No! We accept applications from anyone internationally. However, there are some countries where it is in my experience approximately impossible to send money to (in particular Russia and India), so it’s pretty likely we can’t make a grant to you if you are located in one of those places.
I am based in India and want to understand whether this is a hard blocker or whether there is a structure that works.
FCRA governs foreign contributions, which is what makes charitable grants to India so painful. But Explanation 3 to Section 2(1)(h) of FCRA 2010 excludes amounts received from a foreign source in lieu of services rendered in the ordinary course of a person’s business. MHA’s own FCRA FAQ says: earnings from foreign clients for services rendered aren’t foreign contribution, because they are commercial transactions.
If an Indian applicant does paid research or evaluation for international clients and already receives payments from abroad for it, the ordinary- course condition is satisfied.
So, can funding reach an Indian applicant as a research contract through the LLC entity rather than as a charitable grant? That arrives as an ordinary export of services through normal banking channels and does not touch FCRA at all.
Have you tried that structure and had problems, or is the difficulty you have run into specifically charitable grants?
Yeah, it’s already quite difficult to work as an independent researcher from India, any structural help here would go a long way. Thanks for looking into it.