GAL Spark
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·02 Full Accountability

Where your money goes.

Every rupee is tracked, audited, and reported. No mysteries, no fine print. On every ₹100 you donate, ₹90 reaches the cause directly.

This page explains exactly how — line by line, with the regulatory framework behind every claim.

—

Disbursed to beneficiaries

—

Donations received

—

Of campaigns met their goal

0

Verified misuse incidents to date

< 12 hrs

Target tranche disbursal time

100%

Of donations receive an 80G receipt

On every ₹100, here is what reaches the cause

Hover or tap on each segment to see the percentage.

90%
5%
3%
2%
90%Directly to the Cause
5%Platform Operations
3%Trust Partner Fee
2%Agent Commission

Line by line

Platform Operations

5%

Engineering, design, infrastructure, customer support, document review, fraud-screening team, content moderation, and the basic hosting bill that keeps the site running 24×7.

Trust Partner Fee

3%

A fixed handling fee paid to the partner trust for managing the campaign — donor communication, document collection, milestone reporting, on-ground verification.

Agent Commission

2%

Sales agents — typically grass-roots organisers — earn a referral commission for the campaigns and donors they bring on. Encourages distributed onboarding.

Payment Gateway

~2%

Razorpay's gateway fee on every transaction. We absorb this into the 5% platform line — your "₹100 to the cause" calculation already accounts for it.

GST on platform fee

0.9%

GST at 18% applies to our 5% platform fee. This is paid to the government, not retained by GAL Spark.

Step 1 of trust

How we verify every campaign

Five sequential gates between a campaign submission and going live. No campaign skips a step. No exceptions.

  1. 01

    Trust KYC

    Every NGO submits PAN, registration certificate, 80G/12A certificates, audited financials for the last 2 years, and bank-account proof. Our team reviews and either approves, requests revisions, or rejects.

  2. 02

    Campaign review

    Each campaign is reviewed against a 12-point checklist: beneficiary identification, document authenticity, fund-utilisation plan, image moderation, story plausibility, hospital/school verification (where relevant), and goal-amount reasonableness.

  3. 03

    Beneficiary verification

    For campaigns above ₹50,000 we cross-verify the beneficiary directly — phone call to the family, hospital admission letter, or photo evidence with consent. Larger campaigns get a site visit by a partner verifier.

  4. 04

    Fraud screening

    Automated checks: same beneficiary across campaigns, unusual donation velocity, blacklisted IPs, document hash duplicates. Suspicious campaigns are held pending manual investigation.

  5. 05

    Live with public proof

    Once approved, the campaign goes live with the verified-by-GAL-Spark badge. The public page shows the trust's registration number, 80G validity, and verifier name.

Step 2 of trust

How funds reach the beneficiary

We never give the trust a lump sum upfront. Funds are released in tranches against verified milestones. This is the central reason fraud on our platform is effectively zero.

  1. 01

    Funds held in escrow

    When a donor pays, the money goes into a Razorpay-managed escrow account — not the trust's account. Funds remain there until milestones are met.

  2. 02

    Milestone unlocks first tranche

    Most campaigns are split into 2–4 milestones (e.g. surgery scheduled → ₹X, surgery completed → ₹Y, follow-up done → ₹Z). The trust submits proof to unlock each tranche.

  3. 03

    Proof verification

    For each tranche the trust uploads receipts, hospital bills, or photo evidence. Our team verifies before releasing the next disbursement.

  4. 04

    Direct bank transfer

    Approved tranches are paid directly to the beneficiary or trust's verified bank account via NEFT/RTGS. Settlement typically takes 1–3 business days.

  5. 05

    Donor notification

    Every donor who contributed to a campaign receives an email when a tranche is disbursed, with a link to the proof documents.

Regulatory

Every regulation we comply with — and how

Crowdfunding in India is regulated by overlapping frameworks. Here is each one and how we stay aligned.

80G

Income Tax — Section 80G

Every partner trust holds a valid 80G certificate. Donors receive a digital tax-deduction receipt within 30 minutes of every captured donation.

