NGO

ASSESSMENT
FRAMEWORK
This document provides CESD’s NGO
assessment framework, questionnaire,
and assessment guide
Context

CESD developed this NGO Assessment Framework in response to demands raised by CII
members, including CESD’s Advisory Council, following the passing of the Companies Act 2013,
which mandates companies to incur a given minimum expenditure on CSR activities. Considering
this legislation, companies are challenged to identify credible NGOs who can act as partners in
their CSR activities.

CESD is aware that several agencies have already created proprietary assessment systems to
address the challenges faced by companies in selection of NGOs and in the distribution of CSR
funds. They can establish credibility of NGOs, which is a necessary condition to enable companies
to invest CSR funds in social activities. Existing services range from listing to rating and
accreditation of NGOs. Each service is based on financial and governance parameters of NGOs,
thus establishing credibility of organisations. Some services also identify experience of
organisations in development areas.

These services do not completely answer the question that all companies are asking. “Does the
organisation have capacities and capabilities to deliver my project?” It requires resource
intensive due diligence of NGOs. Due diligence are conducted on demand and therefore service
only the sponsor. Results are not publicly available despite being useful to many other companies.

CESD’s framework is based on two guiding principles:

1. It should answer companies’ requirement of “capacities and capabilities of organisations
to implement projects”
2. The NGO assessment system will be public utility, without compromising commercial
obligations of companies

Aided by these guiding principles, CESD’s NGO assessment framework has two unique value
propositions:
1. Does not repeat or duplicate most of the work of existing service providers
2. Proposes not to score organisations and instead provide guidance to companies

This could provide value-added NGO assessments to companies.

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CESD NGO Assessment Framework

CESD’s NGO assessment framework is based on indicators that respond to two necessities of
companies, viz., capacities and capabilities. These are covered via four aspects of the framework:
• Human resources
• Projects
• Risk management
• Stakeholder engagement

Each aspect consists of specific questions. Collectively these are 12 questions in addition to
information required in Organisation Profile. Each question is designed to answer the point of
capacities and / or capabilities to deliver. The questions are also designed keeping in mind that
large number of implementing agencies are small and have rudimentary organisational and
management processes and systems. However, they might still be good at delivering projects.

The next part of the document is the actual assessment questions grouped as aspects. Assessment
aid supports each question. The purpose of the assessment aid is guidance for assessors to
understand the purpose of the question and review the answers that solve the purpose.

This NGO assessment is based on guidance and not on scoring. Assessors will offer guidance based
on their assessment. The guidance will cover both strength and gap areas of NGOs. The guidance
will be specific to the extent of guiding companies whether the NGO should be engaged or not.

Assessment process

CESD is available to help companies with on-demand service. Upon receiving confirmation of
assignment, CESD will send out the assessment form to implementing agencies to be assessed.
The filled form will be given to a team of assessors for Level-1 assessment. Level-2 assessment or
on-site verification will be conditional to outcomes of Level-1. On-site verification will seek to
validate claims made by organisations in the form. Final outcome will be presented to the
company for their action.

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Questionnaire
Organisation profile
Name
Year of establishment
Number of years of operations
Headquarters
Other office locations
Areas of operations
Geography
Development areas

3rd-party endorsements
Accreditations
Ratings
Certifications
Indian International
Awards (please mention development area
Private
for which the recognition was awarded)
Public

Please check as applicable and complied with

Applicable Complied

Societies Registration Certificate as per Societies Registration

Act, 1860

Public Trust Certificate as per Indian Trusts Act, 1882

Private Trust Certificate as per Indian Trusts Act, 1882

Non-Profit Company as per Section 8, Companies Act, 2013 or

Section 25 as per Companies Act, 1956
Co-operative Society as per Cooperative Credit Societies Act,
1904
Certificate of Incorporate as per The Multi-state Co-operative
Societies Act, 2002

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 Trust Deed with the Local Registrar under the Indian Trusts Act,
1882
Memorandum of Association as per Societies Registration Act,
1860

Certificate of Incorporation from the Regional Director

Income Tax Permanent Account No. (PAN)

Tax Deduction Account No. (TAN)

Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) Registration with a

copy of FCRA Balance sheet (For the last three years)

Registration under Section 12A of Income Tax of Act 1961

80G Certificate for Tax Exemption

Form 10B with audited Balance Sheet and Schedules (last three
years)
Income and Expenditure Statement and Schedules (last three
years)
Income-tax returns filed with the Income-Tax department (for
last three years)

Annual Report Disclosures (for the past three years)

Any other (please specify)

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Human resources

HR1: Board member details

Experience Relation to
Total
as board executive Political
Name Designation Qualification experience
member head of the affiliations**
(in years)
(in years) organisation*
Name 1

Name 2

Name n

*no relation; relation (specify)

**Not affiliated or related to any party or individual; affiliated / related (specify)

HR2: Top management details

Employee turnover (over 5 years)

Experience
Total Relation to
as top Political
Name Designation Qualification experience board
management affiliations**
(in years) members*
(in years)
Name 1

Name 2

Name n

*no relation; relation (specify)

**Not affiliated or related to any party or individual; Affiliated / related (specify)

Assessor aid:
Check if qualifications & experience are relevant to areas of operations and mandate of the
organisation.

Look at CEO’s affiliation with the board in order to determine whether it is a ‘board owned’
organisation.

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HR3: Staff details (mention absolute numbers)

Part-time / project
Full-time Volunteers
staff
Total
Male
Female
Annual turnover Not applicable
Local staff
Special abilities

Assessor aid:
Balanced or positive gender diversity is encouraged. However, male-domination may not always
be negative. Understand the context or reasons for gender profile.

