NGO Fundraising in India

Fundraising's 'India Passage'

2011-12-22T22:17:00.001-08:00

India is home to 18% of the world's 6.7 billion people and its economy has boomed with fast gross domestic product growth and strong domestic consumption. As its people develop the capacity to respond to new fundraising methodologies. Usha Menon, Executive Chairman, Management Centre Asia, investigates how international non-government organisations are fundraising in India. The article that appeared in December-January issue of Fundraising & Philanthropy Australasia Magazine is on the link below

http://www.managementcentreasia.com/data/files/Asia/ushas_india_fr_article_dec_2011.pdf

Non-profits urge SAFRG to take central role in fundraising advocacy

2011-12-05T22:33:00.000-08:00

At the just concluded 22nd South Asian Fund Raising Summit, the leading non-profits of South Asia urged SAFRG to take a central role in advocating for policy reforms related to fundraising.

The non-profit sector is raising funds under lots of disadvantages. The taxation laws in respect of accepting foreign currency donations are not very friendly. Besides, the laws that give greater incentives to donors and hence increase giving are a non-entity. Many other countries in the world have very supportive policies. Why does our government shy?

Recent TRAI- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regulations on tele-calling make it impossible for NGOs to raise money. Prior to Sept 2011 ruling, non-profits were exempt from embargo on calling. Now the commercial telecallers and NGO have been clubbed as one. This is very unfortunate. By one estimate NGOs raised close to INR 1000 million per year from tele-calling. This is a big jolt to the sustainability of the sector. There is no one to listen to NGOs on this. Any effort to meet officials at TRAI fizzles out at the lower bureaucratic levels only.

Direct mailers used to be a successful source of raising money from general public. But right now the quality of postal services available in the region is very poor. Often, 40% of the mailers that NGOs send do not reach the addressees.

What NGO sector lacks is a representative body that advocates for the fundraising rights of the NGOs. The NGOs at the summit urged that SAFRG should play that role in bringing the sector together.

SAFRG has promised to soon call a meeting for all affected NGOs to chart the future course of action. More details on this space soon.

Asia's most awaited Fundraising Summit is here!

2011-09-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

The 22nd edition of South Asian International Fund Raising Summit is happening from Dec.3-4 at India Islamic Center, New Delhi.

With a line of expert fundraisers as speakers the Summit is billed to be quite an attraction for NGOs. Also present would be people from the CSR domain.

The summit organisers have also kept the participation fee at levels affordable to all.

More details on www.safrg.org

Scholarships in Fundraising for Grass Root NGOs

2011-08-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

Very few scholarships are now available

for the very unique

Certificate Course in Fundraising and Communication

conducted by

SAFRG Institute of Fundraising

& Care and Concern Foundation.

Do not miss this opportunity. Call Ph: +91 11 25185110; Mob: (0)9540057641 (Vandana). Or send an email tocourse@safrg.org urgently. Scholarships available to deserving candidates registering within next 7 days only.

Highlights:

You do actual fundraising for leading NGOs in India. Therefore you leave the course with practical fundraising experience.
Course conducted by leading fundraisers who have raised funds for CRY, HelpAge, UNICEF, SOS Children's Villages, Charities Aid Foundation, Plan, Sight Savers and many other NGOs.
Leading CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) practitioners would tell you what they look for in an NGO.
You get the SAFRG certificate that is valued well within the NGO sector.
For people wanting to start a career in fundraising there could be job opportunities
Economical Paying Guest facility for outstation candidates

Course details:

Duration- 20 days, Sept. 5-27, 2011, Mon-Sat, 9 am to 5 pm
Course Fee: INR 27,000 (scholarships available for deserving candidates)
Address of the Campus: J-1, Udyog Nagar, Peeragarhi, New Delhi – 110041, INDIA (near Peeraghari Metro Station, easily accessible by Merto from all parts of Delhi)

"SAFRG is a think-tank on NGO sustainability. In the last 20 years thousands of people have benefited from courses conducted by it".

A fundraising course for aspiring and mid-career fundraisers

2011-07-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

SAFRG Institute for Fundraising and Care and Concern Foundation announce a "Certificate Course in Fundraising & Communications"

The 15 day course besides the class-room sessions would provide on the job training to actually raise funds for leading NGOs. At the end of the course their would be an evaluation, select candidates can get placement opportunities in fundraising.

More details on the links http://www.safrg.org/uploads/SAFRGCCFCFlyerfinal.pdf and http://www.safrg.org/default.asp

Smiling Hospital Foundation Of India

2011-06-17T01:04:00.001-07:00

Is happiness only about buying a new dress, going to an exotic location, splurging on material things? Take a pause …..there’s more to life …..happiness also comes from the smiling faces of these lovely , not so blessed , sick children . Thank God for the little mercies and the opportunity to put a smile on their sad faces . Thanks to Smiling Hospital Foundation of India for the magic show put up at Safdurjung Hospital , Delhi on 11^th June , 2011. ( Smiling Hospital Foundation of India) .

SAFRG is looking for a CEO

2011-06-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

South Asian Fundraising Group- SAFRG, is looking for a dynamic CEO who can lead the fundraising think tank to future growth. The time period for application is rather short, so click on the link below and apply.

http://devnetjobs.tripod.com/safrg-ceo-7june2011.html

RBI circular on MOTO-Mailer Order Telephone Order Donations

2011-03-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

During the SAFRG Regional Workshop for South India in Hyderabad a question was asked from Anup Tiwari on whether credit card donations where donor just signs on the form would be acceptable in the future or not.

Before I answer this let me explain the topic a bit. Usually donors sign on a direct mail coupon or form sent through a field executive providing their credit card details and agreeing to donate. This is known as Mail Order. A person can also provide credit card details on the phone and authorise a donation. This is known as Telephone Order.

All these years Mail Order and Telephone order were a valid way for donation used by all fundraising NGOs in India. However, this is under review by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). According to RBI all transactions that use credit card without actual presentation of credit card, CNP- credit card not present, for example on-line donations, MOTO, punching credit card details on IVR- interactive voice response, need to build additional security systems.

MOTO was not intially part of this, but big stake holders like hotel industry that uses it extensively, expressed that it is also a subset of CNP but should be exempted from the proposed changes as above.

The latest circular from RBI http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Mode=0&Id=6185 mentions that MOTO is not stopped as of now. However, the bank and card companies have to revert by Feb. 28, 2011 on the process how MOTO transactions would be handled in a more secure manner.

I would keep you posted on how this progresses.

SAFRG's South India Fundraising Workshop Hyderabad

2011-02-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

Dear enthusiastic participants at SAFRG's South India Fundraising Workshop,

As promised the presentations are here. Please feel free to download.

Happy Fundraising!

Anup

Brand building with_corporates

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Corporatefoundationgiving 090730075803-phpapp01

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Do Individuals Give In The Developing World1

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Direct mail safrg master class oct. 2010

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High time for Indian Political Parties to learn fundraising from NGOs

2010-12-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

The recently unearthed rot in Indian politics, where a corporate lobbyist was heard on the tapes trying to fix cabinet berths, poses questions on how political parties raise funds. One big reason for politicians to be gullible to corporate pressures, apart from greed, is the amount of money that is needed to contest elections.

The fundraising by political parties has been downright unprofessional and lacks transparency. In fact bollywood flicks like Omkara and Ishqiya has goons proudly calling their extortion work as ‘fundraising’. Is this really fundraising?

If the Indian political parties want to learn they have President Obama as a role model. President Obama's victory in the general election was aided by his tremendous fundraising success. Since the start of 2007, his campaign relied on bigger donors and smaller donors nearly equally, pulling in successive donations mostly over the Internet. After becoming his party's nominee, Obama declined public financing and the spending limits that came with it, making him the first major-party candidate since the system was created to reject taxpayers' money for the general election. The level of success he achieved using techniques of fundraising- mailers, new media, direct response television was unprecedented. The campaign relied a lot on small individual donors, who poured their hearts and wallets out. This technically reduces the dependence on big donors who may later arm twist.

Political parties in countries like UK , USA , Australia are already banking on individual donations . As per figures from Federal Election Commission contributions to federal candidates and political committees by individuals have increased during the past 10 years, and collectively, they are consistently larger during presidential election years. In the 2008 election cycle, the lawyer community alone contributed a massive $234 million to federal political candidates and interests.

Close to home are the Indian NGOs to take leaf from. In India where fundraising itself is at a nascent stage, fundraising from individuals is limited primarily to NGOs. Slowly but steadily the number of NGOs that raise funds professionally has seen an increase. Till few years back you could count them on your fingers. Today the list is much longer and includes not only the international NGOs but also homegrown small and medium sized NGOs. Since they raise money from small individual donors their dependence on larger funding agencies decreases. This in turn makes them freer to run their programmes.

Few universities have also now realized the importance of individual funds and have started approaching their alumni for funds. Recently, the University of Mumbai got its biggest donation of INR 320 million from an old student of Poddar College.

