Let's Connect For A Cause: Fund raising

Rescue operations underway in Nepal

One of the worst natural catastrophes has be-fallen the hilly country of Nepal. A devastating Earthquake of 9.6 earthquake Richter scale. TV channels, newspapers, Face book, twitter, etc all all filled with imagery and story of the destruction. All our prayers and hearts go out to the injured, killed, trapped individuals and kids. At the same time our phones, emails, and news buzz about various NGOs, Government rehabilitation schemes collecting money for the tragedy hit people of Nepal. "DONATE TO #NEPAL today!" - the messages read. Given the situation we are more than inclined to help out by giving money.

But there are a few who are skeptical to donate. Will my donation be used for the cause? Where will my money go? How will my donation be put to use?... are questions that occupy their minds. If you come to think of it , these people being circumspect cannot be taken as insensitivity or selfishness but their lack of trust that the money they part with will go the desired cause. So what is the cause of this doubt? It is a mix of bitter experiences in the past when people have been duped in the name of fund raising and people being kept in he dark about the impact their contributions created.

I remember meeting a citizens group few years back when I started talking about the pathetic condition of municipal (inner city)schools in Mumbai, despite huge budgets for primary education, etc. and requested them to allow one of the "Volunteer Action Managers" from the NGO to organize a power point presentation to explain the situation and the support expected by their participation. The immediate reaction I got was "We do not want to listen to some lecture or a presentation from these NGOs sitting in their comforts of their air conditioned offices and talking about issues related to child rights, specially when we do not see any activity or impact made at the ground" The fact is that the NGO is one of the most well known in this field for more than 25/30 years now, this came as a surprise that the impression was so negative.

Video Quantifying the improvement in English Skills :44% in 1.5 months

It is extremely important to understand that without a track record of projects successfully implemented and budget correctly visualized, planned and utilized, it is difficult to gain trust of individual donors, corporate companies, and supporters to secure substantial funding for projects. Rather than feeling frustrated, it is a challenging time for NGOs to continue doing their good work selflessly with whatever resources available and also observe and learn from the success stories of other credible NGOs in the field, since finally giving selflessly for the cause committed should be the sole objective of any credible NGO, and a large part of the revenue generated, however small it is, should be utilized for the cause.

Starving Children

Another observation is that, If we see a photograph of a starving or malnourished child or child labor or child abuse, or even statistical data on these issues, etc.evokes sympathy and does make an immediate impact on the donors, whereas NGOs who are involved in advocacy, working with various departments in creating awareness about various important schemes, facilities and amenities, etc. observing the shortcomings and network in getting like minded partners involved and help them in implementing various important projects within the framework, find it extremely difficult to get donors, since there is no direct visibility of the impact made.

So it is essential for good and credible NGOs to not only focus on their vision of making a social impact through their efforts and projects, but also educate and enlighten their donors on how and where their donations are utilized to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged, which offers a feel-good factor to the donors and helps in creating LOYAL DONORS...

We at CACR don't ask our donors to give us money based on sympathy or pity by using the plight of children to evoke emotions but we ask our donors to see the work we do. Projects we undertake and impact we create only then they should give us their hard earned money and precious time. You can see the projects we have done impacted we have created in our video and impact stories

At Donate for Good - our 1st fund raiser we did just that. We made a short Video film and let the audience hear from all stakeholders to see for themselves the improvement we have made in schools - infrastructure, midday meal, e-learning, computer literacy, dance training, health and hygiene etc.

Screenshot the the CACR IMPACT Video shown during the fund raiser

This will tell them precisely how their donations will be utilized. Fundraising for any cause is challenging and takes patience but communication of your objectives and impact are key to connecting with the right people.

~by +Nitin Wadhwani , Founder Director CACR ; Edited by +Richa Singh , CACR Core team member

CACR is a start up non-profit working to improve the education and healthcare in public schools of India

Website- www.ngocacr.com

Face book -https://www.facebook.com/CitizensAssociationForChildRights
Photos are for representation purposes only