Government of India’s New Strict requirements for Foreign Contribution Receipt Act Certificate (FCRA) and Maharashtra Foundation’s Action Plan.
Background :
The Government of India has made it mandatory that all charitable Organizations duly registered as 80G in India, must have a valid FCRA certificate in order to be eligible to receive foreign monetary contributions. Government of India also has enforced that receiving foreign funding via a pass-through organization having valid FCRA is prohibited.
In order to comply with Government of India FCRA guidelines, Maharashtra Foundation only sends funds to charitable organizations holding a valid FCRA certificate. Maharashtra Foundation is unable to send donations to any organizations that are not 80G registered, and do not have a valid FCRA certificate. We are also unable to send donations to any individual’s personal account in India.
Additionally, the U.S. government has increased the scrutiny of organizations sending US dollars to international charitable organizations, to prevent the diversion of charitable funds to the wrong organizations for wrong causes.
How does it affect Maharashtra Foundation?
Every year MF sends donations in dollars to over 100 organizations and ensures that the donations are sent only to NGOs with a valid FCRA status.
It is the primary responsibility of the recipient organization to obtain the FCRA, it is also a pro-active responsibility of the donor organization like Maharashtra Foundation F to make sure that the recipient NGO has a valid FCRA before sending the donation.
Click here: http://fcraonline.nic.in/fc8_statewise.aspx to check whether the charitable organization you are considering for donation has a valid FCRA certificate.