It is high time Indian political parties and political candidates start doing the same. Introduction of professional fundraising would make politicians freer from arm twisting major financers. In fact the answer lies in having a more focused approach towards donations from individuals. After all retail is the key word everywhere, be it a FMCG product, a restaurant chain, a shopping complex or a clothing brand. World over individuals are the biggest contributors to social fundraising .They are the most bankable in terms of continuity and loyalty even in the most difficult of times. Even the great economic turmoil did not deter individual contributions in the US or other parts of the world.

Is any Indian political party or candidate willing to take this route? Time will only tell.

Click to give a loving home to children in need

2010-11-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Every time you click and beat a drum, Esprit would contribute money to give a loving home to a child in need. See the video below on its association with SOS Children's Villages and how your beating the drum helps.

The new edition of Raisers' Ask focusses on fundraising for emergencies

2010-11-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

The new edition of Raisers' Ask the fundraising on-line magazine for South Asia takes a look at fundraising for emergencies. Emergency fundraising is highly relevant to our sub-continent given the number of man-made and natural disasters we face. And as the case is, NGOs jump in willingly to provide aid. But NGOs need money to do be a good samaritan. How do they get it. This issue talks in depth about it. Click below to read on.

http://www.raisersask.in/digital/RAIssue7.pdf

Analysing your donor database

2010-11-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Ashok Mahapatra from UNICEF gave in a very interesting session during SAFRG's workshop on "Low Cost Donor Acquisiton and Retention" where we were co-speaking. Lots for everybody to learn from. The presentation is as below.

Understanding your donors to keep them for life

View more presentations from Ashok Mahapatra.

Low cost acquisition and retention of donors

2010-11-01T04:32:00.000-07:00

Dear 30 odd participants at SAFRG's Master Class on "Low Cost Acquisition and Retention of Donors". Thank you for your enthusiastic participation. Please find below the presentation as promised.

Cheers and Happy Fundraising!

Direct mail safrg master class oct. 2010

View more presentations from anuptiwari.

SOS India is looking for a National Head of Fundraising

2010-10-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

SOS India requires a senior fundraising professional to head its fundraising operations in India. The job description for the position is as below. Please refer the suitable people in your network to apply for the same.

Job Description

SOS Children’s Villages of India is one of the leading child care organization in India. SOS-India is member of SOS Kinderdorf International. Today, there are over 200,000 children whose lives are being transformed by 40 SOS Children’s Villages and 122 allied projects like Kindergartens, Medical/ Social Centres, Hermann Gmeiner Schools spread across the country. The organization is looking for a result-oriented professional to head the Publicity and Fund Raising Division:

Position:

Deputy National Director- Publicity & Fund Raising

Qualification & Experience:

MBA with specialization in Marketing or post graduation in Marketing from a reputed institute with 10-15 years experience in Fund Raising. Ideally already heading FR function of a leading NGO with local fundraising to the tune of several crore rupees annually and a donor base of several thousand; experience in both individual and institutional fundraising as well as new media and experience in both in-house and outsourced fundraising. Candidates having experience in sales/marketing will also be considered.

The incumbent will be responsible for planning Fund Raising Strategies and their implementation, management of teams and setting of targets both for team and individual employees. She/he will lead the team from the front, inspire them and act as a coach and mentor for the team. Should also be able to execute the following activities:

1) Participate in long and short term strategy development for SOS India

2) Deploy targets, design action plans / products and identify new donor

pools.

3) Periodically monitor target achievement against objectives and budgets, take appropriate corrective actions.

4) Ability to manage branch offices located through out the country.

5) Ability to handle media and PR Functions.

6) Oversee and ensure end to end servicing of the national and international donors and sponsors.

7) Anchor marketing understanding in the organization by creating a positive mindset in the field for the support of FR activities and building brand SOS.

8) Coach and monitor performance of subordinates and coordinate with HR for opportunities for development and growth to ensure increased fund raising from India.

9) Must possess excellent presentation skills.

Language Skills:

Excellent communication skills. Exposure to 1-2 regional languages would be an advantage. High proficiency in English language is required.

Location of posting:

New Delhi

Reporting to:

This is a Senior Management position at the level of Deputy National Director reporting to National Director (CEO).

Travel:

As per requirements

Remuneration:

As per norms of the organization.

Candidates meeting the above requirements may send in their CVs to recruitment@soscvindia.org, along with a covering letter mentioning their suitability for the position.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further process.

For more details about the organization, please visit our Website:

www.soscvindia.org

Learn how to acquire and retain donors at low cost

2010-10-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Indian companies, family foundations and individuals are waking up to social giving. Have you?

2010-09-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

With the globalization of Indian economy businesses have been growing at a rapid pace. India Inc. is fast finding its place under the sun. As these changes sweep in, also creeping in is the concept of planned and strategic social giving. This is also very commonly mentioned as Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR for short. Although CSR encompasses a wider phenomenon of being responsible in all that the company does, but social giving continues to be the most visible face of CSR.

The rise of CSR & big individual philanthropists

The last decade has seen a rise in CSR activities. We now have this set of new corporate leaders who believe in the mantra that power of money lies in giving away. Corporate like Infosys and Wipro, have shown tremendous interest in investing their wealth for social development. They have demonstrated how several strategic approaches used by professional organizations can be applied for formulating policies and programmes for inclusive growth. They want to give it back to the society from which they have grown.
Four Indian corporate leaders featured in Forbes’ list of Asia Pacific’s most generous business personalities this year are women, including biotech major Biocon’s CEO Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Anu Aga of Thermax.
The two others making it to the business magazine’s ‘48 Heroes of Philanthropy’ list are Kiran Nadar, collector of contemporary Indian arts and wife of HCL Technologies co-founder Shiv Nadar, and Rohini Nilekani — wife of IT major Infosys’ co-founder Nandan Nilekani. Ms. Nilekani, who supports many NGO activities, has featured in the list for the second consecutive year.

India- an emerging economy and an emerging donor

India this year also became the first BRIC country to be ranked a major donor by Save the Children, reflecting widening philanthropy in the world’s fastest growing economy after China. It is now on par with donors like Italy, Germany, Romania, and South Korea.
It has moved from an economy where people concentrated on donating to local religious bodies, community centers, schools etc.

In many ways, India leads the way in emerging-nation philanthropy. Its pool of millionaires (technically, those with investable assets over $1 million) has grown an average 11 percent a year since 2000, one of the fastest such rates in the world, says a recent report from Bain & Co., a global consulting firm. Despite the global recession, as per Forbes March report the number of billionaires grew from 27 in 2009 to 52 this year. India's charitable giving rose to 0.6 percent of gross domestic product by 2006, topping Brazil's 0.3 percent and China's 0.1 percent, according to Bain.

India still lags behind the United States (2.2 percent) and the United Kingdom (1.3 percent). Part of the difference is the legal incentives offered to donors in the US. A hefty inheritance tax – up to 46 percent on estates over $2 million – encourages individuals to form foundations and give more to the society.

This change in the mindset can be attributed to number of factors but majorly to the gap between rich and poor which is making life untenable or, at least disagreeable, for rich and poor alike.

Unlike West where people don’t leave much behind for children and family, In India people still believe in leaving behind their legacies to generations to come. But now we have a breed with changing mindset. We have our own Warren Buffets who want to give their children enough to attain their dreams but not so much that they do not do anything.

The evolution from charity to philanthropy

People have come up a long way moving from charity to philanthropy. Families and individuals are moving from a more traditional model, from large-scale gifts to schools, colleges and hospitals, to a more hands-on model of giving. Difference between charity & philanthropy is that while the roots of charity are often religious or moral in nature, philanthropy is based on broader humanitarian principles. (Philanthropy derives from the Greek term Philanthropos, which means the "love of humanity" (Philos-love and Anthropos-humanity or mankind). Philanthropy broadly encompasses any altruistic activity intended to serve others, or the act of donating money, goods and services to support a socially beneficial or humanitarian cause, with no financial or material reward to the donor. Whereas, charity focuses on solving a current problem, or responding to an immediate need of an individual or a group. Philanthropy aims to effect change through giving. It encompasses any attempt to deal with the problems of society as a whole, by preventing the conditions that created those problems and addressing the root causes of individual or collective needs. Philanthropy often relates to expression of one's values ¬ be they religious, cultural or personal

The silhouette of CSR in India

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the most prevalent form of philanthropy worldwide, though the levels of activity and organizational involvement vary widely. Most large organizations have a social responsibility arm, with budgeted resources and dedicated staff, which works towards improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as for the local community at large. Most philanthropic initiatives are undertaken in the business neighborhood, mainly because of the immediate impact on local stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility has much broader implications for the nation as a whole. It reduces dependency on the government for social change. Most governmental programmes quickly become embroiled in political manipulation, corruption, communal overtones, and bitter infighting. There is a need for public-private partnership with well-defined controls and processes for the best use of resources for social change. Social reforms driven by the community will bring people together, turn the attention of the masses to tasks that benefit society, and reinforce peace and harmony.
CSR is not a new concept in India. Corporate like the Aditya Birla Group, the Tata Group, and Indian Oil Corporation, to name a few, have been involved in serving the community ever since their inception. Many other organizations have been doing their part for the society through donations and charity events.

