Financial Management & Reporting Policy
This policy was approved by the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission’s Board of Directors on 24th April 2023 and is due for review in March 2025.
The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission is a registered charity operating under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in District Champawat, Uttarakhand, India.
As a registered charity, the GSAM must comply with charity law. This includes ensuring that its assets are safeguarded and properly used to meet its charitable objectives. Our resources must not be abused, misspent, misappropriated or defrauded, and cannot be used for private interests.
We receive foreign donations through our account registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and domestic donations through our designated domestic donations account. We must safeguard these funds and ensure that we use them in compliance with any conditions or agreements either written or implied by the donor or us. In all cases we comply with the conditions applied to the funding.
The GSAM also generates funds through various projects such as the Maxton Strong School, our farm and our workshop. We are free to use the surplus from this income for any of our charitable activities, including those partially funded by grants/donations.
Each year we publish an Audited Report and Annual Report on our website in addition to a weekly newsletter and intermittent blog posts on our website. In adherence to instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act quarterly FCRA donation details are also listed on our website.
The GSAM is committed to:
- operating effective internal controls that safeguard, channel and record resources as intended, and support the achievement of its charitable objectives
- using its resources efficiently, economically and effectively
- ensuring propriety* and regularity** in its use of funding
- giving timely, transparent and fair accounts of its use of resources.
*Propriety: meeting high standards of public conduct, including robust governance and the relevant parliamentary expectations, especially transparency.
**Regularity: compliance with relevant Government legislation (including but not limited to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, Income Tax Act, Societies Registration Act, Companies Act).
We will provide adequate and appropriate resources to implement this policy and will ensure it is communicated and understood.
The GSAM will review this policy statement annually during its Annual General Body Meeting to reflect new legal and regulatory developments and ensure good practice.