General FAQs

We believe that unless members of the civil society are involved proactively in the process of development, sustainable change will not happen. Believing in this principle of 'Civic Driven Change' Smile Foundation sensitises the civil society in order to make them partners in its mission.
Smile Foundation is a national level development organization with its welfare projects spread across India.
India has about 11 million children living on the streets and 14 million children working as labours. Only 60% of children have access to education despite having a national policy on compulsory elementary education. The time to take collective as well as individual responsibility to remedy the current situation is here. Right now!
Smile Foundation was established in the year 2002
Smile Foundation's mission is to empower underprivileged children, youth and their families and community through relevant education, innovative healthcare and market-focused livelihood programmes. We aim to deploy best possible methodology and technology for achieving ideal SROI (social return on investment), to practice and promote good governance, to link business competitiveness of the corporate with social development initiatives and to sensitize the privileged section of society to promote Civic Driven Change.
The realization of a group of young corporate professionals, that it was their Social Responsibility to give back to the society, laid the inception of Smile Foundation. Smile Foundation is managed professionally by a Board of Advisors, comprising individuals from diverse backgrounds and expertise, followed by an Executive Committee and a well defined professional workforce.
Smile Foundation has been working in the thematic areas of education, healthcare, youth employability and empowerment of women and girls
Education alone has the power to liberate people from the vicious cycle of poverty - not only in terms of earning a livelihood but also in becoming aware of the rights and freedoms that a citizen is endowed with. Thus empowering individuals and making them self-sufficient.
Smile Foundation works under two models, namely Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP) and Outreach.
SVP: Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP) is an innovative model based on the business concept of venture capital. Under SVP, Smile Foundation identifies, handholds and builds capacities of genuine grassroots NGOs. Smile focuses on achieving scalability and sustainability, creating a culture of leadership and excellence and inculcating a deep sense of accountability among its partners.

While working in the remote rural areas, Smile Foundation realized that capacities of community based organisations (CBOs) were not adequate to meet expectations of social investors. Under outreach model, Smile Foundation implements the development interventions directly as it requires intensive and professional engagement for a wider and sustained outcome.

Smile Foundation gets a first-hand experience on the nuances of development at the grassroots through its Outreach model and then shares the same with partner organisations.

Around 70-80% funding support of the organization comes from corporates; the rest comes from PSUs, individual donors and private institutions.
Smile Foundation's mission is to empower underprivileged children, youth and their families and community through relevant education, innovative healthcare and market-focused livelihood programmes. We aim to deploy best possible methodology and technology for achieving ideal SROI (social return on investment), to practice and promote good governance, to link business competitiveness of the corporate with social development initiatives and to sensitize the privileged section of society to promote Civic Driven Change.
There is a user friendly application form available on our website that an NGO can fill. Apart from that we put notices in all our internal modes of communication like our website, mailers, etc. whenever there is a requirement for a partner in any particular geographical area under our various programmes.
Smile Foundation looks for emerging and committed grassroots organizations for reaching out to underprivileged communities. We partner with people and organizations that want to make a difference but do not have adequate knowledge and capacity to raise resources or work in a professional manner.
Children, their families and the communities are the target groups of Smile Foundation with children at the centre stage. The organization believes that a child?s education cannot be taken care of without taking care of the family, especially the mother, and the communities they belong to.
At present Smile Foundation is directly benefitting more than 300,000 children, youth and women through 158 welfare projects across 25 states of India.
In our journey so far, we have received immense support from numerous individuals, many private and public sector companies, development agencies, educational institutions, public figures and the mass media. One can associate with us in any of these above mentioned ways. Please visit the contact us or get involved section of our website for more information on the possible ways of being involved in our journey.
Interested candidates can go to contact us section of our website and write to the relevant section or department they are interesting in interning with.
Please go to our "Career" page to know more about the current openings in Smile.

Till date Smile Foundation has been conferred with various awards and accreditations. The major and recent ones are:

Smile Foundation is an organization in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations since 2012.

• Education Excellence Award 2013 (ASSOCHAM)

• The IPE Corporate Excellence Award (NGO Excellence) 2013

• Quality initiative Mission Award 2013

• Healthcare Leadership Award

• Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award

• Barclays Bank Chairman?s Award

• GE Healthcare - Modern Medicare Excellence Award

• NTR Memorial Trust Award

• World Health Care Congress recognizes Smile on Wheels (SoW) as the "unique delivery model" in taking healthcare to the poor>

Smile Foundation is empanelled with National CSR Hub, an initiative by the Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE), Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Govt. of India. We are also accredited to Development Foundation of Overseas Indians under the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Govt. of India.