Today, CSR in India has gone beyond merely charity and donations, and is approached in a more organized fashion. It has become an integral part of the corporate strategy. Companies have CSR teams that devise specific policies, strategies and goals for their CSR programs and set aside budgets to support them.

These programs, in many cases, are based on a clearly defined social philosophy or are closely aligned with the companies’ business expertise. Employees become the backbone of these initiatives and volunteer their time and contribute their skills, to implement them. CSR Programs could range from overall development of a community to supporting specific causes like education, environment, healthcare etc.

For example, organizations like Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, and Hindustan Unilever Limited, adopt villages where they focus on holistic development. ITC the Indian tobacco giant runs a large livelihood promotion programme for rural populace, which is part of their business model and hence sustainable. They provide better medical and sanitation facilities, build schools and houses, and help the villagers become self-reliant by teaching them vocational and business skills.

Many CSR initiatives are executed by corporates in partnership with Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who are well versed in working with the local communities and are experts in tackling specific social problems.

CSR has come a long way in India. From responsive activities to sustainable initiatives, corporates have clearly exhibited their ability to make a significant difference in the society and improve the overall quality of life. In the current social situation in India, it is difficult for one single entity to bring about change, as the scale is enormous. Corporates have the expertise, strategic thinking, manpower and money to facilitate extensive social change. Effective partnerships between corporates, NGOs and the government will place India’s social development on a faster track.

For example, SAP India in partnership with Hope Foundation, an NGO that works for the betterment of the poor and the needy throughout India, has been working on short and long-term rebuilding initiatives for the tsunami victims. Together, they also started The SAP Labs Center of HOPE in Bangalore, a home for street children, where they provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education.

The sad part or the good part is that India still lacks the structured approach to charity and has a long way to go. Prospective donors are still not aware on how & who to give. There is still a feeling of mistrust where the individuals or corporates are not sure of whether their money is being utilized properly. Though the Indian charities like their counterparts in west and other nations now have more transparent balance sheets to show. The charities share their activities with their donors on a regular basis.

This could be one of the reasons why still a number of foundations have been set up by leading Indian firms like Infosys, Wipro, Tatas, TVS, and Dr. Reddy's Laboratory.They have been working on improving healthcare, education, and living conditions, and reduce poverty. These foundations support numerous government primary schools and have developed processes and methodologies for effective change. They support hundreds of non-governmental organizations and have built orphanages, hospitals, and schools.

What does this mean for fundraisers in India?

If you have a strong cause, the vision and the right tools for asking for help. You will certainly get it as new India is getting more receptive to social giving.We too have our Anand Krishnan’s , Warren Buffet’s , Andrew Forrest’s and Peter Gautschis who believe in giving ( they all hold a spot on Forbes Asia's third-annual list of Heroes of Philanthropy). Many of these not even make the list and keep a low profile. The bit is to find and motivate them enough to join the league of big time social giving.

(This compilation is for the benefit of Indian NGO fundraisers and gratefully thanks the people who inspired this by sharing their views, opinions and data freely over the Internet)

Can a professional agency help you capture individual giving?

2010-08-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

Professional agencies have expertise which can be used by voluntary organisations. Yes, they do charge a fee, but your work is done by a professional and you end up spending less time which is again money! says ANUP TIWARI (this article also appeared in the 5th issue of Raisers' Ask)

Before we start on the question of how to secure individual donors for your organisation, you need to ask yourselves a basic question, ‘Do individuals give enough donations?’ If you think you are beyond asking yourself this question and have successfully raised money from individuals, then please skip the next paragraph. If you are not in the former category, do read the next paragraph very carefully.

Individuals give most!
In the United States, the most advanced fundraising market, more than 80 per cent of the contributions are made by individual donors. The story is much the same in the United Kingdom, another fairly advanced market, where 75 per cent of the total resources are again contributed by individuals. Australia also raises 78 per cent from individuals. Closer home, the big fundraising organisations in India like CRY, Give India and HelpAge raise up to 90 per cent of their resources from individuals. In other words individuals may appear to give small, but as a collective the pot becomes huge.

Since you have reached this paragraph, you surely know that individuals are the prime target for donations, irrespective of whether you learnt the fact here or knew it before hand. Just in case your next thoughts are about how one gets individual donors, then fortunately you are at the right place. This is what I am going to talk about now.

Talk to individuals on streets… Can you?
The individuals around you are plenty, especially if you live in India. If you are based in a big city, then a big chunk around you are donation-suspects i.e. they can make donations. But you could not possibly stop them on the streets or go from one household to other asking for donations. The very thought sounds crazy. But isn’t this the way temples in your neighborhood raise money? Well, if they can, why not the voluntary organisations? In fact GreenPeace raise most of their resources in India and other countries by stopping people and asking them to contribute in the streets. For more than eight years CRY has been sending its people to offices and homes to solicit donations. Oxfam, HelpAge, Action Aid and UNICEF have also joined the party recently. This method is called face-to-face fundraising.

And writing letters to individuals
Let me ask you something. How did you send written messages to your friends before the advent of email and SMS? It was through those seemingly pre-historic hand-written letters. If that worked for sending messages, it should work for raising money if done selectively and carefully. I am talking about direct mail appeals. There are a few dos and don’ts and learning process to direct mail that one discovers as one ventures into it.

Tele-facing donors
Do you wonder when you get those pesky telephone calls trying to sell you things from credit card to holidays, that if at all this kind of approach works at all? Well if it did not, no body would have been doing it in first place. That leads us to the point that if it works for credit cards then it should work for soliciting donations. And it does. There are so many organisations that use telephone as a tool for fundraising. In India sending a field executive to complete the donation transaction (and increase the chances of donation) is called tele-facing. Major organistions that use tele-facing include CRY, UNICEF, Plan and Oxfam.

Digital fundraising
A newer tool of fundraising is not surprisingly called New Media. This involves the Internet, email, SMS, on-line advertising, managing search on engines like Google etc. Often, it is also coupled with traditional advertising on television and print. This combination is christened the digital medium of fundraising.

What ever tools you have read about in the paragraphs above are collectively referred to as direct marketing.

Do we need professional help?
Direct marketing involves lot of work. It sure is, fundraising from individuals although the most sustainable source of income needs hard work and some seed capital. Do not get alarmed at the mention of seed capital. Think back and ask yourself if the last new project started by your organisation needed any seed capital? Fundraising is no different.

Will I need an army of people to start raising money from individuals? That depends on the strategy you adopt. If you want to use the entire width of direct marketing tools, then surely you need people.

But do not despair as there are now options in the form of outsourcing. Yes, you read it right, today there are specialist agencies in India who could help you in raising funds and that too very successfully.

A question that you may ask yourself here is if your organisation really needs to outsource. In the Indian scenario if you are a voluntary organisation with limited budget, low on direct marketing expertise and no or small team, then outsourcing surely makes sense for you. The outsourcing here does not mean that you hire an agency and then forget about everything. On the contrary, it is about a close relationship with the agency working for you. An organisation needs to monitor and support this relationship very closely!

So what are the services you would need from these agencies? Well there are categories to it. On the broadest level are agencies that will help you with your individual fundraising strategy. This is important as you may not be able to do everything. Most of the agencies of this type also help yout to outsource some parts of fundraising. On the next level are the agencies that specialise in a particular tool and raise money for you for a fee. The two prominent tools where such agencies exist are face-to-face fundraising and tele-facing. (Please see the table for name of the agencies).

Besides, there are agencies that provide lists for direct mailing, help you in designing and producing your direct mailer, handling the mailers, posting them and more. There are also the ones that will help you in designing and marketing your on-line fundraising campaigns.

Professional agencies have expertise which can be used by voluntary organisations. Yes, they do charge a fee, but your work is done by a professional and you may end up spending less time which is again money!. The biggest advantage with certain agencies, especially in tele-facing and face-to-face, is that you pay after you get the donations. So you do not pay if there are no donations. Still not interested?

Direct Marketing Fundraising Resources in India

For Strategy, Research, Handholding implementation, capacity building
Murray Culshaw Consulting Pvt Ltd, Concept Source, Resource Alliance, South Asian Fundraising Group, Datamation

List for sending Direct Mail
Mailing Lists Asia (India), Datamation, Rushabh Marketing, Yellow Umbrella, Direxions, Ogilvy One
Direct Mail Designing/ On-line designing and marketing
Direxions, Ogilvy One, Mailing List Asia (India)
Tele-facing
Syrex Infoservices, InTouch
Face to Face
Support Direct
On-line payment gateway
TechProcess, Bill Desk, CC Avenues
Mail Handling/Postage
Modern Mailing, IGD Services, India Post, Mailing List Asia (India), Direxions

Raisers' Ask Goes Digital

2010-08-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

The only fundraising magazine in India has gone digital. Now it can be read online, but we would miss the ink and paper form.

