Q: How much minimum funds I need to raise?

Q: Where could I get a letter that states that Gwalior Children's Hospital is a charity that qualifies for US tax deductions? Is it a charity under/qualified by the IRS? Does it have a 501-C 3 code? Some individuals that will be giving me donations would like this information.

Q: I have not raised funds in past and I do not know anything about fund raising. Can you please guide me?

Q: What type of fundraising events have been successful in the past?

Q: I may not be able to go to Gwalior but will like to help the poor and disadvantaged people in India. How can I help them in addition to your work? Do you work for animal welfare too?

Q: How much minimum funds I need to raise?

A:

You should start fundraising aiming to raise with a minimum target of £500 but preferably £2000 and more as much you can. 100% of funds received by charity are used towards this work to provide for children there in India. All administrative costs are met by trustees with their own contributions as well they contribute more financially as well with their time, efforts and work without any remunerations. Please let us know of the Events organised and send us photographs with contact details and email id of supporters for our news letters and to thank them. If you could send me the draft letter as planned to be sent to all your friends and relatives, I could correct for any factual corrections if required. Continue fund raising and raise as much as possible before your departure. You should send these by post or by email with photographs, contact details and email id of the major supporters and donors. Please keep us informed for the events and progress. You can post these events on this site too.

You can pay on line too by visiting http://www.gwalior.hospital.care4free.net/donation.html . In that case please send us the reference number of your donation with copy of email receipt for the donation.

An important point: All the money goes to charity for this work, whatever left if any after expenses.

Q: Where could I get a letter that states that Gwalior Children's Hospital is a charity that qualifies for US tax deductions? Is it a charity under/qualified by the IRS? Does it have a 501-C 3 code? Some individuals that will be giving me donations would like this information.

A:

Gwalior Childrens Hospital is a registered charity in UK. All U.K.taxpayers are benefited with tax deductions for 100% of their donations. Their donated amount increases by nearly third if they donate as gift aid and they can reclaim 18% of tax from Inland Revenue if they are higher rate tax payers.

For U.S.A. taxpayers, Gwalior Childrens Hospital Charity has affiliation with American fund for charities, which is a 501-C 3 organisation and its EIN number, is 52-2109597. The American Fund for Charities deducts $50 and 10% of every donation for their administrative expenses and there are added bank charges for banking foreign currency cheques. Therefore cheques for small amounts of $250 or less should be written in the name of "Gwalior Childrens Hospital Charity", while larger cheques can be made in the name of "Gwalior Childrens Hospital Charity through American Fund for Charities". These cheques should be sent to us with details of the respective donor or donors for processing as required. All donors are sent receipts for their tax deductible donations for IRS purposes.

For tax payers in India donations to Gwalior Hospital and Education Charitable Trust or Society and Snehalaya Charitable Trust are tax exempted under section 80G of income tax rules. Tax exemptions in other countries are allowed as per rules there for charitable donations. All donors are sent with receipts for their donations for their records and tax purposes. We also keep all donors and supporters updated with the fruits of their help by sending information regularly by post and or email.

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Q: I have not raised funds in past and I do not know anything about fund raising. Can you please guide me?

A:

As a volunteer for us we request you to help us by raising funds and publicising the work of GCHC, which is an ongoing requirement for the work irrespective of your plans whether you come for short or long durations or even if you are not able to come and work with us for reasons beyond your control. As you know we depend upon our supporters and volunteers for funds required for ongoing work and its expansion -- as well for publicising

the needs and work of GCHC mostly by word of mouth as we can't afford to pay for costly advertisements. These are the commitments by every volunteer to help us in this endeavour. Every volunteer is expected to raise funds which in turn creates awareness too for this cause. We are sure you will surpass these targets.You can design your personal fund raising page for any event or occasion to raise money to help us in this endeavour at http://www.justgiving.com/gwalior/raisemoney In fact you can start your fund raising from now itself in addition to your other plans, by making your volunteering itself a fund raising event and make a web page on http://www.justgiving.com/gwalior/raisemoney and send the information to all your friends, colleagues, associates and relatives if they will like to sponsor you and help “GCHC and Snehalaya- the home with love” in this endeavour. It is quite simple, the easiest way, does not take long and you can keep in touch with every one through this page and keep updating it from time to time from anywhere in the world.

Also, our Souvenir shop is available on this web site. Please have a look on side bar and click on SouvenirShop. You could order for any gifts and services from India esp. greeting cards, candles, files, bags, mementos, T shirts, pen etc. etc. for yourselves as well ask all your friends and family to order same.

Please keep sending the funds raised and tell everyone about GCHC and its work whomsoever you know or meet every day. All collections should be made in the name of "Gwalior Childrens Hospital Charity".

