CSR and nonprofit glossary

12A and 80G registrations

The two income-tax registrations most Indian NGOs need. Under the Income-tax Act, 1961, registration under section 12A (now through the section 12AB procedure) exempts a charitable organisation’s income from tax, and approval under section 80G lets donors deduct donations. The Income-tax Act, 2025, in force from 1 April 2026, carries both forward under new section numbers, but most people still use the old names.

Both are granted for limited periods, provisional first and then regular, and must be renewed on time.

See also: Income-tax Act, 2025, CSR-1.

Administrative overheads (CSR)

Expenses a company incurs for the general management and administration of its CSR function. Under the CSR Rules they may not exceed 5% of the company’s total CSR expenditure for the year. Costs incurred directly for designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a particular project are not overheads.

Annual action plan (CSR)

The yearly plan a company’s CSR committee recommends to the board: approved projects, how they will be implemented, fund use and timelines, monitoring, and any impact assessment. Required under the CSR Rules.

Beneficiary

A person or community a programme is designed to serve. Better programmes treat them as participants with a say, not as recipients.

Board’s report (CSR disclosure)

The annual report of a company’s board. Companies covered by Section 135 must include an annual report on their CSR activities in it, in the prescribed format.

BRSR

The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report: SEBI’s disclosure format for the largest listed companies, covering environmental, social and governance performance across nine principles. Principle 8 covers inclusive growth and community development. BRSR Core is a smaller set of key indicators that must be independently assured, phased in for the largest companies.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

In India, the legal obligation under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 for companies above set thresholds to spend at least 2% of their average net profits of the preceding three financial years on activities listed in Schedule VII. More broadly, a company’s contribution to society beyond its business.

See also: Section 135, Schedule VII.

CSR committee

A committee of the board required under Section 135, made up of directors and normally including at least one independent director. It frames the CSR policy, recommends the annual action plan and monitors spending. Companies whose CSR obligation does not exceed ₹50 lakh may let the board perform these functions instead.

CSR policy

The board-approved document that sets out a company’s approach to CSR: focus areas, how projects are chosen and implemented, and how they are monitored.

CSR-1

The form an organisation files with the Registrar of Companies to register as an implementing agency for CSR. Since 1 April 2021, Section 8 companies, registered trusts and societies that want to implement CSR projects must be registered this way, and receive a CSR registration number.

CSR-2

The annual report on CSR that companies file with the Registrar of Companies as an addendum to their financial statements.

Due diligence (of an NGO)

The checks a company makes before funding an NGO: registrations, governance, finances, track record, field capacity, policies and references.

See the CSR-readiness checklist.

DPDP Act

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, India’s main data protection law. The DPDP Rules, 2025 were notified in November 2025, with obligations taking effect in stages up to May 2027. NGOs and companies that collect volunteers’ and beneficiaries’ personal data must follow it.

Employee volunteering

Time and skills that employees give to community work, usually organised or supported by their employer. In Volunteer-First CSR, employee volunteers plug into the same delivery system as other volunteers.

ESG

Environmental, social and governance factors that investors, regulators and companies use to judge sustainability and responsibility. Listed companies in India report on them through BRSR.

FCRA

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Indian organisations need registration or prior permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs to receive foreign contributions, and must follow its rules on accounts, use and reporting.

Impact assessment (CSR)

An independent evaluation of a CSR project’s outcomes. Under the CSR Rules, companies with an average CSR obligation of ₹10 crore or more in the three preceding financial years must have impact assessments done for projects with outlays of ₹1 crore or more that were completed at least a year earlier.

Implementing agency

An organisation that carries out CSR projects on a company’s behalf, such as a Section 8 company or a registered trust or society, registered on Form CSR-1.

Income-tax Act, 2025

The law that replaced the Income-tax Act, 1961 from 1 April 2026. It carries forward tax exemption for registered charities and deductions for donors, under new section numbers.

NGO

A non-governmental organisation working for a public purpose. In India most are registered as a trust, a society or a Section 8 company.

NGO Darpan

NITI Aayog’s online portal for voluntary organisations, which gives each a unique ID used when dealing with government ministries and schemes.

NSS

The National Service Scheme: the Government of India’s student volunteering programme in colleges and higher secondary schools.

Ongoing project (CSR)

A multi-year CSR project with a timeline of up to three years, not counting the year it starts, approved as such by the board. Unspent money for an ongoing project goes to an Unspent CSR Account.

Payroll giving

Employees donating a fixed amount from their salary to registered charities through their employer.

Schedule VII

The schedule to the Companies Act, 2013 that lists activities eligible as CSR: hunger, poverty, health and sanitation; education and skills; gender equality and reducing inequalities; environment; heritage and culture; armed forces veterans; sports; contributions to specified government funds; research; rural development; slum area development; and disaster management.

See how each item maps to the SDGs.

Section 135

The section of the Companies Act, 2013 that makes CSR mandatory for companies with a net worth of ₹500 crore or more, a turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or a net profit of ₹5 crore or more in the preceding financial year. They must spend at least 2% of their average net profits of the previous three years. The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 proposed changes to some thresholds.

Section 8 company

A company licensed under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 to promote charitable objects. It must apply its income to those objects and cannot pay dividends to its members.

Skills-based volunteering

Volunteering that uses a person’s professional skills, such as finance, design, technology or teaching, usually adding more value per hour than general volunteering.

Social audit

A review of a programme’s social outcomes, often carried out with the community it serves.

Social enterprise

An organisation that exists to solve a social or environmental problem and reinvests most of its surplus in that purpose. In India it may be a company, a Section 8 company or a hybrid.

Social Stock Exchange

A segment of Indian stock exchanges, set up under SEBI’s framework, where registered nonprofits can raise money, for example through Zero Coupon Zero Principal instruments, while reporting on their social impact.

Society

An association registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or a state version of it, such as the Telangana Societies Registration Act, 2001.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The UN’s 17 goals for 2030, adopted by all member states in 2015.

See the SDGs, goal by goal.

SDG localisation

Turning the SDGs into local plans, budgets and actions that a district, city or community can own and track.

Theory of change

The chain from a programme’s activities to its outcomes and to the long-term change it aims for, with the assumptions in between written down.

Trust (public charitable trust)

An arrangement in which trustees hold property for a charitable purpose, created by a trust deed and, in many states, registered under a public trusts law.

Unspent CSR Account

A special bank account into which a company must transfer, within 30 days of the end of the financial year, unspent CSR money allocated to ongoing projects, to be spent within the next three financial years. Unspent money not tied to ongoing projects must go to a fund listed in Schedule VII within six months of the year’s end.

Utilisation certificate

A document in which an implementing agency certifies how CSR or grant funds were used, often signed by a chartered accountant.

Volunteer-First CSR

A way of delivering CSR in which trained, organised volunteers form the main delivery system of a programme, and the budget pays for what volunteers cannot do. Originated by Raghu Vamsi Kadiri.

See Volunteer-First CSR explained.

VFIM

The Volunteer-First Impact Model: the analytical framework introduced in Raghu Vamsi Kadiri’s 2026 SSRN working paper on volunteer-first CSR and SDG localisation.

VSAM

The Volunteer-SDG Alignment Matrix: a tool proposed in the same paper for designing volunteer-anchored CSR programmes around specific SDG indicators.

Volunteer retention

The share of volunteers who return after their first activity. The best predictor of whether a volunteer programme will last.

Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments

Instruments that nonprofits issue on the Social Stock Exchange. Investors get neither interest nor their principal back, so the money works like a donation, with reporting on how it was used.