Click on the link below to read the latest edition.

http://raisersask.in/digital/raisers_ask_jul2010.pdf

Money in Mail at 21st SAFRW Agra

2010-08-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

Dear small but lovely group, it was fun interacting with you all at 21st South Asian Fund Raising Workshop in Agra. As promised, here is my presentation.

Happy Direct Mailing!

Direct mail 21st safrw

View more presentations from anuptiwari.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

2010-03-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Visit www.fundraisingasia.org for updates

2010-03-05T00:55:00.000-08:00

www.fundraisingasia.org

Philipino Dangkal to raise funds

2009-09-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

During my recent travel through Philippines, came across this simple but powerful way to engage corporate employees in helping the social cause.

The companies ask their employees to bring in their used newspapers, measuring one hand span. This measure in Tagalog (Filipino language) is called Dangkal. The newspapers thus collected are then sold to give money to NGOs. Interesting!

In India too some NGOs use something similar called Raddi drive. The word Raddi means junk in Hindi and comprises old newspapers, magazines, bottles and so on.

To me more than the money, it is a great way of getting the corporate employees into the habit of giving.

Only caveat is that this should be used as a means and not become an end to engaging employees. Surely, dangkal way of attracting attention should be quickly graduated to signing them for pay roll giving or giving on a monthly basis through direct debit.

So start asking for a Dangkal of raddi today!

Monthly Giving Does it Make Sense in South Asia?

2009-08-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

I am writing this aboard the train, returning after my two back to back sessions on Monthly Giving at 20th South Asian Fundraising Workshop, Jaipur.

As expected there was a huge debate on why Monthly-Giving would not work in the developing world. Although my cause was much helped by fundraising guru Tony Elisher in his master class and plenary session, where he emphasized the importance of monthly and committed giving.

At times, I get a similar gasp of surprise from fundraisers in the West, when I share that NGOs in the region raise one time donations through Face to Face fundraising.

In short there appear to be contrasting positions that may take some time to move. I have seen monthly giving working in Japan, South East Asia, so for sure it works in Asia. It is also working in India for organisations like GreenPeace and UNICEF.

The other non-profits seem to be quiet happy with one time donations. The reason being that in India a one time donation is usually acquired at an ROI of 2. This means if you spend a dollar on acquiring a donor you get two dollars back immediately. This is good, but the question to ask is about one time donor retention. I have still to see more than 30-35% retention of donors in the second year in the region. At the same time the monthly donors may take at least 3-4 years to drop down to that level of attrition. Which clearly means a higher long term value.

I am sure in the years to come this would change. I feel so happy to see a big change already in the general attitude towards fundraising from individual, compared to workshops I attended 3-4 years before.

By the by I promised the delegates that I would upload my presentation here. The same is available below for download and free circulation.

Monthly Donors Are You Doing Them

View more presentations from anuptiwari.

Fundraising in Nepal

2009-07-22T03:49:00.000-07:00

I had this great opportunity to be in exotic Nepal, volunteering with Resource Alliance. This gave me the chance to spend 3 productive days with grass root NGOs bouncing ideas on starting fundraising. Good fun!

The particpants were from partner NGOs of VSO (Voluntary Services Organisation). We had an interprator (Mr. Chakra) in the workshop who translated every word I said. Quiet exciting, although the poor fellow had a hard time translating even the bad jokes I cracked.

We fiercely debated on if individuals could really give at all or could give in Nepal. I had my surprises when the particpants told me that cheques and credit cards were almost not existent. This left cash collection as the only payment option. Challening! But then the group could find some possibilities that may work in Nepal like Face to Face in malls and Tele-facing (mix of telephone and face to face). Below are some of the presentations that shaped our discussions (please copy them on the browser as the clicking links are not available some how):

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/do-individuals-give-in-the-developing-world1-1765561

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/individual-fundraising-ra-vso

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/partnering-with-corporations-vso-nepal

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/events-1765695

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/fundraising-strategy-1765696

A great break from all the fundraising exchange was this video of a dance perfomed by women from a local NGO. The ladies danced with perfection to a folk number and lilting music. The dexterity defied any hint of disability they had. I wanted to put the video here but the file seems to be too heavy (700 MB ??). Too bad!

Entire contact on www.fundraisingindia.org

2009-06-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

240 fundraisers from around 3 dozen countries under one roof!

2009-06-26T19:20:00.001-07:00

It is exciting to see such a big surge of fundraisers in India. And these are not only from India but from around 3 dozen countries around the globe. The gathering has been made possible because of the 9th International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation being held at Infosys Campus in Bangalore from June 25-28, 2009.

It is such a pleasure to share with the really deserving grass root NGOs, who seem to be wanting more and more.

I will like to thank the 60 odd people who attended my session on "Fundraising face-to-face, on the phone and through Tele-facing...on a small budget".

For the others who could not make it to the session or the workshop the presentation is right below.

Iwrmsmallbudget revised

View more documents from anuptiwari.

240 fundraisers from around 3 dozen countries under one roof!

2009-06-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

Iwrmsmallbudget revised

View more documents from anuptiwari.

3 simple ways to renew donors

2009-06-22T23:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Fundraiser Friends,

Many of us will meet at the Resource Alliance's big fundraising platfrom 9th IWRM at Bangalore (from June 25-28th, 2009). Believe me it will be a great fun.

I am here in uploading a presentation that may interest you all. It is based on my experience with few of the leading fundraising organisations in India. Click through the slides and comment if you agree or otherwise.

3 steps to renew donors -

3 simple ways to renew donors

2009-06-22T23:47:00.000-07:00

Events that Fundraise Year after Year

2009-06-19T11:23:00.001-07:00

One event that has proved to be a real cash cow for the cause of children is CRY Cadence Corporate Citizenship Challenge.

Started 10 years back, the event was born out of a failed fundraising event. Around 11 years back Cadence had supported a quiz for school students being organised by volunteers of CRY. Although, the event called FACT School Quiz, witnessed sleek quiz mastery by Roshan Abbas, not much money came out of it.

With all credit due to the Cadence team, instead of being miffed about the failed event, they popped up the idea of a Corporate Cricket Challenge to raise funds.

The idea appeared queer, but worth testing. The journey to the launch event was not easy as the dozen teams that played in year one were hard to come by.

But soon things fell in place and rest as it is said is history.Although, I was associated from year one to four, but always kept tab on the event as it attained great heights.

Click on the link below to know more. An interesting concept to adopt and an interesting lesson too. Do not despair if your fundraising event fails, there may be success lurking in the corner.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=100110771313&ref=nf

Events that Fundraise Year after Year

2009-06-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Two Training Programmes to Attend in Forthcoming Week

2009-06-09T10:29:00.001-07:00

There are two programmes that can make immense sense to NGOs who desire to market their organisations and fundraise on their own.

The first one is being organised by the prestigious Management Development Institute (MDI) in Gurgaon. The course titled "Strategic Marketing for Social Sector" has a special discounted pricing for few deserving NGOs. So better click below and enroll.

http://www.indianngos.com/indian%20NGos-%20Strategic%20Marketing%20For%20Social%20Sector.pdf

The second one titled Major Gift Fundraising is being organised by SAFRG and is on acquiring high value donors, an area that needs serious development in Indian fundraising arena. The details on the programme are as below. Clcik on the image to enlarge and enrol.

Two Training Programmes to Attend in Forthcoming Week

2009-06-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Minor Things About Major Gifts You Always Wanted to Know

2009-06-04T08:32:00.001-07:00

Minor Things About Major Gifts You Always Wanted to Know

2009-06-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

Presentations SAFRG Masterclass May 2009

2009-06-01T09:55:00.001-07:00

Dear all,

Thanks for attending the masterclass. Please find below 3 of the 4 presentations made on the day.

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/fund-raising-friend-raising-clement

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/face-to-face-fundraising

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/naresh-kakkar-pres

The fourth presentation from George Hla would be uploaded soon.

Meanwhile happy acquiring and renewing donors.

Cheers

Anup

Presentations SAFRG Masterclass May 2009

2009-06-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Low Budget Donor Acquisition & Getting Most from Your Donors

2009-05-22T04:41:00.002-07:00

A must workshop to attend that mixes the International and India experience suitably.

For more information on Sessions and Speakers click below

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/donor-management-agenda-and-speakers

Low Budget Donor Acquisition & Getting Most from Your Donors

2009-05-22T04:41:00.001-07:00

Double Bonanza for Fundraisers in India

2009-05-12T02:01:00.001-07:00

This summer and monsoon will see a double bonanza for the fundraisers in India. Two big International Fundraising Workshops are happening right here in India.

The first one organised by Resource Alliance is at Bangalore in the month of June. And the second one in August is being organised by South Asian Fundraising Group at Jaipur.

