FCRA + SBI New Delhi Main Branch: the actual step by step, because I have now watched four orgs get this wrong

Grants & Institutional Funding
1

Posting this because the same question comes up monthly and the answers are always half right.

  1. Every FCRA-registered org must receive ALL foreign contributions into an ‘FCRA Account’ at State Bank of India, New Delhi Main Branch (Sansad Marg). Not your local SBI. Not your existing bank. This is not optional and no local branch manager can override it.

  2. You may keep a ‘FCRA Utilisation Account’ at your own bank for spending, and transfer from the designated account to it. People confuse these two constantly.

  3. Opening the designated account remotely is possible, but expect it to take weeks and expect to be asked for documents nobody warned you about. Start before you need it, not when a foreign funder is waiting.

  4. Update the account details in your FCRA registration on the portal after opening. An org I know received a grant into an account they had never declared and spent a year unwinding it.

  5. Renewal is a five year cycle and the application window matters. Do not let it lapse, revival is far harder than renewal.

If anything above has changed recently, correct me and I will edit the post.

2

Point 3 cannot be overstated. We had a funder ready to disburse and lost the quarter waiting on the account. Now I tell every org to open it before they have any foreign money in sight.

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3

Bookmarked. Genuinely the clearest version of this I have read anywhere including the official material.

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4

honest question, is FCRA even worth it now for a small org, or has it become more trouble than the money

5

for most small orgs, no. I say that as smone who kept ours. If you do not already have a foreign funder committed, I would not start the process today. build domestic first.

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6

This is accurate as far as I know and I would add one thing: keep a written record of every clarification you receive from the bank or the ministry, with dates and names. When staff change at their end, and they do, your file is the only continuity that exists.

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