Are your documents in order?
How IPN can help you maintain an up-to-date NGO profile
“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
This oft-quoted remark by Benjamin Franklin has always seemed incomplete to me. These days one can add more certainties to this list: Traffic, Surveillance, Social-Media Likes (to name a few). And there’s a trend here – more items on this list (including taxes) are moving online. Does that simplify matters?
One item that’s been a recurring ordeal in my life is ‘Official Documents’, a category that spans certifications, authorisations, approvals, accreditations, licenses, and identity proofs. As an individual or organisation, you cannot escape them. Their importance becomes evident when you seek something: an admission, a visa, an official transaction, or (as an NGO) a grant from a donor.
Keeping such documents up-to-date (by renewing them on time) is critical, but it’s also something we all wish someone else can do for us, while we get on with our mission. It’s the same with all the information that describes an organization: maintaining it centrally is an important (but, let’s admit it, painful) task.
According to some estimates, 45% of nonprofits do not regularly update their organisation profiles.
How do you manage your NGO’s official documents, and stay on top of their renewals? How do you keep your organisation’s profile up-to-date?
At IPN, we’ve designed the NGO Profile to address these needs.
Structured along Basic, Compliance, and Compliance Plus sections, the IPN NGO profile enables an NGO to maintain detailed information describing their organisation specifics, and also attach relevant documents that establish its compliance and credibility.
Here are a few traits that highlight what an IPN profile can do for your organisation:
1. Alignment with donor needs: Years of experience working with CSR and other donors has given Sattva a strong understanding of their NGO information needs. This knowledge has enabled us to design a comprehensive yet streamlined and legible profile structure.
2. Guided completion: Users filling the profile are guided towards the 100% completion (which includes only mandatory fields needed for a basic Due Diligence), allowing the user to focus on what’s most important, and easily spot what’s missing.
3. Packaged retrieval of stored information: Users can download the entire profile (including attached documents) into a structured zip file, which can then be used in different contexts.
“The ‘Download zip file’ in IPN NGO profile is a very beneficial feature. This means the information shared is not locked within the platform, but given back to non profits which is a huge value.”
-Director, INREM Foundation
4. Personalised Micro-page: From a completed profile, an NGO user can – with a single click – generate a public profile page that can then be shared with anyone.
5. Automated expiry reminders: The IPN profile warns users (on the UI and via email notifications) of upcoming expiry of official documents, and also nudges users to update their profile for fields (like Annual Budget) that need to be validated after a time-period.
6. Guided workflow to update expired fields: IPN simplifies the process of updating such outdated or expired fields through clear visibility and a guided process as explained in this video.
The last two points on that list highlight how IPN helps NGOs keep their NGO related information up-to-date, and their documentation in a valid state.
Looking ahead
While the IPN NGO profile is already a mature offering, it will be enhanced further to cover the following:
Simplified filling of webinar/campaigns forms, using already available profile data
Pre-filling of profile during new NGO registration, using publicly available information
Automated verification of certain profile data
Entity Locker integration (for storing/retrieving profile data and documents)
Adding and maintaining custom fields (beyond what IPN offers as a standard)
Enhanced Public Profile page (including more visibility controls)
Personalised recommendations based on profile data
Over 700 NGOs have maintained a 100% profile on IPN, and another 300+ organisations have a 60 or higher profile completion percentage. The fully completed NGO profiles are used by Sattva teams to identify relevant organisations for donor connects – this is another benefit of keeping your IPN profile up-to-date.
If you are already using the IPN profile: Thank You. We’d love to hear about any improvements you’d like to see.
If you haven’t yet spent effort on building an IPN profile, isn’t it time? Like death and taxes, your organisation’s documentation is something that can’t be avoided.
- Manohar Sreekanth (Partner and CTO, Sattva Consulting)