Social Stock Exchange / BSE Sammaan: has anyone actually registered and was it worth it?
We went through it. Sober assessment.
What it is: NPOs register on the Social Stock Exchange segment (BSE Sammaan or the NSE equivalent), meet disclosure requirements, and can then raise funds through Zero Coupon Zero Principal instruments. Registration requires you to be a 12A/80G registered entity with a minimum operating history and audited accounts, and you must commit to fairly demanding annual impact disclosure.
What it actually delivered for us: credibility with a certain kind of institutional donor, and very little money so far. The listed issuances to date are few and the ticket sizes modest.
Would I do it again: yes, but only because we already had the audit and reporting discipline. If you would have to build all of that just to register, the cost outweighs the benefit today. Ask me again in three years.
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This matches what I have heard from two other orgs. It is infrastructure being built ahead of demand. Useful to watch, premature to bet on.
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the annual impact disclosure requirement is the part people underestimate. it is a real ongoing cost.
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