When I look back on the year that has gone by, I cannot help but wonder if I was able to make any difference to the world around me.  If I was able, at all, to give any thing back to the society I inhabit.

Sure, I blogged about the things that mattered, and signed the odd petition for the causes I believe in.  But, other than that, it was mostly just work, work and more work.  Except for my annual donations, that is.

Since a few years now, I have practiced the habit of distributing a certain percentage of my annual earnings across a few charities of my choice.  Websites like GiveIndia.org have only made it that much easier to sift through the choices and complete the actual transaction.  But, deciding on what you want to do, is still your responsibility.  And, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

GiveIndia is an easy-to-use online donation platform that helps you make your donations more efficiently and effectively, to a cause you choose.

The site offers you a CHOICE of who you want to give to [from over 85 pre-screened nonprofits], CONFIDENCE in giving through a trustworthy and transparent organisation and the CONVENIENCE of easily and quickly transacting online.

By connecting donors directly to the causes you care about, GiveIndia provides you an efficient platform to monitor the impact of your donations.

After studying a number of options, filtered by cause and geography, I finally settled on these three, this year :

• Sponsoring a child for a Balwadi – A mobile school that offers underprivileged families the opportunity of an education and a good day’s meal for their children
• Sponsoring a month’s honorarium for a teacher of a Public School in a rural area, and
• Funding the establishment of a small rural library with books and journals

GiveIndia promises to send me an update on the status of my sponsorships and how they have been put to use, within a few weeks.  But, it is already beginning to feel like a good decision.

You should try it some time.  As Pearl Bailey once remarked, “What the world really needs is more love, and less paperwork”.