How a women's SHG network turned 8 villages of micro-donors into a verified philanthropic engine

Shakti Mahila Samiti federates 280 self-help groups across 8 villages near Indore. The Samiti runs a revolving microcredit fund, a tailoring training centre, and an emergency widow-and-elderly relief programme. Most income comes from small monthly contributions (₹100 to ₹500) from member families, plus a few CSR grants from local manufacturers.

The Samiti had no formal fund-accounting system. Members' contributions, CSR grants, and programme expenses were tracked in three different notebooks. When a manufacturer offered a ₹15 lakh CSR grant in 2024, the proposal required audited financial statements that the Samiti could not produce in time.

The Samiti adopted Donateazy as its primary ledger. Members' contributions are recorded by village coordinators using the field app on their phones. CSR grants are tagged separately and allocated to programme buckets (microcredit, training centre, widow-relief). Receipts are emailed to corporate donors instantly with utilisation tracking visible from their CSR portal login.

The Samiti closed its first audited FY in 8 weeks (down from over a year previously). Two CSR partners signed up after seeing the live utilisation dashboard. Total annual giving grew from ₹38 lakh to ₹1.1 crore in 18 months as the verified profile unlocked corporate giving the Samiti could not previously access.