3 additional benefits of listing your NGO on Google My Business

3 additional benefits of listing your NGO on Google My Business

Please refer to me earlier blog post. In that post, I covered four key benefits of listing your NGO on Google My Business. In this blog post, I am covering additional three benefits.

Upload new photos & videos regularly: Photos draw attention, and we like photos. Upload new photos regularly. 

Kindly think of the following while taking the photos - lighting, angle, device and backdrop. 

Further, also consider what are you emphasising on - activity, brand, team members, stakeholders. While taking photos capture the GPS location which is helpful.

Answer questions regularly (Q&A): Every Google My Business page has a questions and answers section. 

Anyone can ask a question on any topic. Ask your own questions, that your stakeholders might want to ask or have been asking you on phone or during personal interactions. 

Please answer those questions and provide additional information, as needed. These questions would give you an insight on what stakeholders are thinking. Engage with your stakeholders using Q&A. 

Kindly see below a screenshot of a Q&A section picked up from internet for an NGO.

Post regularly: Posts appear on the knowledge panel, which is on the right hand side of the search results.

These are critical. These are basically of following types - updates, events, and offers. 

Any update is  like any social media update having a photo and its brief description. You have to be really innovative to leverage this feature. Events are straightforward. Take a photo of the event and post it like a social media feed. 

Offers may not be relevant for you so we'll not talk about it.

Conclusion: Please set monthly goals.

Please set monthly goals for photos to be uploaded, questions to be answered, reviews to be replied, post to be added to drive engagement with your stakeholders using Google My Business (now called Google Business Profile). And Google search engine will take a positive note of the above efforts.

 4 key benefits of listing your NGO on Google My Business

The 4 key benefits

If you're not listed on Google My Business (GMB) already, here are the four key benefits of the listing on Google My Business (GMB). Google My Business is now called Google Business Profile. 

The online listing is beneficial, especially for small NGOs that have a physical location around which they do their social activities. A community centre for example. For the URL for GMB is click on GMB website.

1. Visibility: This is useful specifically for small NGOs that need visibility.

After listing on Google My Business and when your NGO is searched online;  Google will display your NGO on Google Search and Google Maps. Your NGO will be listed at the top of search results. 

Further, if someone is searching for a local NGO, without specifying any name, on Google search or on Google maps; there is a good chance that your NGO will show up as local listing.

2. Your Telephone number: Your NGO can be called from search results from a mobile phone without the trouble of finding your telephone number from your website and then typing the number and calling.

More than 50% of on-line searches happen on mobile phones. After listing on Google My Business and searching for your NGO; the mobile search results page, provides a button to call ( call to action ) your NGO. Phone calls are thus facilitated by Google. Your NGO is just a phone call away!

3. Directions. Location of your NGO will be shown on the Google map once your name is displayed on the search result. 

This allows the interested person in finding your exact location, or reaching to your location. 

4. Reviews: This is a great way to engage with your audience.

This is another great feature that allows you to interact and engage with on-line visitors and look at their review comments and respond appropriately.

There are other benefits as well, such as uploading photos, linking to your social accounts and your website.

Once you set out to create your profile on Google My Business; you will be creating your profile on Google My Business in five easy steps. This will not take more than five minutes. 

But you need to have a Google account for going ahead with this registration. If you do not have one, you may want to create a Google account. 

Google will then validate your online account either by posting a letter to your physical address or through a phone call or an email. That’s it.

The next part of the process is, managing and optimising your profile. This can be done later. I will cover that in my next post. 

Why should you register with NGO-Darpan?

The benefits of registration with NGO-Darpan for Voluntary Organisations (VOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

About Ngo-Darpan

NGO-DARPAN is a platform that provides an interface between Voluntary Organisations (VOs) / Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and key Government Ministries / Departments / Government Bodies. Later it is proposed to cover all Central Ministries / Departments / Government Bodies.

NITI Aayog invites all VOs / NGOs to sign up on the Darpan Portal. VOs / NGOs play a major role in the development of the nation by supplementing the efforts of the government. 

This NGO-DARPAN portal enables VOs / NGOs to enroll centrally and thus facilitates creation of a repository of information about VOs / NGOs, Sector/State wise. The Portal facilitates VOs / NGOs to obtain a system generated Unique ID, as and when signed. 

The Unique ID is mandatory to apply for grants under various schemes of Ministries/Departments/Governments Bodies.

