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Q: What is AID?
AID (Association for India's Development) is a non-profit organization that supports a wide variety of social development projects, towards an improved life for the poor and underprivileged, in India.

Q: What areas of social development projects AID has supported?
AID has supported projects in the areas such as literacy, healthcare, micro-credit, livelihood development, women's empowerment, watershed management and alternative energy technologies.

Q: Does AID have chapters in US?
Yes, AID has more than 20 chapters in the US, 3 in India and one each in Germany, Australia and UK.

Q: Does AID pay its volunteers in US?
No. However, we do have three full-time fellows, who have returned to India and work for subsistence stipends. AID has initiated the "Saathi" program to provide support to individuals working on important developmental issues. (The Hindi word "Saathi" translates to friend, companion or partner). We believe that this is a crucial step for reaching out to those individuals who have extraordinary commitment to causes that are important for India's development but whose work is not limited to a specific time-bound project.

Q: How much money was raised during the last year?
About $500,000.

Q: Does AID lend its support to peoples' movements in India?
Yes. AID is actively involved in a plan adopted by many organizations in India under the umbrella of the All-India People's Science Network ( AIPSN).

Q: How do I contact AID?
For contact information, please visit http://www.aidindia.org/hq/misc/contact_us.htm

Q: What are the activities of AID?
The main efforts include project proposal reviews, fundraising, awareness generation and community service. AID also organizes talks by leading personalities in social development from India and US.

Q: How can I get an update of activities of AID?
You can get information about AID's newsletters and other publications at http://www.aidindia.org/hq/publications/index.htm

Q: I want to help out, but don't know how/where to start...
The first step to volunteering is to contact the nearest AID chapter and get onto the chapter mailing list for volunteers. Attend the regular chapter meetings, called Community Service Hours (CSH) and you will be on your way. Volunteers choose to participate in different activities like fundraising, publicity or project reviews depending on their skills, interests and availability of time. For a clickable map of AID chapters in USA, please visit http://www.aidindia.org/hq/chapters/click_usa.htm

Q: I believe in the cause of AID, but don't have time to actively participate...
You can contribute monetarily. Also you can help in spreading the message of AID amongst your friends, family members or colleagues. During trips to India, you can also visit one of our projects and give us feedback.

Q: What is One For AID?
It's just a simple tool to help you decide how much to give! ONE could mean different things to different people. It could mean that you will give ONE dollar a week, or ONE dollar a day, or ONE day's worth of work or even ONE percent of your salary for AID as we work towards making every ONE count in India. It could also mean you pledge to volunteer one hour of your time every week or one hour every day for AID.

Q: What does the OneForAID campaign logo mean?
The One For AID campaign uses a twin logo. On the left is a candle held by two hands that depicts the triumph of light over darkness, the presence of hope and the spirit of solidarity that is at the core of AID. On the right is a symbol designed in four colors and diverse polygonal forms that come together into a meaningful whole representing "1 For AID".

Q: Why is it conducted at this time?
Year end is the time for holidays, time for giving and sharing. For many donors, its time for planning their taxes for the financial year and also their tax-deductible donations. For us, we get an idea of how much we have at the beginning of the new year and this helps us in planning how much more we need to raise through our other fundraisers like say concerts. We plan to run this fundraiser till the end of January 2002.

Q: What is the target amount being raised by this campaign?
We intend to raise $50,000 through this campaign.

Q: What if AID collects more than the targeted amount?
Given the sheer magnitude of the problem of poverty in India, any amount AID collects is insufficient. We have funded several projects in India and have excellent contacts with NGOs there. All proceeds from the oneforaid fundraiser will count towards our 2002 budget.

Q: Is the credit card donation secure?
Your credit card donations will be processed by helping.org. All transactions through helping.org are secure.

Q: Will I get a receipt for my donation? If so when?
The web site generates a receipt the moment the donation is made. This is your receipt. We also consolidate all your donations made in a year and send you a receipt by U.S. mail in January/February of the following year, in time for filing your tax returns.

Q: Will the credit card company eat up part of my donation as a transaction fee?
No, helping.org has been setup for non-profit organizations like ours to accept credit card donations without the transaction fee.

Q: Are my donations tax deductible?
AID is a 501(c)(3) organization and donations made to AID are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. If you donate online on or before Dec. 31, 2001, your donation will be counted towards 2001 donations. If you donate by filling out the form and mailing it, it needs to be postmarked on or before Dec. 31, 2001. Even if you are unable to donate by Dec. 31, 2001, your donations will still be tax-deductible but will count towards your donations for the 2002 tax year.

Q: What is meant by tax deductible donation?
It basically means that if you itemize your deductions, you can include the donations in your total for itemized deductions in your federal tax returns and hence exclude it from your taxable income. For e.g., if you are paying 33% federal taxes, effectively a $100 donation will cost you only $67, if you itemize your deductions.

Q: This is just a one time monetary donation. How else can I help?
There are other ways of contributing to our cause. You can donate your time (by volunteering) or equipment. Rather than donating once, you could also choose to donate a fixed amount on a periodic basis(you can choose both the period and the amount). You can also contribute with your professional skills. Follow this link for more details.

Q: My company matches donations made to non-profits. How do I go about getting the match?
Fill the matching form and send it along with the donation. For online donations, mail the matching form along with the copy of the helping.org receipt to:
AID
P.O. Box 4801
Mountain View, CA 94040-0801
We'll take it from there. If your company processes matching donations through Easymatch, you can find the matching donation form here.

Q: My question is still not answered, who do I contact?
Please email webmaster@oneforaid.org.

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