Know your Plus Code [for NGOs] - locate your beneficiaries accurately

Monitor your social programmes - accurately

Introduction:

While Google Maps “Plus Codes” benefits all sections of a society and different types of businesses; this blog post is dedicated to NGOs. Further it focuses on NGOs working for beneficiaries living in congested areas.

(A) The Challenge:

How do you communicate addresses of beneficiaries of your programs living in congested areas when they do not have accurate formal addresses in the first place?

(B) The Solution:

Google Maps will now let India users rely on “Plus Codes“ when saving and sharing their home, office or project location addresses (digitally). These “Plus Codes“ do not depend on the street name, locality name, or town name. The code includes alphanumeric characters.

With a “Plus Code”, people can receive deliveries, access to emergency or social services, or just help each other find them.

“Plus Codes” are based on latitude and longitude. They use a simple grid system and a set of 20 alphanumeric characters. The character list purposely excludes easy to confuse characters like “1” or “l.”

Here’s an example of a Plus Code: JJXX+HR8, Seattle as given by Google.

This code can be generated, shared and searched by anyone -- all that’s needed is Google Maps on a smartphone. 

Here is another Indian example.

Please type “3275+72 Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra” and you will get the location of an NGO that I have worked with.

For knowing more on Plus Code please see the video.

Learn about Google Plus Codes.

(C) How to generate your Plus Code?

It is best explained by Google. Kindly click the google web page.

(D) The benefit:

Plus codes are very easy to use and share, a part of open source, work online or off-line and language independent. They do not include easily confused characters, are not case sensitive and they exclude vowels.

(E) Case study one:

Shelter Associates based in Pune are doing great work in this area. They map the slum data using GIS software and Google Earth. You can read a case study of what they have done for a youth living with his mother in Laxmi Nagar, a slum in the Western Indian city of Pune in a cramped one-room home with tin sheet walls and no address.

Please read the “the address of the future” case study.

To know the entire process, please see the youtube video. This project was implemented in Kolhapur, Maharashtra by Shelter Associates.

How to display your Google Plus Code

(F) Case study two:

Please click here to know how addressing the unaddressed was made possible in Kolkata.

(G) Conclusion

I urge you to use “Plus Code'' technology to implement your projects in congested areas. Your projects may cover education, health care, sanitation, emergency services in case of a disaster or natural calamity.
The benefits include transparency, scalability, serving the unaddressed effectively with accuracy.

You may want to speak to Ms Smita Kale of Shelter Associates based in Pune to know more about the work they are doing on +912024440363 or email them on Info@shelter-associates.org

(H) Another technology another benefit

I have written another post explaining another benefit of using Google technology for social sector by NGOs. Please do read it.

English Clubs Reinforce Dominance Over Football Riches

 English Clubs Reinforce Dominance Over Football Riches [Top 10]

Introduction:

The 26th edition of the Deloitte Football Money League was just released. It reveals the top 20 highest revenue generating football clubs for the 2021/22 season. 

Key points:

• Revenue growth in the 2021/22 season was driven by the return of fans to stadia.

• For the first time, Premier League clubs make up more than half of the Money League top 20 (eleven of 20);

• Manchester City retains its spot at the top of the Money League with revenues of €731m, followed by Real Madrid with revenues of €714m;

• Liverpool rises four places to third (€702m), its highest position in the publication’s history.

The top clubs:

For the second year running, Manchester City has topped the Money League (€731m total revenue), followed by Real Madrid (€714m), Liverpool (€702m), Manchester United (€689m) and Paris Saint-Germain (€654m).

My visualisation shows the revenue of the top 10 clubs. 

Top 10 English clubs

For the full report, please click here.

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