Stop the Hate Funding: In 2002 when I first joined ActionAid I was suddenly faced with the challenge of raising funds for the Gujarat carnage victims.
I had to do so by sensitising people that what happened in Gujarat was not just a riot but a pogrom. The task was to promote giving with involvement and understanding of the cause. I accepted this challenge and without any plan or strategy started advocating for the cause and the rights of the affected community. I did various one on one meeting and accepted funds only when people were ready to take a stand against the wrong doings. At that time the mass campaign that got people thinking about what really happened at Gujarat was the Stop the Hatred a TV campaign directed by Rohena Gera. This campaign had 16 leading celebrities asking people to stop the hatred. People were also asked to write to me or log on to a website that Rohena kindly provided a link to on her website to know what really happened at Gujarat. This proved very successful and people all over India got to know the truth of Gujarat after reading “CRY the beloved country” a news piece that actually informed people what really happened at Gujarat.
White Ribbon Movement : Besides Rohena Gera’s TV campaign, stop the hatred we also created the “diwALI RAMzan” press media and poster campaign urging people to be secular. We also organised various programs like music concerts, movie premieres, national bike rides called “Aman Yatras”, kite flying festivals. We associated with MTV with a mission of sensitising young adults and implemented the White Ribbon Campaign. Herein various MTV VJs including the late Nafisa Joseph wore white ribbons similar to the red ribbons associated with HIV Aids. These white ribbons were worn by various people as their support for oneness, peace and secularism. 15th August was promoted as independence and Sadbhavana day. This also became a successful campaign and various people all over India wear and distribute the white ribbon every year on 15th August as solidarity for the victims of the Gujarat carnage.
Karma Mitra street face2face fundraising campaign
In September 2003 we launched the Karma Mitra program. With this, we for the first time in India, promoted social giving through DIRECT SELLING and MLM with a huge sales force. It was an “in the face” direct dialogue fundraising approach. Working people were met at the offices by the Giving Consultants. People were first shown a film introducing them to absolutely invisible marginalised communities from Rural and Urban India. People were sensitised to their issues and then people were asked to make a contribution. In November 2004, around the time ICONGO was taking shape, we planned the street face 2 face campaign for the homeless community of Chennai. Herein we trained and empowered communities like sex workers and homeless youth to go on to high traffic areas and raise funds for their communities. This pilot project proved highly successful. The middle class of Chennai reached out to the homeless and marginalised communities and started accepted them. We raised over 60 million INR for the homeless community. Over 60,000 people got involved in Chennai with the cause. Various people even made donations ranging from Rs. 5,000 to 25,000 although we were asking for a minimum of Rs. 100/- only.
The learning : This basically taught us that people will give if asked for. People will give if they find the cause and the issue credible. People are ready to take a stand and reach out. It’s only about how we get them involved. The idea was and is to promote sustainable giving and not just one of giving. The idea is to promote philanthropy for social justice. The idea is to promote giving with involvement and understanding of the cause and how your money is being utilised. The idea is about how you and I can make a difference and bring about change. The idea is to create a just, responsible and caring society together.
The gap in the social giving market place
We have only 400,000 donors in a country with a population of 1.1 billion and over 50 million taxpayers today. The gap is huge. Less than 1% of the tax paying universe is actually giving for social causes. This is dismal in a country which has been traditionally a giving place right from the Vedic period. So what’s the issue?
Why? Most giving in India is for religious purposes -over 90% - without realising these funds mostly get used for communal reasons. Out of the 400,000 people who give for social causes on a sustainable basis mostly give for children without any involvement and are happy just taking a tax receipt and claiming benefits. They do not bother to understand that one cannot improve the life of the child without addressing the issues impoverishing and marginalising the community.
Most people do not give for social causes because they are cynical about the charity sector and rightly so. The charity sector has not been very transparent and accountable and issues of mismanagement of funds have been rife.