12A

Income Tax — Section 12A

All partner trusts are registered under Section 12A so income from donations is exempt from income tax — a regulatory pre-requisite for 80G eligibility.

FCRA

Foreign Contribution Regulation Act

Foreign-currency donations are routed only to FCRA-registered trusts and reported to the Ministry of Home Affairs every quarter.

GST

Goods & Services Tax

Platform commission is GST-compliant at 18%. Trust partners receive monthly GST invoices for the platform fee component.

TDS

Tax Deducted at Source

TDS is calculated and deducted on payouts above the annual threshold (₹5 lakh per trust). Form 16A is generated quarterly for every trust.

CIN

Companies Act — CIN Verification

CSR donors are matched against the MCA database. Section 135 compliance reports are generated automatically each financial year.

Annual disclosures

Audited reports, available on request

Every financial year, our books are independently audited by a CA firm registered with ICAI. We file annual returns with the Registrar of Companies and the Income Tax Department, and we report quarterly to the Ministry of Home Affairs for FCRA-routed contributions.

Audited financials

FY 24-25, FY 23-24 — request via email.

Section 135 CSR report

Generated annually for every CSR donor.

Trust audit summaries

Linked from every trust profile page.

Request the reports →

Frequently asked

Questions donors actually ask

How is "90% to the cause" actually calculated?+

On a ₹1,000 donation: ₹50 platform fee + ₹30 trust partner fee + ₹20 agent commission = ₹100 in fees. Net to the cause = ₹900 = 90%. The payment-gateway charge (~₹20) and GST on the platform fee (~₹9) are absorbed within the 5% platform line — they do not reduce the amount that reaches the beneficiary.

What if a campaign doesn't reach its goal?+

Two options are available to the campaign creator at the start: (a) "all-or-nothing" — donors are refunded if the goal isn't reached, or (b) "keep what you raise" — funds reach the beneficiary regardless. The choice is shown prominently on every campaign page so donors know what they're committing to.

How do I know my money actually reached the beneficiary?+

Three verification mechanisms: (1) the donor dashboard tracks every disbursement tranche on every campaign you supported, (2) trusts upload receipts and proof for each milestone before the next tranche is released, (3) you receive an email with a link to that proof every time a tranche is disbursed.

What happens if a trust misuses funds?+

Misuse is rare because of the milestone-based escrow design — funds are not released until proof is approved. If misuse is detected, the trust is suspended immediately, remaining funds are frozen, and either redirected to a similar verified cause (with donor consent) or refunded. We work with police and the Income Tax Department for serious cases.

Are donations refundable?+

Yes, within 30 days of donation if the campaign hasn't been disbursed yet. After disbursement, refunds are reviewed case by case. Refunds for failed/duplicate transactions are automatic. The donor self-serve refund portal is in your dashboard.

Where can I see your audited financials?+

GAL Spark's annual audited financial statements are filed with the Registrar of Companies and available on request. Our partner trusts publish their own annual reports — every trust profile page links to its audit reports.

How is donor data protected?+

We are compliant with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Donor PAN, address, and donation history are encrypted at rest. Marketing communications are opt-in. We never share donor data with trusts beyond what's required for the 80G receipt. Full details in our Privacy Policy.

How are administrative costs kept this low?+

Three reasons: (1) we are software-first — most operations are automated, (2) our trust partners do the heavy lift of beneficiary verification and document collection, and (3) we benefit from scale — fixed engineering costs are spread across thousands of monthly campaigns.

Independent oversight, not self-policing.

We are members of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) Crowdfunding Working Group. Our payment partner Razorpay is PCI-DSS Level 1 certified. Our cloud infrastructure is ISO 27001 / SOC 2 Type II certified. Our annual audit is conducted by a firm with no business relationship to GAL Spark beyond the audit engagement itself.

PCI-DSS Level 1 (Razorpay)ISO 27001SOC 2 Type IIDPDP Act 2023FCRA registered partners

Have a question we haven’t answered?

Our trust & safety team responds to every transparency query within 48 hours.

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