This appears the rare opportunity to attend both. Click below to know more about them

http://www.resource-alliance.org/iwrm/

http://www.safrg.org/

Double Bonanza for Fundraisers in India

2009-05-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

Does your Charity has a cause not interesting enough for Donors?

2009-05-07T09:44:00.001-07:00

How often one hears that.

I have come across several NGO leaders mentioning that their cause, their work, is not often interesting enough for individual donors. And hence they keep on chasing funding agencies and in some adhoc fashion certain corporations for funds.

A new email campaign from GreenPeace India may help us in making uninteresting interesting.

Now basically, what GreenPeace needed money for was an advertisement. Surely, not an interesting thing to ask money from donors,especially individuals.

But the way it has been done makes it so very interesting and compelling.Read below to know how it does the same:

1) It projects a big problem (Tata's destroying the eco system of a port)

2) It talks of a holistic solution to stop Tatas.

3) It further goes on to say how a huge amount of work has been done to address it (like placing advertisements in foreign publications that Ratan Tata reads etc.)

4) And the final bit, it projects a small gap that if not fulfilled will undo all the great effort in this direction ( an advertisement in the Indian newspapers that Ratan Tata reads)

Moreover the communication gives an opportunity for people to become activists (see http://www.isrworld.org/2009/05/perfect-isr-giving-people-chance-to-be.html). Really amazing. I would love if GreenPeace shares how this did in terms of raising money and votes.

Click below to see the emailer for your self.

http://links.mailing.greenpeace.org/servlet/MailView?ms=MzIyNTQyNTUS1&r=ODU4NTAzMTYwS0&j=NDcyMDExODUS1&mt=1&rt=0

Does your Charity has a cause not interesting enough for Donors?

2009-05-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

Recruiting & Renewing Longterm Donors through Direct Mail

2009-04-27T10:40:00.001-07:00

Contributed by Pallavi Kumar, CEO, SAFRG (South Asian Fund Raising Group), India

This is to thank all the participants for their highly participatory attendance at our recently concluded Direct Mail masterclass. I am glad you liked and appreciated the workshop. As the topic of this blog indicates, this masterclass aimed at sharing the following with you:

1) Fundamentals of Fundraising (see Surat Sandhu's presentation) http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/gen-sandhu-master-class-fundamentals-mod

2) Fundamentals of Direct Mail & how to write a Direct Mailer to acquire donors (see Anup Tiwari's presentations)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/direct-mail-primer-with-examples

3) Which lists to use and how to use them (see Chetan Sharma's presentation)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/chetan-sharma-indianlists

4) How to renew donors that you acquire (see Anup Tiwari's presentation) http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/renewing-donors#

5) Renewing donors by wishing them (see Bijay Mishra's presentation)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/renewing-donors-by-wishing-them

6) And finally how to acquire monthly pledge donors (see Anup Tiwari's presentation)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/dm2-pledge

I hope you will find these useful. Happy downloading these on your machines and your work life too.

Cheers and see you soon in our next workshops and 20th South Asian International Fundraising Workshop in Jaipur (August 8-11, 2009).

Pallavi

Recruiting & Renewing Longterm Donors through Direct Mail

2009-04-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Contributed by Pallavi Kumar, CEO, SAFRG (South Asian Fund Raising Group), India

1) Fundamentals of Fundraising (see Surat Sandhu's presentation) http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/gen-sandhu-master-class-fundamentals-mod

2) Fundamentals of Direct Mail & how to write a Direct Mailer to acquire donors (see Anup Tiwari's presentations)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/direct-mail-primer-with-examples

3) Which lists to use and how to use them (see Chetan Sharma's presentation)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/chetan-sharma-indianlists

4) How to renew donors that you acquire (see Anup Tiwari's presentation) http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/renewing-donors#

5) Renewing donors by wishing them (see Bijay Mishra's presentation)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/renewing-donors-by-wishing-them

6) And finally how to acquire monthly pledge donors (see Anup Tiwari's presentation)

http://www.slideshare.net/anuptiwari/dm2-pledge

I hope you will find these useful. Happy downloading these on your machines and your work life too.

Cheers and see you soon in our next workshops and 20th South Asian International Fundraising Workshop in Jaipur (August 8-11, 2009).

Pallavi

Fundraising Telethons

2009-02-14T00:54:00.001-08:00

Fundraising Telethons although few in India are not new.

The trigger for this post is the recently broadcast 24 hour NDTV Greenathon. A really commendable effort because of the:

Kind of interest it was able to mobilise amongst the public at large and even the celebrities.

Duration of time dedicated for the cause was also unparalleled.

Amount of money it was able to generate, above INR 2.5 crores (>$ 500,000)

More on Greenathon can be found at http://green.ndtv.com/default.aspx?green=green

However, the kind of effort put could have raised more resources for the cause if:

A clear ask in terms of smaller amounts were made e.g. INR 1,000, INR 5,000 and so on.

Monthly pledge donors should have been recruited and not only one time donors. This would have ensured that a big percentage of these people continued with TERI (beneficiary non-profit organisation) year after year.

All said and done, kudos to the people who were behind it. To know more about other successful telethons in India, click on the links below

http://www.cry.org/telethon/homepage.asp

http://www.bollywoodsargam.com/bollywood_news.php?newsstory=43714499-6116230-0-latest-_India%92s_biggest_charity_telethon_event_with_film_stars_in_history_Bollywood_news.html

It would be great if Telethons become an annual way of raising resources for the social causes. I was once told by a former CEO of CRY-Child Rights & You, who had a telethon to credit, that in an evening through telethon they acquired as many donors as they had in 25 years of their existence.

Fundraising Telethons

2009-02-14T00:54:00.000-08:00

Fundraising Telethons although few in India are not new.

The trigger for this post is the recently broadcast 24 hour NDTV Greenathon. A really commendable effort because of the:

Kind of interest it was able to mobilise amongst the public at large and even the celebrities.

Duration of time dedicated for the cause was also unparalleled.

Amount of money it was able to generate, above INR 2.5 crores (>$ 500,000)

More on Greenathon can be found at http://green.ndtv.com/default.aspx?green=green

However, the kind of effort put could have raised more resources for the cause if:

A clear ask in terms of smaller amounts were made e.g. INR 1,000, INR 5,000 and so on.

Monthly pledge donors should have been recruited and not only one time donors. This would have ensured that a big percentage of these people continued with TERI (beneficiary non-profit organisation) year after year.

All said and done, kudos to the people who were behind it. To know more about other successful telethons in India, click on the links below

http://www.cry.org/telethon/homepage.asp

http://www.bollywoodsargam.com/bollywood_news.php?newsstory=43714499-6116230-0-latest-_India%92s_biggest_charity_telethon_event_with_film_stars_in_history_Bollywood_news.html

Why it is high time to start fundraising?

2008-11-11T08:23:00.001-08:00

There were two recent developments that left me even more convinced that each non-profit in the sub-continent needs to start its own fundraising.

The first one was a news article in Sunday Times of India (Nov. 9, 2008). It mentioned that The Global Fund (http://www.theglobalfund.org/EN/), a public-private partnership that finances programmes to prevent and treat diseases in developing countries, has not approved 100 millions euros worth of proposals by Indian government to fight TB, HIV/AIDS etc. Much of these funds would have found way into several implementing non-profit organisations. No longer, since these may never come in, although Indian government has a chance to represent the proposal next year.

So fellow non-profit fundraisers, why in first place should we be dependent on benevolence of funds like the above? Please do think about it.

The second was an advertisement by an NGO formed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare asking for donations from individuals. Called the Jansankhya Stirtha Kosh (National Population Stabilisation Fund http://www.jsk.gov.in/) Quiet a leap for a government promoted NGO. If they can do it, why can't we all?

Are you still not convinced? If you are start today.

Why it is high time to start fundraising?

2008-11-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

How to Keep Donors Excited!!

2008-10-31T09:19:00.001-07:00

Have you been through the pain of loosing donors who give to your cause? Or have you been through the exaltation when your donors go on to become your ambassadors?

The difference in above two situations could be in the way you cultivated your donors. Several fundraising guru's term it as Donor Stewardship. Are you thinking what do these two words mean?

According to a survey of around 150 fundraisers conducted by Gordon Mitchie of Relationship Marketing, UK,(available at http://www.relationshipmarketing.org.uk/Relationship%20Marketing%20Ste.pdf )

"Stewardship is really about understanding your donor and their wants and needs. A good steward will know that stewardship means ensuring people give at levels they can afford and feel comfortable with so they might not need to be brought on to a higher giving level.And to a very good fundraising steward, asking only when your donors want to be asked, is a non-issue because you would know when your donor wanted to be asked without them having to tell you. That’s part of taking personal responsibility – taking responsibility for knowing when and how to ask."

Very often we ask donors less or more than they can afford. At times we ask them for causes they do not feel strongly about. We also ask them at times which are not great for them. Simply stewarding is about knowing right answers to these what, when and how much questions about your donors. Lots of hard work, but that is worth donors are!

