Most people vet an NGO by vibe. A nice Instagram page, a friend's recommendation, a founder who speaks well at a dinner. Then they write a cheque and move on.
That's not vetting. That's hoping.
Here's what actually tells you whether an organisation is worth your money.
Start with the paperwork, not the pitch
Every legitimate NGO in India is registered, either as a trust, a society, or a Section 8 company, and has 80G status if it wants to offer you a tax deduction. Ask for the registration number and the 80G certificate. If an organisation gets cagey about either, that's your answer.
Read the financials, not the annual report's highlight reel
Every registered NGO above a certain size files audited financials. Look at what share of the budget goes to the actual program versus salaries, overhead, and "capacity building" that never quite resolves into anything measurable. There's no universal healthy ratio, a small grassroots org and a large implementation partner look different, but a wildly lopsided one is a flag.
Check who's on the board
Not for famous names, for independence. A board stacked entirely with the founder's family and friends has no one in the room asking hard questions. That silence shows up later, usually as a problem no one caught in time.
Ask what changed, not just what happened
Any NGO can tell you "we ran 40 workshops" or "we distributed 10,000 books." That's activity, not impact. The organisations worth backing can tell you what was different for the people they worked with a year later, and they can tell you honestly when something didn't work. An NGO that has never had a program fail is either very young or not looking closely.
Go see it, if you can
A site visit tells you things no report will. Whether the people running it can talk about their work without a script. Whether the community they serve seems to trust them. Whether the place matches the pitch.
None of this is exotic. It's the same diligence you'd expect before putting money into anything else that matters to you. The only difference is that with giving, almost no one does it, and almost no one asks you to.
That's the actual gap in Indian philanthropy. Not a shortage of good causes. A shortage of people checking before they give.