Sponsorship/ event forms are available on thi web site as well on http://www.gwalior.hospital.care4free.net/donation.html. By filling same with contact details and email ID of respective donors making their donations as gift aid, if they are tax payers in UK, this increases their donations by nearly third with tax credits -- and they also get refund of nearly 22p for every pound of donation if they are higher rate taxpayers.

For other Non-UK donors they are entitled to get tax benefits for their donations as per existing rules in their country of residence. Donations through our affiliate "American Fund for Charities" are tax deductible for taxpayers in USA and to "Gwalior Hospital and Education Charitable Trust" from Tax payers in India. Please contact me for any questions or further details.

With their contact details being available with GCHC, we can keep them updated with fruits of their help from time to time. We will like to know of fund raising events or activities as being organised by you with photographs. You can publish your events and experiences with photographs and participate in discussions or post your views on this site by yourself. Please send these to me, as we will like to include these in our news letter "Healing Hands" published on the net every three months as well on our web sites. Details of various past events can be seen by visiting our websites Gwalior Childrens Hospitalwith updates from news letters always available at http://www.zyworld.com/gchc/newsletter.htm

You can also design your personal fund raising page for any event or occasion to raise money on line to help us in this endeavour and inform all your supporters and sponsors about same at http://www.justgiving.com/gwalior/raisemoney.

You can also find examples on our Volunteer Reports page on this site.

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Q: What type of fundraising events have been successful in the past?

A:

Herewith follows some guidelines and success stories for fund raising by some of the methods used by our volunteers-

Aim should be to raise maximum, not minimum, though target is minimum of £500. If one volunteer can raise £2000 or more by fundraising, then all expenses will be paid by charity if desired. All the money goes to charity for this work, whatever left if any after expenses. We do honour few volunteers every year for their outstanding contributions and or fundraising and one volunteer is awarded the certificate as fundraiser of the year as well others for innovative way for fund raising in respective category of volunteers. For year 2001-02 Dr. Margaret Garman achieved that honour by raising £2800. For 2002-03 it was Michael Binnie raising 8600 pounds, for 2003-04 Stephanie Wolfe Murray received that honour for raising 4700 pounds, while Mrs. Jackie Marsh from Edinburgh Academy Charities Committee received the honour for Fundraiser of the year award for 2004-05 having raised £9364 for the Orphanage work. Steve Farley was honoured for year 2005-06 having raised £8300 and now Katie Elliot stands nominated as fund raiser of the year 2006 for raising £11500 so far in this year by writing a booklet depicting conditions in Mercy Home and why do we need Snehalaya and it still goes on, in fact she has challenged and wishes herself to be beaten by any one else) and so on. Alan Whybrew was chosen to be volunteer of the year for volunteering at Gwalior and his contributions for operation to save life of Gaurav, a child with cyanotic heart disease. Bonny Squair raised £7600 by organising fabulous evening as Christmas ball on 9th Dec. 04. Lee Rollo organised the Linky Lea Music Festival on 1st July 06 and raised £8800. We hope it becomes a regular fund raising annual event for GCHC. Thomas Whitfield was chosen as volunteer of the year for fund raising , volunteering at Gwalior and spreading the word with his video presentation for the work and needs of GCHC on BBC Wales and Radio interviews. You should make efforts to surpass everyone to become fundraiser and volunteer of the year 2007 to be honoured next year.

It is not difficult; question is to make a start with positive thinking and efforts.

The commonest and most usual way is to organise a fund raising event and activities in your area is by writing and contacting everyone among your friends, colleagues, associates and family members, you know, to sponsor and help by donations to help us in this endeavour. You should send articles to local news papers and magazines too about the charity, your volunteering and fundraising activities. This can be achieved by writing a small summary about this work, its needs mentioning that you are going to work with us as a volunteer requesting everyone to donate, sponsor and help with maximum as much they can putting a note that donations are exempted for tax purposes for tax payers in USA, U.K. and India. This letter can be made out of the donation form as given on website or something like Michael Bennie’s charity walk along river Narmada or Tony Sinclair’s cycle tour of 2004. We are sending the display poster too to help you in this quest. The letter should have a tear off slip to fill in with their addresses, tel. no., email address etc. of the donor and return address for yourself. (You could send the draft to me for any corrections if necessary). All payments should be made in the name of “Gwalior Childrens Hospital Charity”. These activities in turn create awareness for this work too.

