Everyone's Called To The Buffet

At True Gifts—part of the Bhoomika Trust formed after the Gujarat earthquake in 2001—the gift money is given to an NGO of your choice and you get a voucher that can be presented as a gift. Bhoomika Trust follows up with that NGO to ensure proper use of your money and updates you about it three weeks later. "Bhoomika’s strength lies in linking NGOs, businesses, community-based groups and government," informs programme manager Latha Subramaniam.

Murali’s gift helped meet a month’s expenses of a resident of Adaikalam, a home for mentally ill women, and provide cots and spectacles to the inmates of a residential centre for the aged destitute. "This is your best-ever birthday gift to me," remarked his father. True Gifts charges a nominal processing fee of Rs 50 for gifts of less than Rs 1,000 and Rs 100 for gifts of more than Rs 1,000. Bhoomika and its affiliates are run with the help of donations from the corporate sector.