PS: Although, the survey findings further go on to say that there are three kind of stewardships and wanting one definition type is not really fair, but the above simple understanding should be a good starting point for us fundraisers in the Indian sub-continent.

How to Keep Donors Excited!!

2008-10-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

How do we give some sense to our CSR?

2008-10-29T08:50:00.001-07:00

Does this question bog you very often as a practicing CSR professional? It certainly did bother my long time friend, who I have also known professionally now for around a decade.

My friend works for a top-line FMCG company that is also quiet active in community development. Quiet an expert himself, somehow this time he seemed to grapple hard with the question (How do we give some sense to our CSR?).

I am about to describe a situation that may be familar to some of you. His company was involved in several community welfare activities and that too in a totally decentralised fashion. You may be wondering where was the problem in all this? After all decentralization is a good word!

Well the problem was there and profound, as my friend articulated:

1) Most of the activities did not add up and hence the impact caused by them was not clear and measurable.

2) With 50 odd offices in 50 different cities doing their own bit, there seemed to be no sense of direction

Well, when he narrated this to me I was quiet surprised. The community development programme that they were running was almost the size that a mid-size non-profit in India manages. Not many non-profits in India, leave alone corporations, have a 50 city programme.

Obviously the programme was spread quiet thin. Clearly, the desire of each office to have their own programme had led to this situation. "But how does one handle this?", asked my friend.

That set me thinking. If a corporation's community development programme is equivalent in size to the programme that a mid-sized non-profit organisation usually runs, then it has to be handled in a manner the non-profits handle it. Like a serious business!
There are some best practices that rest with the non-profits. And if we superimpose some of these with corporate situations then the cocktail, as served below may offer some solutions:

a) It could be a good thing to issue guidelines to your local offices for the type of community welfare activities that they can enter into e.g. stocking the school library, sponsoring the teachers/health workers for critically important training programme, providing teaching/learning aids and so on.

I think a dozen odd activities amplifying the corporate vision should help.A best practice would be to evolve these dozen odd activity types by the way of an inter-office consultation.

b) I would reckon around 75% of the programming could take the above route and 25% could be still totally left to local office judgement;allowing for local level flexibilities.

c)The programme impact surely needs to be measurable. Some non-profits categorise their various projects on a two by two matrix. On one axis is the 'critically of the programme to overall vision' and on the other is 'resources involved'. So the programmes that rank high on both the parameters deserve and get special attention. These are provided special inputs in terms of agreeing on mission, goals, objectives and plan of action. Besides, these are frequently checked on the direction they are taking.

The corporations like the ones for which my friend works could also do the same. Focus on key projects, plan and monitor them well. The rest of the projects could be left to the judgment of people at local level. Mind you, this is not because people at local level know less. This is because,at the local level mostly the people stationed are sales/operations/production staff who are all the time busy chasing their own targets and do not have enough time for all this additional serious work.

d) The high ranking programmes could be even monitored by an outside agency. Often corporations do not have enough people for the purpose and hence an outside agency with expertise in this should be a great help.A mid-term followed by an year end evaluation should be good enough to start with.

The non-profits even go to a greater extent to plan and monitor their programmes. But at most of the corporations it is still a different story. CSR and hence community development is not an integral part of business for many. Nothing to fret about, we know it is still evolving!

These basics if applied could make the Community Development programme of a corporation (often called CSR to great dismay of many) more strategic and give it an increased sense of direction. There is much more, but as I said these are just few basics.

How do we give some sense to our CSR?

2008-10-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Honey traps for INGOs in India

2008-10-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

While attending the International Fundraising Conference at Amsterdam, I chanced upon my good Italian friend and former colleague Francesco. After doing several years with International non-profits in Europe and Latin America, he is now a new but a devout convert to consulting.

On the bar stools, I have yet to come across a more inciting/inspiring fundraiser as him. And hence my friend encouraged me to write about the "Honey traps that INGOs land in while entering new emerging markets".

"Well, I told him, " I know more about India and at best South Asia, but I will do it for you".

So here is this to you Francesco, my two (sorry five) pence:

1) First and foremost the assumption by INGOs, that donor is a "she". Unfortunately (for all our efforts at women empowerment), donors in emerging markets like India are a "he". In other words donor is predominantly a male unlike the western and north American world.

2) Then ' real donors are 55 years and above'. Surprise, surprise. The donors in India are 30 years and above. In fact post 55 they tend to stop contributing. The state sponsored social security in such emerging markets virtually does not exist and hence the obvious donor behaviour.

3)Renting lists for Direct mail is cheaper than buying them. Not in India. If you are renting a list then it is most likely a well guarded proprietary or at least a decent compiled list. But if you are buying them, these could be dirt cheap, although of low reliability.

4) Some INGOs believe that corporations will fuel their growth in the country. It is not the case for India. The corporations in India have their own philanthropic foundations and don't need INGOs mostly. On the contrary they need small and medium implementing non-profit organisations, who can bring to reality their vision.

5) Acquiring new donors is always done at a break even cost or even a loss. In India all the leading Indian non-profits make money on acquisition, largely due to low cost mail packages. So, decide whether to keep your western ways or take to the Indian. Both I am sure have their merits.

I am hoping that these five pence should make Francesco a happy man. Although, I am sure having worked in Latin America he knows it all and was being his usual inciting self on the bar stool. Por eso mi amigo, espero que tu quieras este.

Honey traps for INGOs in India

2008-10-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

Telling Powerful Fundraising Stories

2008-10-23T09:53:00.001-07:00

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend and speak at Resource Alliance's International Fundraising Conference, clearly the largest gathering of fundraisers from around the world, at Amsterdam.

There I picked up a book mark that provides real useful tips on writing effective fundraising stories. You could see them at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2028842/Global-Fundraising-Story-book.

The book mark was jointly developed by Jon Duschinsky of BeTheChange Consulting (France) and Sonya Swiridjuk of Breast Cancer Foundation (Canada). Real concise and hits bull's eye.

I am having fun using the tips given in there, I hope you too would. Click on the link below now.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2028842/Global-Fundraising-Story-book

Telling Powerful Fundraising Stories

2008-10-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Fundraisers of India Decide to Unite

2008-10-02T02:46:00.001-07:00

Some good news in the world of Indian fundraising. A group of fundraisers in India have decided to unite. The idea is to help grow the sector as a whole.

The genesis of the forum was at the "India Direct Marketing Fundraising Round table" recently held in Delhi. The fundraising icon Mal Warwick was visiting India and volunteered to help crystallise this.Mal facilitated the round table that was organised by Resource Alliance India.

The prime objective of the Round table was to build capacities of Direct Marketing fundraising non-profits in India. The Round table saw fundraisers from leading non-profits like CRY, Can Kids, Deepalaya,GreenPeace, HelpAge India, Meenakshi Mission Hospital, UNICEF, WWF India and World Vision in attendance. Direxions a leading Direct Marketing Agency and Syrex the leaders in telephone based fundraising also represented fundraising consultants fraternity.

During the sessions common challenges of non-delivery of mailers, bad lists etc. came to the fore very often. The participants felt that it was the time when everyone needed to come together, to take these issues collectively with the parties concerned.

The first signs of activity can be seen on the blog of the forum http://www.fundraisersforum.blogspot.com/

I wish the Forum all the best and hope it goes on to take up sectoral issues effectively and efficiently or in other words with great response rate and ROI :)

Fundraisers of India Decide to Unite

2008-10-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

Writing Your Own Simple Fundraising Strategy

2008-09-17T09:41:00.001-07:00

A fundraising document is a must. You can make it very sophisticated if you can. Otherwise a simple one can also do. The attached power-point is one way to do it. Especially for smaller non-profits.

Cheers

Anup

Fundraising Strategy

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fundraising strategy)

Writing Your Own Simple Fundraising Strategy

2008-09-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

Fundraising Strategy

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fundraising strategy)

What does Indian Fundraising Really Need?

2008-08-26T11:15:00.001-07:00

The largest annual gathering of charity fundraisers in India drew to an end after 4 days of discourses, debates, presentations and partying. The 19th South Asian Fund Raising Workshop (SAFRW) held at Agra saw the international experts, the Indian veterans and absolute beginners, all rubbing shoulders under one roof.

The show was great and the organizers deserve a pat for that. The knowledge sharing was tremendous, with both international and local examples flowing freely. The Indian (and also Pakistani, Afghani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Nepalese) NGOs were enthusiastic and hungry for more.

But what struck one was the absolute uselessness of this exchange. It is an old known fact that much of this capacity building will come to a cropper, as majority of these non-profits will never be able to put this to practice. Quiet a shame for all the effort put.

No, not because these non-profits are unwilling and laid back. The scourge here is the lack of investment funds to kick-start fundraising. Yes, capacity building is important but what is paramount is the availability of seed funds.

It is not difficult. The government, financial institutions, philanthropists, development agencies and fundraisers all need to come forward to provide sustainability to the sector. It is not difficult at all. The following may be worth considering:

1) The government provides funds for social development to scores of non-profits. These funds are earmarked for welfare programmes. What is needed is to allocate a part of them for building donor base and hence sustainability of the organization.

