India is among the world’s largest economies- (wikipedia.org)
More than *29% Indians live below the Poverty Line

India has more than 250 universities and 10400 institutes of higher education
More than ** 34% Indians are illiterate

Indian pharmaceutical industry is world’s4th largest ***
India is likely to become the world’s AIDS capital soon. (avert.org)

Indian economy is growing at 8% and foreign reserves stand at $180 Billion ****
Thousands of farmers commit suicide due to indebt ness every year.

Promote efforts for enriching rural communities through organised philanthropy

Encourage and support innovative and replicable initiatives in rural Maharashtra.

The main purpose of a community foundation is to serve the local needs of communities. At the same time it also cultivates a culture of an organised philanthropy. It helps the donors who wish to contribute for their community. Community foundations do this work in many different ways e.g. providing donors with the necessary information in most flexible, efficient, and effective ways so as to ensure that their charitable giving achieves the greatest possible impact.

The concept of a community foundation is as ingenious as it is simple. It is a means to build, over a period of time, a substantial endowment funds for the community through contributions large and small.

Ideally these endowment funds are themselves not spent. Instead, they are permanently invested to increase the holding. The income earned from their investments are used to meet the community needs.  This is philanthropy in its broadest sense. A community foundation remains committed in serving donors and their community by building permanent endowed funds for philanthropic purposes.

A community foundation does not usually conduct programs of its own. It generally supports the new or existing programs of other nonprofit organizations and agencies. It can also serve as a neutral convener, bringing diverse opinions and players together for the good of the whole community. In this sense, the community foundation can also serve as a catalyst for addressing issues facing a community.

A Donor can always set up a trust from his/her individual funds, and give it a name of its choice, be it one’s own name or the name of a loved one. Essentially a donor then has all the control on the resources and can utilize the funds as he wishes, in determining which charities should be benefited from the fund.  This involves lot of legal and tax formalities. A community Foundation gives most of these essentials to the donor without the hassles relating to the formalities, when a donor starts a ‘donor advised fund’ with the community foundation.

Instead one may choose to contribute in a variety of ways, to serve ones intention. Similarly a donor may contribute to a community foundation and avoid the technical hassle involved in starting a trust. A donor may continue to have his control in determining where and how the funds should be utilized and for what charities, by creating a donor designated fund. A community foundation is governed by a local board of directors chosen for their knowledge of the community and designed to be representative of a broad cross-section of the community. The directors possess expertise in many areas of management, necessary to carry out the stewardship functions of the foundation. A community foundation represents a wide variety of ideas and interests of individual donors who have united in a common purpose and the bettering their community both now and in the future. A community foundation is capable in providing a solution to anybody’s charitable intentions.Community Foundation Characteristics

A community foundation typically is an organization that holds, invests, and administers a collection of separate funds (usually endowments) established by donors to meet the philanthropic goals of the donors and the needs of the community being served.

Planned gifts and bequests form a primary tool for endowment development, although increasingly donors are establishing funds during their lifetimes.

Name: The Nav Maharashtra Community Foundation (Navam)

Status: A non-profit, autonomous, non-sectarian, philanthropic organisation.

Registration: Registered in  2003 under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950
Registration Number- E3537-Pune

Tax Benefit: All donations to Navam are eligible for tax exemption under section 80G of the Income Tax Act

Managing Trustee:           Dr. Nirmala Pandit

Board of Trustees:        Ms Anu Aga , Chairperson
                                             Ms. Rati Forbes
                                             Dr. S D Gokhale
                                             Dr Ashok Kolaskar
                                             Shri Pratao Pawar
                                             Shri Milind Kulkarni

Tax Benefit: All donations to Navam are eligible for tax exemption under section 80G of the Income Tax Act