Similar activities can be organised anywhere in public places too asking everyone to contribute or donate, whatever one can e.g. two of the students from London went around circle line with buckets in hand to raise funds successfully, three girl students from Leeds organised a charity walk in streets looking like Indian animals asking for donations to help us raise funds. Thomas Whitfield from Cardiff went for a sponsored charity walk of 177 miles through hilly terrain; Jamie Campbell went for a 3-leg run up the mountain 3000 feet above sea level in South Wales. Students from Kings College did car wash on a Sunday and others organised a cake sale. Caroline has gone basking with her clarinet all over in Birmingham and Nottingham on every week end to raise funds for GCHC. Alice Davies raised funds by doing a sponsored swim on New Year’s Day at Wells beach on north Norfolk coast and obviously it was jolly cold too. Caroline from Bath and Sue from Doncaster participated in local marathons for raising funds for GCHC. Leanne organised the photo exhibitions. Medical students from Canada organised Saffron Ball as “Raunak Vaisakh dee” with music and entertainment on 22nd Apr. 05 in Toronto raising almost Canadian $10000 for the Orphanage Snehalaya. Girls from Oaken gate practice in Shropshire did sponsored slimming to loose weight as well help us in this endeavour. Chris Shaw and Amy Slater participated in the London Triathlon to raise funds for GCHC.

Approaching your old school and involving staff members, pupils and parents to help and organise an event is another very common and successful mode for fund raising as adopted by many students. Going for or organising sponsored charity walks, marathons, cycling tour, bungee jump, parachuting, swim, five-a-side football match, curry evenings, coffee table, cake sale, lecturing, massage, face painting, loosing weight, waxing of legs by men, shaving head, baring oneself in public, photography and sale of exhibits, paintings, car boot sale, garage sale of old items, auction etc. etc. are some of the common modes.

Many volunteers convince their schools, colleges, employers and or local churches to adopt GCHC as the charity of the month or organise fund raising activities with their cooperation and sponsorship. Many employers and organisations have schemes to match the fund raising by their employees too. Toccata, organ recital by Richard Johnson was organised by Rev. John Bradley at Parish Church in Westbury-on-Trim on 19th Feb. St. Edwards Church of Burgess Hill selected GCHC as charity of the month for July 2005 as recommended by Christine Niggard and employees of SAGE in New Castle-upon-Tyne selected GCHC as charity of the month for Oct. 05 as recommended by Lynda and Steve with their long waiting lists out of hundreds of recommendations. Edinburgh academy selected GCHC as charity of the year and raised £9364 for the Orphanage –Snehalaya during the year 2003-04 with successful bidding by Bonny Squair and Charles Drace-Francis.

Marianne from Shropshire asked for donations in lieu of gifts for her wedding and Patricia from Wales asked all friends to donate to GCH charity in lieu of flowers at the time of funeral of her husband. Jessica from Sheffield asked all friends and family members donations to GCHC in lieu of birth day and Christmas gifts and cards. Madeleine Holland launched fundraising by “sponsor or buy a brick” with an evening of music presented by school children in Birmingham and this appeal continues. Steve Farley organised a gala evening in Mostyn, North Wales on 13th May. Emma Callander with her friends went for a sponsored cycle ride in Edinburgh on 25th Sept. 05. Bonny and Anne organised a musical concert on 22nd Oct. in Edinburgh. Christmas ball for 2005 was a success as organised at Norwich by Amanda with mix of Italian and Spanish fanfare inclusive of supper, wine, music and dances on 19th Nov. 05 raising desperately needed funds for GCHC. Asian Society of Students from Imperial College London have organised the “East meets West”, a cultural programme for the evening of 19th Feb. to raise funds for GCHC. A Trivia night was organised by China Lawrence and David Addley in Sydney, Australia on 3rd March 06 while James Callander and Jamie Ramsay with four friends participated in Stockholm Marathon on 3rd June of this year to raise funds for GCHC. Linky lea music festival and volunteers day was held on 1st July in Edinburgh, full of music, entertainment, food and much more continuing whole day and night into 2nd July 06. Dr. Richard Levin walked for 77 miles in hills of Scotland in Aug.06 and Kate Bridge with her parents and friends went cycling from Leeds to Liverpool (original plans were boating but canals were closed) in Sept. 06 raising funds for GCHC and Snehalaya. Visit other pages on this site for updates.

Many students and teachers organise fundraising activities in their schools and colleges with support of their colleagues, pupils, parents and staff. I hope this gives you some thoughts to organise the events and write to everyone, as you may like or prefer. You can look into our websites http://www.gwalior.hospital.care4free.net and also read our news letter Healing hands published every three months with volunteers' column and their comments and experiences for fund raising and about this work http://www.zyworld.com/GCHC/newsletter.htm

You can also design your personal fund raising page for any event or occasion to raise money on line to help us in this endeavour and inform all your supporters and sponsors for same at http://www.justgiving.com/gwalior/raisemoney/ This is very simple, does not take long and you can update or keep in contact through these pages from any where in the world.