2) The financial institutions are able to offer soft loans for fundraising and non-profits are allowed to access them. The RBI and the Charity Commissioners need to facilitate the procedural permissions.

3) The philanthropist and funding agencies give specific grants for building fundraising teams and operational budgets for up to 3 years. We already have a success story in CRY, which got a grant from Stromme Memorial Foundation to start their Direct Mail fundraising. Rest is history.

4) Finally all the Fundraising capacity building organizations of the country and all the fundraisers and their associations need to gather and pool a fund that gives grants to deserving projects and hand-holds them to success.

The sector badly needs angel investors. All the donors to the sector will do a greater service if they support development of fundraising and not only programmes. Every rupee donated will convert into 4 rupees over 2-3 years time and make the project going till it is needed.

But the converse may cause our favorite charitable project to collapse sooner or later. The choice totally rests with us.

What does Indian Fundraising Really Need?

2008-08-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

19th SAFRW Direct Marketing Presentation

2008-08-24T02:27:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,

Thank you for attending the "How to Start Your Own Direct Marketing Programme" session at 19th SAFRW at Agra.

I am thankful to you for your participation and feedback. Please feel free to download the presentation.

Hopefully, this will find way in your work.

Cheers,

Anup

19th SAFRW Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dm tele-facing)

19th SAFRW Direct Marketing Presentation

2008-08-24T02:27:00.000-07:00

19th SAFRW Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dm tele-facing)

Are Indians Philanthropic?

2008-08-23T04:43:00.003-07:00

Well the answer seems to be 'Yes'. According to a recent survey shown on CNN-IBN, broadcast on the eve of Indian Independence Day (August 15) and as a part of regular State of the Nation surveys, the findings point to a definite 'aye'.

Sample this:

1) Over 60 per cent of urban India feels that one should share one’s income with the less fortunate.

2) Sixty-one per cent of young rich urban Indians feel that a portion of one's income should be shared with the less fortunate

3) 77 per cent of old generation urban rich Indians feel the same.

The findings spell good news for the NGOs planning to send appeals to Indian individuals to raise monies for their causes.The results obtained by some of the top fundraising NGOs in India also indicate the same.

It is high time such a generous source is tapped and money put to good use.

Are Indians Philanthropic?

2008-08-23T04:43:00.001-07:00

Is OOH Media a good solution for NGO Fundraising?

2008-08-06T21:46:00.001-07:00

Well first, what is OOH media? If you already know you can safely skip the next paragraph.

OOH media in the context of this article are the LCD and plasma screens that one sees in malls, restaurants, office cafeterias, lift lobbies, condominiums, hospitals and airports. OOH stands for 'Out of Home'. There is more to OOH but covering that is not the intention here.

Some of these places have a captive audience and hence show advertisements interspersed with some programming.

These could be ideal for fundraising. We all know that it is beyond budgets for non-profit sector to buy spots on TV for raising funds. The erstwhile 'free-spots' have become far and few.

In light of all this OOH may be a more economical solution. Another advantage is that you can show the content as per the suitability of the location. For example the one in an hospital can talk largely about health issues while the one in airports could talk about donating your air miles.

One of the companies in India who are active in OOH is called by the generic 'OOH Media’ name (www.oohindia.com/). The company, if their byline is to be believed, is the largest OOH media company in India. There are also few others also like Times OOH, Clear Channel, Selvel, Vantage, Pioneer, Portland and Lakshya.

OOH India as a part of their CSR is doing an awareness generation and call for action campaign for UNICEF. Let's see how this medium works out for non-profits.

Is OOH Media a good solution for NGO Fundraising?

2008-08-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

Is NGO fundraising a career for you?

2008-07-05T04:08:00.001-07:00

(This story has originally appeared at MSN India website)
http://content.msn.co.in/Contribute/Others/UCStory7459.htm

As I mull over this question, I am reminded of an anecdote shared by a young fundraising expert from UK. This person has been a fundraiser with leading NGOs in UK for several years and now runs a very successful fundraising consulting business. According to him he is often still chided by his mother for not being able to secure a proper job and a career.

This is not to disappoint you. I start this article with this anecdote to break ice and I am sure that the young fundraising guru also does it for the same.

Believe you me; it is a career, although a bit off-beat. I can vouch for it for having survived well at if for more than a decade.

Are you wondering how do you become a fundraiser?

Well that is what I plan to delve on in rest of what you will read. Are you wondering if you need some relevant experience and qualification?

Yes and No. There are no formal long-term courses in India on fundraising. But there are few short-term ones offered by Resource Alliance India and SAFRG (you can do an MSN search on them and find more). These courses are not very expensive and provide you a great perspective.

Your experience in the commercial sector could hold you in good stead. Sample this, if you have experience in corporate business development you can be a corporate fundraiser. If you have been an Event Manager, you could continue doing the same for organising fundraising events. People in commercial direct mail can use their skills to use the medium for raising money.

Are you in the call center industry?

Why don't you join an NGO and raise money by telecalling. Fortunately, authorities have kept fundraising by telephone out of Do Not Disturb (DND) registery. Same goes for people in Direct Sales. Even NGOs use Face to Face as a strategy to raise funds.

Now onto salaries. Well they are not so bad.Usually freshers start around Rs. 10,000 per month. The experienced people in big NGOs can even get Rs. 100,000 per month and more.

So what are you waiting for? To repeat Indian Army's catch phrase,

" Do you have it in you?"

PS: The two websites that usually have most of the NGO jobs are devnetjobsindia.org and indianngos.com

Is NGO fundraising a career for you?

2008-07-05T04:08:00.000-07:00

Ethics in Fundraising?

2008-07-04T12:41:00.001-07:00

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Ethics in Fundraising?

2008-07-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

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How do I fulfill my ISR?

2008-07-02T10:37:00.001-07:00

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How do I fulfill my ISR?

2008-07-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

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ISR is here, watch-out CSR!

2008-06-28T01:43:00.001-07:00

As a fundraiser who makes extensive use of telephone, I am mostly very polite to fellow telecallers, although most of these are abjectly commercial calls, unlike mine. I am glad that this morning I kept my predicament intact, while taking one such call.

Early morning, not quiet, though early for a weekend, I was woken out of my reverie, by a phone call inviting me to attend a CSR-Corporate Social Responsibility Conference. I tried explaining to the lady on the other side that I was no longer the best person for such conferences. And that I had stopped being a Corporate fundraiser for a while and hence attended different kind of conferences now. The other side was persistent and wanted to know what I was doing currently. By this time the call was taking much of my weekend and also to make it easier, I rattled that I handled “Individual Social Responsibility”, instead.

Five minutes later was my Eureka moment. Was it Individual Social Responsibility I said? Yes it was Individual Social Responsibility still but by this time in my thoughts it had shrunk to being ISR.

As I write this, I realize ISR has been there around for long, but has not been branded, discussed and conceptualized like its corporate avatar. In fact if you thought it through, ISR has been at the roots of CSR. Because what is a corporate without the individuals in it.

I know this makes the already esoteric world of CSR even murkier. Everyday I hear a new perspective on CSR. Good for a school that is still evolving undoubtedly. But how would one define ISR?

Well, it is to be seen how the definition develops. Let me try a simplistic one. “Being responsible in our actions that have affect on communities outside our immediate circle”. The immediate circle being family and friends. One could argue to even include family and friends, but I would rather that they be part of Individual Personal Responsibility (another acronym to confuse promoters of Intellectual Property Rights).

There could be some simplistic manifestations of ISR. A very first could be your philanthropic behaviour or lack of it. Add to this the campaigner, volunteer and activist in you that picks-up and supports issues affecting the society. Top it with being ethical in your outward dealings.

I know much more conceptualization and debate is needed. Perhaps much on it already exists there, unknown to me, Wikipedia and Google. But think of the powerhouse this could be, if given the attention CSR gets. The society would change faster!

I hope very soon I will get a call inviting me to attend a conference on ISR. I will expectantly pick even the unknown calls on my mobile.

ISR is here, watch-out CSR!

2008-06-28T01:43:00.000-07:00

Direct Tele-mail and Tele-facing

2008-06-11T14:16:00.001-07:00

Couple of fundraising practioners in India have shared their experience on fundraising techniques unique to India. The entire article can be found on
http://www.resource-alliance.org/resources/enewsletter/587.asp

Having read this great piece I can't help calling one of the techniques "Direct Tele-mail". How about adding DTM to your century old DM led glossary. Don't confuse it for a gizmo that delivers a Direct Mail pack by telephone. It is much simpler, read the full article to discover.

The other technique of mixing telephone and face to face, many of us already call tele-facing. Enjoy reading.The link http://www.resource-alliance.org/resources/enewsletter/587.asp once again

Direct Tele-mail and Tele-facing

2008-06-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Tele-facing@Resource Alliance's International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation

2008-05-30T11:40:00.001-07:00

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Tele-facing@Resource Alliance's International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation

2008-05-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

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A comprehensive report on Indian Fundraising Market

2008-05-16T11:43:00.001-07:00

Here is something I found on the net. Never expected it though. Fundraise India, has come out with an interesting pdf publication on Indian fundraising scenario. A good read. Being a fundraiser in India all my life, I am impressed by it definitely.

