Development Sector Advisory

The Indian development sector — NGOs, Section 8 companies, public charitable trusts and CSR foundations — is one of the largest and most impactful in the world. It is also one of the most regulated, and rightly so: donors, beneficiaries and the state expect a high standard of transparency, governance and outcome measurement from any organisation using tax-deductible funds to work with communities. Meeting that standard requires an experienced hand across setup, statutory compliance, project management and impact assessment.

The Exim Roof supports non-profits and corporate CSR teams across the full lifecycle. We help promoters incorporate the right entity, secure 12A and 80G tax exemption, register on the CSR-1 portal to receive corporate CSR funds, get FCRA registration or prior permission where foreign funding is involved, manage grants and monitor projects on the ground, and produce credible impact-assessment reports that stand up to donor and regulator scrutiny.

Choosing the right legal form

• Section 8 Company (Companies Act, 2013) — most governance-friendly, MCA-regulated, preferred by corporates and institutional donors.
• Public Charitable Trust (Indian Trusts Act / state-level Public Trust Act) — flexible, low compliance, popular for founder-driven initiatives.
• Society (Societies Registration Act, 1860) — democratic governance, common for community and cooperative NGOs.
• Producer Company / FPO — for farmer-producer aggregation and value-chain interventions.

12A, 80G and CSR-1 — the tax registration stack

A registered NGO is not automatically a tax-exempt organisation. The Income-tax Act requires separate registration under Section 12A (or 12AB after the 2020 amendments) to enable exemption of the entity's income, and under Section 80G to enable a 50% (or in some cases 100%) tax deduction for donors. Both registrations were reset with time-bound revalidation and moved to a fully online process in 2021. Without them, an NGO cannot compete for institutional donations. CSR-1 registration on the MCA portal is a further prerequisite for any organisation intending to receive CSR funds from corporates under Section 135 of the Companies Act.

FCRA — regulating foreign contributions

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) and the FCRA (Amendment) Act, 2020 tightly regulate the receipt and utilisation of foreign contributions. Only organisations with a valid FCRA registration or prior permission — and a designated SBI New Delhi Main Branch FCRA account — may receive foreign funds, and even then, sub-granting is heavily restricted, administrative expenses are capped at 20%, and quarterly disclosures are mandatory. Renewals are due every five years and must be applied for well in advance to avoid a lapse. We help NGOs plan for and secure FCRA compliance without disrupting programme delivery.

CSR project management for corporate donors

Under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, corporates meeting the specified turnover or net-worth threshold must spend 2% of the average net profit of the preceding three years on CSR. The 2021 amendments introduced ongoing-project rules, transfer of unspent CSR to the Unspent CSR Account or a Schedule VII fund, mandatory impact assessment for projects above ₹1 crore, and increased penalties for non-compliance. We work with corporate CSR teams to design CSR policies, evaluate implementation partners, run monitoring dashboards, and deliver the annual CSR-2 filing.

Impact assessment and outcome measurement

Serious donors — corporate, institutional and philanthropic — increasingly demand rigorous impact evidence. Our impact-assessment practice uses OECD-DAC criteria (Relevance, Coherence, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact, Sustainability), Theory-of-Change frameworks, and mixed-methods evaluation (surveys, KII, FGD, secondary analysis) to produce evaluation reports that hold up in board rooms and in front of programme officers. We also build outcome-monitoring dashboards for continuous programme learning.

How The Exim Roof helps

• Entity choice and incorporation — Section 8, Trust, Society or FPO.
• 12A / 12AB, 80G and CSR-1 registration and renewal.
• FCRA registration, prior permission, renewal and quarterly return filing.
• CSR policy drafting, project selection and implementation-partner evaluation.
• Grant management, financial reporting and utilisation-certificate preparation.
• Impact assessment, outcome monitoring and evaluation reports.
• Statutory audit, income-tax return and annual regulatory filings.