seminars, walks, etc.:

We would like to organise more meetings of NGOs area-wise (i.e NGOs based in Fort), sector-wise (i.e hearing impaired), donors and volunteers. Such meetings are attended by representatives of NGOs and other high profile individuals. The number of participants for these meetings are around 40. Please help by sponsoring meetings at a cost of Rs 5,000. You can display your products or banner, give a presentation, and interact with participants.

We would like to organize seminars / walks on specific issues which normally get a participation of 100-150 people. The cost of exclusively sponsoring the event or seminar is Rs 20,000 and non- exclusively it would be Rs 10,000.

Provide Financial Support:
 
To achieve all this with meaningful depth and breadth, Karmayog requires to employ more staff, spend on obtaining information, develop software, buy computers, etc.
 
The expenditure estimate for this over the next 12 months is:
 
People - 10 = Rs. 1.50 lakhs / month =                                                                                          Rs. 18 lakhs / year
Software and web hosting costs = Rs. 1 lakh / month =                                                                   Rs. 10 lakhs / year
Capital expenditure = 10 Computers, cell phones, furniture, etc =                                                     Rs.   5 lakhs
Advertising = Rs. 0.25 lakhs / month =                                                                                           Rs.   3 lakhs / year
Overheads - photocopying, courier, phones, organising meetings, etc. =  Rs. 0.75 lakhs / month  =     Rs.   9 lakhs / year
Fixed Cost - rent, electricity, etc. = 0.25 lakhs / month =                                                                  Rs.   3 lakhs / year 
                                                                                                                                                   -----------------------------
            Total                                                                                                                                 Rs. 48 lakhs / year
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