Great thing is that it is free. You just need to send an email to publications@fundraiseindia.net and they send it to you. So what are you waiting for! Not convinced see the contents on http://fundraiseindia.net/

A comprehensive report on Indian Fundraising Market

2008-05-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

NGOs that do Private Sector Fundraising in India

2008-05-02T23:06:00.001-07:00

The Indian NGOs as mentioned in my previous post do not have a long history of doing active and regular fundraising from Private Sector (Indian individuals and Corporations). There are exceptions that do get their due mention later. In fact, this post attempts to list some, who have been.

Of’ course there will be some that I don't know of. So if you are an NGO who have a regular fundraising programme and don't feature in this list, do write back. I plan to do an addendum in next 7 days, so your name could feature there.

Before keying in the list, let me share the criterion for making the distinction:

1) The NGO has at least one dedicated staff for fundraising
2) The NGO has some dedicated budget for investing in fundraising
3) There is a pre-agreed fundraising strategy besides the knack for taking advantage of opportunities
4) The NGO has a regular fundraising programme that comprises at least two of the following tools/strategies:

• Direct Mail
• Telephone fundraising
• Tele-facing
• Face to Face fundraising
• Web & New media (SMS, Widgets) based fundraising
• Events
• Corporate philanthropy
• Cause Related Marketing
• Payroll/Employee Group giving

Well now on to the list. I have grouped them in three categories viz. National, International and Regional. As I delve deep in them the categories get explained, themselves, so please be patient about it.

National NGOs is a very interesting segment. The grand daddy of Indian fundraising and still the largest player CRY-Child Rights and You, sits here. The only other NGO in this category with long standing is Concern India Foundation. It may surprise you that this category appears to be not very crowded. But this is a group you graduate to and it is in fact difficult to start here. Two new entrants to this list are Give India and Pratham India. Overall still very sparsely populated category.

My pick of organizations that do have the potential to join this category in future are Aadi, Akshay Patra, Blind Relief Association(s), Cancer Patient Society of India, Development Alternatives, Global Cancer Concern, Hemophilia Federation (India), Naandi Foundation, Public Health Foundation of India and Smile Foundation, but all of them have lots of catching up to do.

International NGOs is a category that is witnessing the action most. The list here is long and a new player gets added every passing month.

The leader in this category is HelpAge India, which for all practical purposes is Indian but has an International lineage that many are not even aware of. WWF India is another old but slow (could be steady though) player with high levels of brand recognition. SOS Children Villages of India enjoys good recognition and has shown some aggression in fundraising lately. World Vision and GreenPeace have been active in this category for at least 5-6 years and have some advantage over the other new beginners. CAF-Charities Aid Foundation India, part of the UK headquartered network, has been around for around a decade in India but sill suffers from low levels of brand awareness. A special mention here for Indian Red Cross, which has been around for always and leads in fundraising for emergencies.

The new entrants include Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children International’s Indian entity), Oxfam India, Plan India and UN agencies like UNICEF, WFP and others. Interestingly, although all these names are very big internationally they are currently small specks in the high potential Indian fundraising sector. Action Aid India started with a bang around five years back, but has started afresh lately with a new fundraising strategy. Habitat for Humanity is largely into corporate partnerships, although some of them very interesting. United Way has also been around for a while but their mainstay is Pay Roll Giving. Aide Et Action India (headquartered in Paris) is amongst the newest entrants in this category.

Some years back Christian Aid also wanted to start fundraising in India, I don’t know what became of that. CASA another Christian organization has also shown some interest in fundraising. The Agha Khan Foundation had also been scouting for resources to start their fundraising operations some years back.

If you are an Indian fundraiser, don’t be surprised if you get a friendly tap from a stranger at an International Fundraising Conference. This could be from any of the International biggies planning to start fundraising in India. In fact it will be interesting to see when and how few other big names in fundraising in North America and Europe namely, Amnesty International, Care and MSF (Doctors without Borders) bite the fundraising bullet. All of them have programmatic presence in India for ages.

Regional category is the most diverse and scary to list because there are so many (although still countable), but at the same time so local in operation that they may not make a blip on one’s radar.

New Delhi has two NGOs that now have been raising funds with some success. These are Deepalaya and Prayas. Next in the pecking order are NGOs like Udyan Care, Literacy India, Action for Autism,. Two celebrities led NGOs, Action India and Khushi are more active in the fundraising events sector.

From the Mumbai region the NGOs that hit my radar quiet often are Dignity Foundation, Magic Bus and Akanksha Foundation. Although, I don’t live in that city but do travel there often and get to read about them in the local media, regularly.

Down South Akshara Foundation (Bangalore), Meenakshi Mission Hospital (Madurai), India Foundation for Arts have been doing some steady fundraising for some years now.

Up East Child in Need Institute or CINI for short is quiet prominent both in terms of programming and now some private sector fundraising.

There are many others who are now interested but are kind of caught in the chicken and egg loop. They need money from private sector but don’t have investment funds for starting operations. Angel Investors please help if you are reading this! The NGOs in India now need investment to start fundraising on their own and that too quiet urgently. The above are only a handful there are millions more.

NGOs that do Private Sector Fundraising in India

2008-05-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Tele-facing To Raise Funds

2008-03-14T11:07:00.001-07:00

Are you an NGO that wants to raise funds desparately and soon? Are you stuck without any seed capital?

Then you may have an answers in Tele-facing. Tele-facing is a novel approach that mixes telemarketing and pizza delivery to produce effective fundraising.

The global on-line resource on fundraising, SOFII (The Showcase for Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration) describes Tele-facing as "an example of how telephone fundraising and face-to-face fundraising are evolving and being adapted in India to take account of the country’s large population and distinctive business culture – with quite impressive results. "

Tele-facing is “ ..innovative cutting-edge, direct marketing appeal”, according to Becky Slack, Editor, Professional Fundraising Magazine, UK. She describes Tele-facing very lucidly as 'fundraising by appointment' in December 2007 issue of the magazine.

Sean Triner, Co-founder of Pareto Fundraising, Australia, feels Tele-facing can be particularly suitable for smaller charities, with small constituencies that can be reached easily by the technique.

"UNICEF only started to fundraise from the Indian public and corporations in 2005. So far, it seems that the yields on investment from this form of pre-qualifying donors exceeds most other forms of direct marketing", says Scottland based international fundraising consultant and Asian markets expert Finlay Craig.

If you are really interested please click on the links below and download more information. The author will also like to thank the following resources that formed base of this post.

www.sofii.org/active%20site/Members%20area/EI31UNICEFtele.html

http://www.scottishconference.org.uk/presentations/Tue%201145%20Finly%20Craig%20v2.pdf

http://www.professionalfundraising.co.uk/PFDecSupp07.pdf

http://quess.com/pipermail/cati-21c_quess.com/2007-October/001652.html

Tele-facing To Raise Funds

2008-03-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

How can NGOs in India really start raising funds

2008-02-11T10:18:00.001-08:00

India has around 1.2 million NGOs. The population having a giving potential is also around 400 million. These are really mind boggling figures. A possible donor community larger than the entire population of USA or a big chunk of European Union! At a glance, these indicators make Indian fundraising market appear as a highly mature entity. But the real picture is totally opposite. The Indian fundraising scenario is still in its nascence. One can argue that professional fundraising in India has been around for more than quarter of a century. But for good two decades, only a handful like CRY and HelpAge India were really practicing it. And only these clutch of NGOs managed the distinction of being funded by mass voluntary contributions. But how did a country with vibrant civil society and giving population manage such a lump? No, it is not even about the giving culture or lack of it. Infact the country has a very powerful giving strain in its DNA.

The main reason for this was that the voluntary sector in India never needed to score around for funds. With its teaming millions needing help, there were pots of money pouring. Every one including the bilateral, international organisations, overseas non profits and philanthropists had India on its priority. This kind of put the Indian NGOs in a reverse time wrap when it came to fundraising. So, while they developed various programmatic and operational functions in their organisations, fundraising was sadly never thought of.

Unfortunately, the dream run is about to end. India is loosing favour with the international donors. Suddenly, the Indian voluntary sector finds itself devoid of the very sources it always thought were permanently there. But all is not lost. The good thing is that Indian donor community is today largest in the world and waiting to be tapped. It is high time the voluntary sector ramps up its act. It is not an impossible path but only a little difficult. Every NGO can develop its own sources for sustainability. It just needs some application and investing in. In my future blogs I plan to write exactly about it. While, it will also be of use to large NGOs, I plan to make it more relevant for the smaller ones. Please keep visiting this space.

How can NGOs in India really start raising funds

2008-02-11T10:18:00.000-08:00