Industries · Institutions
NGOs, trusts, associations and institutions
An organisation that runs on trust cannot afford to be careless with the truth — including about itself. Spy Monk helps non-profits and institutions see what is said about their work, answer allegations with documents rather than indignation, stop donation scams in their name, and keep a record trustees and funders can rely on.
Updated By Drive Digital Editorial
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Evidence before indignation · Beneficiaries' privacy protected · Statements approved before release
Direct answer
How should an NGO or institution respond to allegations, misinformation or scams using its name?
Preserve the content first, answer specific factual claims with documents through the publisher's or platform's own channel, agree one approved statement for your supporters, and report donation scams or impersonation at cybercrime.gov.in. Never post beneficiaries' details, never argue in public, and never report lawful criticism. Spy Monk gives trustees and staff one evidence-backed record for all of it.
- News, video, social-post, impersonation and harassment case types with fingerprinted evidence
- Press Council norms: corrections with due prominence; right of reply founded on documents
- Impersonation complaints: platforms must act within 2 hours under the IT Rules 2021
- Roles let trustees read while staff manage; approvals are logged
The landscape
Trust, scrutiny and the cost of a careless reply
Non-profits and institutions are judged on integrity, and integrity is tested in public. A news report questions how a programme was funded. A video alleges that a shelter mistreated the people in its care. A viral post claims a relief appeal is a scam — or, worse, a scam appeal is run in the organisation's name and the organisation hears about it from an angry donor. Former staff, rival organisations, political actors and genuinely concerned citizens all contribute to the conversation, in several languages, and the organisation's regulatory filings and annual reports are public documents that anyone can quote selectively.
The temptation is to respond with the same emotion the allegation carries. That rarely works. Funders and journalists are persuaded by documents: the audited accounts, the programme report, the registration certificate, the photographs with dates. Supporters are reassured by a single, calm statement that says what is true, what is being checked and where to verify. And where a crime is involved — a donation page collecting money under your name, threats against staff — the effective response is a complete report to the police and the platform, not a social-media appeal.
DRS gives an organisation the structure for that discipline: a baseline of what is said about it, a scheduled watch, a case for each allegation or incident with evidence fingerprinted on upload, templates for publisher corrections and platform complaints, and an approval step that ensures trustees or the director have read every public word. The Press Council's norms expect publishers to correct inaccuracies with due prominence and to publish a reply founded on documentary evidence; a well-organised case is how you give them one.
What Spy Monk does for non-profits
Evidence, process and one voice
- Available now
Audit of the organisation and its programmes
The organisation's name, acronym, programme names, founders and senior staff searched across news, search and video sources, with a coverage table showing what was not checked.
- Available now
Monitoring with high-risk alerts
Weekly or daily runs by plan; mentions de-duplicated and classified; an email when something is assessed as high risk, such as an allegation of misuse of funds.
- Available now
Allegation and misinformation cases
News, video and social-post cases that isolate the specific claim, attach the document that answers it, and prepare a correction or right-of-reply request for the publisher's channel.
- Available now
Donation-scam and impersonation cases
Pages and accounts collecting money in your name handled as urgent cases with evidence, the platform's impersonation report and cybercrime.gov.in signposted.
- Available now
Governance-ready record
Trustees as viewers, staff as analysts, the director as approver. Every statement and request approved and logged; trustees and funders' advisers can read the case as viewers. Audit reports export as dated PDFs; a case PDF export is a Phase 2 item.
- Phase 2
Social and video connectors
Reading your own Facebook, Instagram, X or YouTube accounts directly needs the Phase 2 connectors. Add URLs to cases yourself today.
What Spy Monk will not do
Lines we hold for institutions
- It will not help you suppress scrutiny. Questions about funding, governance or outcomes are legitimate, and journalists are entitled to ask them. Answer with documents.
- It cannot remove an article, a post or a page. Publishers, platforms and courts decide. Spy Monk prepares the request and records the decision.
- It will not post beneficiaries' or staff members' personal details, and it will not help you do so in a reply. Beneficiaries' data is personal data under the DPDP Act 2023 and often sensitive; use internal references in cases.
- It will not monitor critics, journalists or activists as individuals. Entities are your organisation, programmes and senior staff.
- It is not a fundraising or communications agency. Nothing in Spy Monk publishes on your behalf.
- It gives no legal advice on defamation, regulatory compliance or incidents; consult a qualified professional.
How it works
An organisation's response, in order
Baseline before the next appeal
Create entities for the organisation, major programmes and senior staff with aliases and acronyms. Run the free audit and keep the dated PDF for the board.
What you seeWhat you see: a Health Index with findings linked to sources and the sources not checked.
Watch at the right cadence
Weekly monitoring normally; daily during an appeal, a campaign or an incident. A communications officer reads the workspace; the director receives high-risk alerts.
What you seeWhat you see: new mentions ranked by risk.
Case the allegation, preserve first
An allegation, a misleading post or a scam page becomes a case. Screenshots and URLs are fingerprinted; the answering documents — accounts, reports, certificates — are attached.
What you seeWhat you see: claims listed one by one, each with its evidence.
Approve one statement and the right requests
The director or a trustee approves the supporter statement, the publisher correction request and any platform report. Each is sent through its own channel and logged with the reference.
What you seeWhat you see: approvals against each action.