Annual employee turnover for full-time and part-time staff is important. High turnover means
instability and may reflect culture & management of the organisation. Get reasons for turnover.

Local employment should be treated positively; it helps in relations with local stakeholders,
improves familiarity with local issues.

Employment of people with special abilities is seen positively.

HR4: Identify skills of staff members

Skill area! Numbers* Qualifications**

Engineering

Medical

Mechanical

Certification – product

Certification – process

Impact measurement

Baseline survey

Needs assessment

General management

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 General administration

Environment

Biodiversity

Community mobilisation

Project management
!These are illustrative only; mention actual skill areas
*Zero if applicable but not available; NA - not applicable
**Academic degree and name of institution awarding the degree

Assessor aid:
Staff might have multiple skill sets. In such cases account for the different skills sets.
Consequently, sum of people with different skills sets will exceed the number of staff.

People might have acquired skills through on-the-job learning or experience, and not through
qualification. This is perfectly acceptable to acknowledge as “acquired”.

Projects

PR1: % of work done in different geographies?

Geographies % (by number of projects)

Geography 1

Geography 2
Geography n

Total (should add to 100)

Assessment aid: Geographical spread may be an indication of capabilities and capacities. Relate
this question to locational spread of offices. See whether projects done in different geographies
were done directly or in partnership or support of local organisation

PR2: % of work done in development areas?

Development area! % (by number of projects)

Education

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 Sanitation

Livelihoods

Water management

Climate change

Total (should add to 100)

!These are illustrative only; mention actual development areas

Assessment aid: Development area spread may be an indication of capabilities and capacities.
Relate this question to specialisation of staff. See whether projects done in different development
areas were done directly or in partnership or support of local organisation

PR3: List organisations that have funded your projects in the last five years
(mention top 10 sources of funds)

Types of
Source of fund Number of Total amount
Type of projects (eg, Associated
(organisation projects of all projects
source* development since
name) funded / source
areas, etc)

Source 1

Source 2

Source n

*Types of source: central or state govt; business; another NGO; foreign development agency;
multi-lateral agency; MP / MLA funds

Assessment aid: Check for consistency with a partner in terms of years spent; this might be an
indication of a good partnership between the two

Check for financial dependency on certain sources of funds; over-dependence is a risk area and
show negatively on capacities of the organisation

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PR4: List self-sustaining projects

Project
description:
Impact data
should include Year of Project cost
Current status (supported by
development area, completion (direct::overheads)
reports)
geographic area,
source of funds
Project 1
Project 2
Project n

Assessment aid:
Self-sustaining project means a project that is now running on its own without financial or
management support of funders or the NGO.

The objective of capturing self-sustaining projects is to understand capabilities of NGO in

establishing management and ownership structures and not necessarily financial sustainability.

Look at the ratio of direct::overhead in project cost; overheads should not exceed 20% of total
project cost.

PR5: List maximum 10 ongoing projects

Project name & Development Start date & Project cost

Geographic area
description area end date (direct::overheads)

Project 1

Project 2

Project n

Assessment aid:
Check for consistency with geographic & development areas, duration of projects - are they short-
term or long-term projects.
Look at the ratio of direct::overhead in project cost; overheads should be around 20% of total
project cost.

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Risk management

RM1: Identify and score the risk that affects smooth functioning / execution of
projects

Risk Low risk Moderate risk High risk

Interference from politicians
Interference / lack of cooperation from local
administration
Interference / lack of cooperation from local
government
Too much monitoring from funding agencies
Lack of cooperation / involvement of funding
agencies
Resistance from communities / intended
beneficiaries
Lack of funds for projects
Shortage of skilled manpower
High employee turnover
Any other (specify)
Low risk: does not affect projects / the organisation
Moderate risk: affects the organisation or projects; are usually managed without compromising
project objectives or values of the organisation
High risk: risks project execution or existence of organisation

RM2: Please provide details of fines / penalties that various courts / regulators /
other stakeholders have imposed on the organisation in the past five financial
years

Financial liability Non-financial

Case
(INR) caused liability caused*
Case 1
Case 2
Case n

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*examples: loss of potential projects, suspension / cancellation of registration to receive funds /
provide tax benefits

RM3: Please provide lists of cases in courts or regulators in the past five financial
years

Resolved
Ongoing
Case (provide details
(mention “yes”)
in favour of)
Case 1
Case 2
Case n

Stakeholder feedback

SF1: Feedback to be collected by assessors from stakeholders

Stakeholder
Category of experience
group
Excellent
Very bad Bad
Average Good (would
(would (would
(would engage (would engage,
never engage if
with specific engage, recommend,
engage no other
improvements) recommend) trust with
again) option)
independence)
Beneficiary –
local
community
Non-
beneficiary –
local
community
Local
administration

Local police

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 Politicians

Funding
agency

Employees

Reference 1

Reference 2

Reference 3

Any other
(specify)

Reference check

Provide three referees for your work

Name Designation Organisation Email Phone Address Relation

Assessor Guidance
Based on assessments of all aspects, assessors should provide specific guidance keeping in mind
the context of the assessment. Guidance should be as brief and clear as possible; avoid any
vagueness in writing the guidance. Try not to provide more than three strengths and gaps.
Answer to “to engage or not” should also be specific as “yes” or “no”.

Strengths Gaps
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

To engage or not?

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CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development
Delhi | Gurgaon | Mumbai

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