Preamble

There are 3.3 million NGOs in the country today and unfortunately most of them  are money chasing set-ups, with little impact to show on the ground. Today the NGOs (which is the PEOPLE SECTOR apropos Gandhian ethos) have lost public trust due to issues of lack of transparency & accountability, high administration and fundraising costs, money laundering, misappropriation of funds and scams. Indians, who are natural born givers and want to support good causes, do not know whom to trust and where to channel their support. Taxes we pay as citizens are siphoned between people in the Government - NGO nexus as various politicians and bureaucrats also register NGOs in names of their family members, only to misuse the money we pay as taxpayers. Hence not only is the underserved and unserved community suffering but the Great Indian Middle Class is also being hoodwinked, as the money we pay to see impactful development in the country is being misused and mismanaged. Thus the entire citizenry at large is suffering. There is absolute lack of good governance, accountability and transparency and this is also largely due to the apathy of all us citizens at large.

The iCONGO movement came into being to address all these wrongs, with the idea of reclaiming and preserving public trust in the NGO sector. Promoted and formed by the People Sector iCONGO, a collective and apex body, focuses on creating a people union/ citizen movement. Citizens are the very CORE of our movement to RIGHT every WRONG. Unlike most other organisation, who have taken the easier path of promoting arrogant and mindless charity (by emotionally provoking people to give money by using children's faces or promoting hurried tax saving donation devices before March 31st), we at iCONGO constantly make citizens aware not to just give money, but to get involved and be a change catalyst for the society. We have taken the path less trodden to create attitudinal change within people for BEING THE CHANGE and try to encourage humble and involved social justice. That is how the concept of philanthropy for social justice was born, because "IT is not charity but justice that is wanting in world. We believe that justice for all, can only be achieved with citizen involvement & collective action against apathy and not by just giving a little money . (To know more about charity v/s social justice also read the articles on www.idishoom.com).

Our focus is to mainstream with Citizens at large, grassroots NGOs, that have made "maximum impact" for the community/ cause with efficient management and low administration costs. Since our inception in 2004 we have achieved most of the goals that were set by us at that time. Today we have managed to create an ecosystem and infrastructure, for ethical and involved CITIZEN ACTION to encourage philanthropy for social justice, with online citizen reporting news, ecommerce and philanthropy portals, marathons, events, movies, music videos, conclaves, awards and social ventures.

We work only with NGOs, that are accredited and pre-screened through THE OMEGA RATING. Now various companies and individuals, including global citizen delegations, deem us as the Philanthropy Hallmark and seek our recommendation, to channel their support to credible causes. iCONGO works selflessly as a catalytic facilitator for transparent and accountable NGOs, through our volunteers (Read the Just Another Volunteer Code in Meet the iCONGOANS). These NGOs seek our advice and support to gain more visibility in the citizen sector and to link them to a supporter base, who can work selflessly with them. We were the first to actively promote social entrepreneurship, social investment and self enabling fundraising through business models for sustainable development.Refer the Founding Concept Note written by founders in 2004, after being disillusioned with wrong practices in the people (NGOs) sector. This led to the formation of iCONGO. More details on how we work with People & NGOs is in members section and on www.icoXchange.com