You can go to Donate Now section of Smile Foundation's website and donate online. For other donations related queries please write to donation@smilefoundationindia.org
"Chanze" is a unique mode of participation promoted by Smile Foundation, an innovative series of Corporate Gifts conceptualised, designed and produced by Smile Foundation. These highly customisable series of corporate gifts are an opportunity to be a part of the change and bring a smile in the lives of thousands of destitute children and youth as all proceeds will be utilized towards funding Smile Foundation's various development projects. Please visit the "Shop" page on our website to see the product catalogue.
Smile Foundation has a proper programme management system which tracks progress and does periodic analysis - both qualitative and quantitative Periodic external evaluations are also done to gauge the impact and progress of various programmes.
Smile Foundation works for the education of underprivileged children through its Mission Education Programme which provides basic education and healthcare. For further information you can visit http://www.smilefoundationindia.org/education.html
Mission Education is a national level programme of Smile Foundation with a presence in 21 states in India.
Our educational programme - Mission Education, for underprivileged children, follows the curriculum of the respective state board where the project is present and operational.
More than 200,000 children have benefited directly from Mission Education programme since 2002. At present, the programme is reaching out to 16,500 children directly through 70 projects in 21 states across India.
Smile on Wheels (a mobile hospital programme) is the flagship healthcare programme of Smile Foundation. In addition, Health with Smile is another programme which provides urgent and specialized health services through multi specialty health camps across India.
The idea behind SoW is to take healthcare to the doorsteps of urban poor and underserved villagers in the remote rural areas and urban slums and to develop health seeking behaviour amongst them.
Smile on Wheels provides curative, preventive and promotive healthcare services at the doorstep. Each mobile hospital is equipped with an examination table, ECG, a Calorimeter, First Aid kit, IV fluid transmission hook, Nebulizer, Centrifuge for pathological tests, Oxygen cylinders, Stretcher, small chiller cum refrigerator, public address systems among others. Each Smile on Wheels has a qualified doctor, nurse, pharmacist, project officer, driver and a community mobilizer.
Smile on wheels benefits 231,000 people directly in a year
At present 19 SoWs are providing healthcare in 265 remote villages and urban slums across India.
Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) is the livelihood programme of Smile Foundation that trains urban underprivileged youth with market-oriented job skills and makes them employable in the retail and service sector across India.
10th and 12th pass youth in the age groups of 18-25 years is the target groups of this programme.
At present there are 35 STeP centres across India.
A special 6-month curriculum is designed with emphasis on computer and English along with personality development, retail management etc. The computer course is developed and certified by Microsoft whereas rest of the curriculum is developed by International Management Institute (IMI, New Delhi).
More than 13,750 youth have been trained and 9850 have been placed in over 140 brands through STeP programme across India.
Smile Foundation works for the girl children and women trough its national programme - Swabhiman (meaning self-respect in English).

The USP of Swabhiman is its innovative and highly effective approach named "4 S Model" which means:

Seeking Healthcare as a Behaviour

Support through Education

Support from Men through Male Involvement

Sustaining Change in the Community.

As many as 150,000 girls and women have benefited under Swabhiman programme.

FAQs for Individual Donors

The donor gets an instant acknowledgement mail along with an SMS. On receiving the reconciliation statement from the bank, a receipt is sent via e-mail immediately, followed by a hard copy by post (within India). The receipt is accompanied by a 'welcome pack' which is also a token of appreciation. The donor receives a birthday wish, wishes on important festivals, programme updates and an annual impact report during a year's time.
As soon as the donation through cheque or online is reconciled by the bank, the amount is allotted to the specific programme, which it has been meant for. The utilization and results are managed, monitored and audited. The outcome is reflected in the annual impact report, which is shared with the donors.
Smile Foundation follows the principle of good governance. We have a four-tier audit mechanism to track and monitor the funds raised and utilized. More details of the process are mentioned at http://www.smilefoundationindia.org/governance.html
Yes, the organization accepts donations in USD and pounds as well but only in the form of cheque, drafts or via online payment gateway. As a policy the organization adhere to all government norms and maintains optimum transparency with the donors. The organization does have an FCRA account for its internationals supporters. However tax exemptions are applicable as per the country specific guidelines.
There is no specific amount that should be donated. However all the programmes have a detailed breakup of the expenditure displayed online.
Yes, the website is safe for any kind of transaction. Also any information exchange is kept safe and in no condition gets disclosed. Also the payment gateway is a third party payment gateway recognized by the financial institutions under the government of India. So any transaction also is thoroughly secured.
As a credible organization, we honour the privacy of our donors. The donor data is not exposed or shared with any external agency under any circumstances. We have a robust in-house mechanism and server system where the records are kept safe. The entire setup is protected with password and is guarded by surveillance software. The data is kept strictly confidential and only authorized staff with a special non-disclosure bond have access to it.
A donor will get 50% of tax exemption on the donation under section 80 G of Income Tax Act, 1961.
Yes, tax receipts are issued to all the donors irrespective of the amount supported. A digital copy of the receipt is generated on and sent via e-mail post realization of the donated amount. The hard copy of the receipt is delivered to the donor within 10 working days.
In case of loss of the original receipt, a duplicate tax receipt is issued on receipt of a formal request from the donor.
Usually in-kind donation is accepted only when there is a need in any of the projects at a given point of time.
While you can visit the school where the children you support are studying we do not encourage donors to directly meet the beneficiaries as we do not want to give special treatment to any child.

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