Currently more than 1,50,000 NGOs are registered with Darpan. More than 50 government departments are participating in it.

Benefits of signing up with NGO-DARPAN

• Completing the NGO Darpan Registration online can help NGOs receive timely and essential updates regarding government grants and other benefits. 
• The portal provides basic information on the NGO. Further NGO database can be searched.
• By obtaining a unique ID the credibility and trustworthiness of an NGO improves when seeking funds from trusts and corporate bodies. This unique online identity is useful specifically for small NGOs in getting visibility. 
• NGOs can present the Darpan Identification Number if they seek FCRA registration for getting foreign funding, though it is made optional now. 

Apple India's sales hit a record in September Qtr2

Ramsar Sites in India

India, on its 75th year of Independence (15th August), achieved a milestone of 75 Ramsar sites. 

It recently added 11 more wetlands to the list of Ramsar sites to make total 75 Ramsar sites covering an area of 13 lakh 26 thousand 677 Hectare in the country. 

I have created an interactive map. Kindly visit the map at https://andybandra.github.io/ramsar_india/ You can see and click the map shown below.

On the map you may click an icon to get the name and state of a site, and its area in hectares.  

India is one of the Contracting Parties to Ramsar Convention, signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. India signed it on 1st February 1982. These are wetlands deemed to be of "international importance" under the Ramsar Convention.

What is RAMSAR Wetland Sites

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value.

Tamil Nadu has the highest number of Ramsar Sites in India with 14 Ramsar Sites. The largest site is marked in blue icon. It is the Sundarbans National Park a national park, tiger reserve and biosphere reserve in West Bengal,

The list is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ramsar_sites_in_India.

75 Ramsar India Sites

CSR-Dashboard

The Benefits of Digital Dashboards for Corporate Social Responsibility

Updated on April 3, 2024

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable. In this digital age, dashboards have become a significant tool in managing CSR activities effectively. Let's delve into the benefits of digital dashboards for CSR.

Real-Time Data

Digital dashboards provide real-time updates and insights, enabling companies to make immediate decisions based on current data. This is particularly useful in CSR initiatives where timely response is crucial.

Improved Transparency

With digital dashboards, companies can share their CSR progress with stakeholders and the public in a transparent manner. This can enhance the company's reputation and build trust among its stakeholders.

Efficient Resource Allocation

Digital dashboards allow companies to see which CSR initiatives are performing well. This can help them allocate resources more efficiently, ensuring that their CSR efforts have the greatest impact.

Let's begin:

I have developed a very simple and easy to understand spend dashboard for corporate social responsibility. it is intended for senior CSR executives such as CSR committee members.

How is this dashboard organised?

On the left hand side, you have the KPIs. and on the right hand side, you have the respective spend shown in percentage of the total. In KPIs, you have the yearly spend, spend by domain (such as education), spend by location ( e.g. state), spent by NGO. It quickly gives a bird eye view of the spend. By choice, it's a static dashboard. It can be updated and customised as often as required. It can be put in conference room, in the reception area for communicating the progress of CSR spend.

Reading the dashboard:

Let's say you want to know the spend on Domain – health. It is shown as 27% as a numeral as well as a corresponding darkened arc in a circle. The arc starts from equivalent position of 9 o'clock on the clock face. Any progresses clock wise. Showing the data in percentages of the total, helps in getting a grasp of the size of the proportion. Let's take another example. We want to know the spend on the top NGO as a percentage of the total. It is shown as 35%. This will help you take an executive decision such as reducing the spend on the top NGO.

How is this dashboard made?

It is drawn using 100% Visual Basic For Applications (VBA). It is customisable in so many different ways. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can also be linked. Similarly you can add photos, logos, other art clippings. 

The concept can be extended to cover other functions namely Sustainability, Marketing, Social Media, Sales, Admin. And many more.

It is not using chars from excel and pasting it in Dashboard. It uses native shape objects of PowerPoint. 

But it uses excel for data and necessary calculations. The VBA code resides in Excel. You may put your actual data. Such static visualisations have great impact in corporate conference room discussions. 

Conclusion

Digital dashboards offer numerous benefits for managing CSR initiatives. By providing real-time data, improving transparency, and aiding in resource allocation, they can help companies make a significant social impact.

Hope you like it. Please do give your suggestions. 

 

Public Cloud revenue 2022 to 2026

#vba

#excel

#powerpoint