Report to the board with coverage
Track outcomes — corrections published, pages removed, police references — to Outcome verified. Share the audit PDF and the trend view with trustees and funders, coverage stated, and give them viewer access to the case itself.
What you seeWhat you see: a governance record, not a folder of screenshots.
Context
Routes and norms an organisation can rely on
- Press Council of India — corrections with due prominence; right of reply founded on documentary evidence published free of cost1
- Norm 9, 41
- NBDSA — complaint to a member broadcaster within 15 days of broadcast, then to the Authority within 15 days of the response2
- 15 days
- IT Rules 2021 rule 3(2)(b) — platforms act on impersonation complaints within two hours (as amended Feb 2026)34
- 2 h
- Donation scams and extortion — report at cybercrime.gov.in or call 19305
- 1930
Sources
- Norms of Journalistic Conduct (2019 edition) (opens in a new tab). Press Council of India · Official text, checked 8 November 2026
- Guide to complaint redressal (opens in a new tab). News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority · Official text, checked 8 November 2026
- Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 — consolidated text as on 10 February 2026 (opens in a new tab). Ministry of Information and Broadcasting · Official text, checked 8 November 2026
- IT Rules amendment of February 2026 — legislative update (opens in a new tab). Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co · Secondary source, checked 7 November 2026
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) and helpline 1930 (opens in a new tab). Press Information Bureau · Official text, checked 7 November 2026
Summarised for orientation; not legal advice. Sector-specific registration and reporting obligations are outside the scope of this page; consult a qualified professional.
What you need to provide
Setting up an institutional workspace
- Names — the registered name, acronym, programme and campaign names, founders and senior staff, with Hindi or regional spellings.
- Your public documents, ready to attach: registration, audited accounts, annual reports, programme reports, photographs with dates.
- Your genuine donation channels — the only URLs and account details supporters should use — so a scam notice can point to them.
- Roles. Communications officer as analyst; director as approver; trustees as viewers; counsel as viewer when a matter escalates.
- A privacy rule for beneficiaries and staff: no names, images or case details in public replies or in Spy Monk cases; internal references only.
- A statement protocol: who drafts, who approves, where it is posted, and a commitment to post once.
Availability
Feature status for institutions, matched to the Phase 1 scope
- Audit and monitoring across news, search and videoAvailable nowSearch and video where the provider is enabled
- News, video, social-post, impersonation, privacy, harassment and blackmail case typesAvailable now
- Correction, right-of-reply and clarification templates (English and Hindi); approval gateAvailable now
- Evidence with SHA-256 fingerprints; audit PDF reports with coverageAvailable now
- Roles for trustees, staff and counsel; audit logAvailable now
- Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube connectorsPhase 2
- Donation-platform and crowdfunding-site connectorsPending feasibilityDepends on each platform's API and terms
- Scheduled board reportsPhase 2
- Dedicated crisis workflowPending feasibilitySRS §10, Phase 3
- Available now
- Available now5 items
- Phase 2
- Phase 22 items
- Pending feasibility
- Pending feasibility2 items
Questions
NGOs and institutions — frequently asked
A news report alleges we misused grant funds. What is the right response?
Open a news case and list the specific statements you can answer with documents — audited accounts, grant utilisation certificates, programme reports. Prepare a correction or right-of-reply request for the publisher's channel, approved by the director or a trustee, and a short supporter statement that says what is true and where to verify it. Publishers decide; the Press Council's norms expect a documented reply to be published. See News and media fact-verification.
A page is collecting donations in our name. How urgent is this?
Very. Open an urgent impersonation case, preserve the page and the payment details, file the platform's impersonation report with your registration documents, and report at cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930 — donors are being defrauded. Then post one approved notice naming your genuine donation channels. The first 48 hours guide sets out the sequence.
Can we respond to a video that shows our shelter unfairly?
Yes, carefully. Isolate the specific claims and the timestamps, gather the evidence that answers them, and prepare a correction request for the channel owner or, if it is a broadcaster, use the NBDSA route. Never post identifiable images or details of the people in your care in reply. If the video is also harassment or extortion, report it. Approve every word first.
Should trustees be in the Spy Monk workspace?
As viewers, yes. They see cases, evidence and approvals without editing. The director or a nominated trustee approves statements; staff manage cases. The audit log shows who approved what, which is exactly what governance reviews ask for.
Can Spy Monk remove a critical post by a former employee?
No. Platforms remove content only under their own policies, and criticism of an employer is generally lawful. If the post contains false statements of fact, document them and consider a measured reply or, where serious, professional advice. If it contains threats or private data, report it under the platform's policies. Spy Monk records whichever route you take.
Our beneficiaries are vulnerable. How do we keep their data out of this?
Use internal references in cases, never names or images; attach programme-level documents rather than individual records; and apply the same rule to public replies. Beneficiaries' data is personal data under the DPDP Act 2023 and your duty of care is wider than the law. The Trust Center explains how Spy Monk treats third-party personal data.
We work in three states and two languages. Does Spy Monk cope?
Keywords and aliases can be added in Devanagari and other scripts; sentiment and risk classification work in English, Hindi and Hinglish, with best-effort handling of other languages. Programme names in each state can be separate entities or keywords, by plan.
Answer with documents. Protect the people you serve. Keep the record.
Run a free audit of your organisation before the next appeal. The coverage table tells you exactly what was checked.
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