Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy (CAP), Aria CFO Services for NGO

Mumbai, Monday: On the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, in an effort to support India’s social sector which has played such a crucial role in its progress, especially during the pandemic, four specialized organizations servicing the social enterprise sector exclusively have joined hands to launch danaVidya — a free vetted resource to help answer compliance and legal questions for NGO and Corporate CSR Teams. danaVidya aims to assist them in deepening their impact and reaching even more beneficiaries.

DanaVidya is a WhatsApp Chat Bot that uses a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to answer user questions from its large database. It is created by the Center for Advancement of Philanthropy (CAP); Aria CFO Services, a CFO service for Social Enterprises; Glific, a WhatsApp-based open source communication platform for NGOs and danamojo, India’s First Payment Solutions Platform for NGOs which has onboarded 1,000+ NGOs.

The WhatsApp-based chatbot provides automated assistance to NGOs & Corporate CSR Teams and covers questions related to Income Tax (12AB/80G), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the newly launched Social Stock Exchange (SSE). For any other questions not already in its vast question bank, the chatbot prompts a human volunteer to respond to the unique query within 24 hours of the user’s question.

Every automated response has been vetted by a resident expert, the CEO of CAP India, Noshir Dadrawala who has been offering compliance-related advisory to nonprofits and social initiatives of corporates for over 35 years. Over his long & distinguished career in the non-profit sector, Noshir has worked with a diverse range of organizations, from large established national and international organizations to corporate and family grantmakers to fresh startups.

Speaking about the launch, Noshir Dadrawala, CEO, of the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy said, “They say that to share or give your knowledge is one of the best gifts and perhaps the highest form of daana or giving. The daana of vidya, in my opinion, is a wonderful opportunity for sharing one’s wealth of knowledge and experience and in the process enhancing the giver’s thirst for learning more and drinking deeper at the fountain of knowledge and wisdom. DanaVidya promises to be one such platform for cross-learning, and peer-learning and to become a proverbial ‘watering-hole’ for thirsty seekers of knowledge in the jungle of legal compliance for NGOs/NPOs.”

He added, “It is far more complex and complicated running a non-profit organization in India than a for-profit. NPOs/NGOs are regulated at multiple levels, by different regulators and many of the laws and amendments made to them are frequent and often confusing. DanaVidya hopes
to help NGO leaders navigate through this maze of complex legislations and ensure compliance.”

Ritu Jain and Ravi Bagaria, Co-Founders & Partners, Aria CFO Services, “Finance and compliance are a crucial part of any NGO’s growth and survival strategies. In this ever-changing landscape of laws, rules, and regulations governing the sector, DanaVidya can be the perfect platform to further the ethos of making the knowledge of compliance – accessible and digestible. It is a decoded bible that will provide practical guidance for compliance-related issues faced by the sector. It gives us immense joy to be a part of this journey. This collaboration of experts and technology resonates a lot with our ideologies at Aria.”

Technology partner, Glific’s head Erica Arya said, “It’s great to see initiatives like danaVidya and we’re happy to power it through our open and effective technology solution, Glific. Building and strengthening the ecosystem is the founding principle of Project Tech4Dev, and collaborations with like-minded organizations help us get to that goal faster.”

Dhaval Udani, CEO, danamojo said, “The biggest highlight of danaVidya is that it is driven by organizations who work exclusively with NGOs and therefore are experts in the field. Each of us understands the challenges and journeys of NGOs and the complexities of the law with respect to their operations and have therefore created this easy-to-use and accessible platform
together.”

To get started with danaVidya, users simply have to say Hi to +91 77770 35895 on WhatsApp.

About Noshir H. Dadrawala

Center for Advancement of Philanthropy- Noshir H. Dadrawala has been offering compliance-related advisory to nonprofits and corporate social initiatives. Drawing upon more than three and a half decades of hands-on experience and practical insights, Noshir’s main role at CAP involves simplifying the confusing and complex maze of old, but ever-changing, new laws. Noshir’s legal expertise in the sector is widely recognized, as is his deep understanding of compliance within philanthropy.

Noshir has authored several resource books and is currently an active Blogger on compliance-related issues for NPOs. He is also a speaker at many local and international conferences and guest faculty at leading business schools.

About Aria CFO Services

Founded in 2011, Aria strives to be the financial management services provider that philanthropists and charities come to when they are looking for transparency, governance, streamlining processes, and accuracy in compliance. Aria develops customized and practical insights that NGO partners can benefit from. They strongly believe in continuous sharing of their knowledge and enabling peer learning and capacity building of their NGO partners.

About Glific

Glific is a WhatsApp-based open source 2-way communication platform designed especially for NGOs to have conversations with their community. It has been developed under Project Tech4Dev. Glific aims to empower social organizations to act quickly and decisively on grassroots information collected on the platform via conversations. These conversations are supported by a host of features integrated within the platform: from AI-powered automated responses to comprehensive data-driven analytics.

About danamojo

Danamojo is India’s First Integrated Payment Solutions Platform designed specifically for NGOs. Its purpose is to help NGOs raise more funds from individuals by providing a convenient and efficient mechanism to collect donations and engage donors.

It provides an “e-commerce like donation storefront” allowing donors to contribute to specific programs of the NGO, ensures 100% legal compliance while capturing donor data, and provides multiple payment options – domestic & international and multiple payment modes – from one-time donations to recurring and QR Code based platforms.

Danamojo is a NASSCOM Social Innovation Honor 2018 winner and recognized as the Best Indian Social Enterprise at the Action for India Forum 2019. It is supported by Nilekani Philanthropies and Social Alpha. Since its launch in 2016, DanaMojo has onboarded 1,000+ NGO on its platform.