The need of the hour: It is important to increase the giving base. People will give if they are asked to give to a credible, transparent and accountable NGO. People will give if they know their funds are being invested in the right manner for bringing about social change. People will give if they know what’s the long term change we are planning for the issues at hand. People will give if they know that the administration cost is going to be bare minimum and not run up to 85%. People will give to the right NGOs. Most people will give if they are told that they need to get involved and monitor the funds as they should look at this as an investment that creates a just and responsible society.
We the people need to understand that it time to do our bit and take a stand to right every wrong happening towards vulnerable communities. We need to take a stand to help them achieve their basic rights. We need to INVEST and not just GIVE a little money and feel we have done our bit. INVEST is the right word as like we monitor our shares, fixed deposits, mutual funds, bank accounts we need to monitor the fund we invest to create a better life for the child and the community. We need to understand the big issue because we have a privilege and a need as a democratic citizen to practice true democracy by understanding the issues plaguing our great nation. We need to see beyond the child’s face and understand the issues plaguing the child and the community. We need to create a legacy of a better society by being socially responsible and doing our best for bringing about social change. We need to get involved and understand issues. We need to make the time to involve ourselves with some social action. After all it is an important part of our existence.
The idea is very simple. It based on the learning from our past experience and about integrating most of those concepts and infrastructure to create a huge nationwide campaign. Also earlier we raised funds for a NGO I was working for as a paid employee but now as a volunteer it is absolutely selfless as the funds we raise through ICONGO would be for the various NGOS that are registered and accepted by ICONGO after adhering to the basic credibility, accountability and transparency norms. But before that a little on ICONGO or the Indian Confederation of NGOs.
Yes ICONGO is a hub that works with only NGOs that adhere to credibility, accountability and transparency norms. Positioned as the Indian Confederation of NGOs it works with NGOs that practice full accountability and feel responsible to promote credibility for the sector. ICONGO does not raise funds for itself but for grassroot NGOs that are partners of member organisations registered with ICONGO. These grassroot NGOs are working with absolute transparency and accountability with the communities and various issues like environment, animals etc. ICONGO works selflessly and does not retain any portion of funds raised for other NGOs. For example with the Lipton Bangalore International Marathon, where over Rs.20 million were raised for over 100 NGOs through Individuals and Corporates ICONGO facilitated the process sans any fees or percentages on pledges that were raised. That is the space of ICONGO and was created to facilitate a credible, transparent and accountable process between the donors and their charity of choice. ICONGO may not work with some of the biggest charities if they do not adhere to the norms. ICONGO has member NGOs –national and international NGOs- working with various communities, issues and causes. ICONGO was created to promote credibility within the sector and social investment (not just giving) with the great Indian middle class. ICONGO is positioned like a professional fund manager to ensure that people’s social investment is utilised and managed with utmost responsibility and care. ICONGO is promoting social investment and sustainable giving with the great Indian middle class. ICONGO is also promoting the concept of being self sustained within the NGO sector by not just relying on grants and donations. ICONGO is planning various business models to promote social entrepreneurship to make communities more self sufficient and empowered.
The RIGHTeveryWRONG solidarity band movement for transparency.
The Big Idea : - What’s that? The RIGHTeveryWRONG transparent and white solidarity band movement. It was a flattering movement to have met the LIVE- 8 organisers last week while at UK and know that they had adapted the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Campaign from the LIVESTRONG yellow band movement and some of our campaigns. I was happy that people were adopting our models too. This set me thinking about implementing a band campaign in India. After some thinking, vox pops and research we have tweaked various ideas to create a huge integrated outreach and fundraising campaign and movement.
The Public Service Announcement: This will be a 1 minute film with various celebrities, industrialists, sportspeople and Indian citizens saying I want to right every wrong – What about you. Wear the RIGHTeveryWRONG transparent band and advocate for your cause . Don’t just wear it and don’t just give: Invest, Involve, Understand, Speak out. Take a stand. All the people endorsing this movement would wear the RIGHTeveryWRONG transparent solidarity band to make social action and responsibility hip and happening while driving transparency and accountability for the larger common good.
How would we distribute the solidarity bands: To start with we would have various volunteers promoting this at high traffic areas like shopping malls, petrol pumps, café shops, retail outlets etc.
Strategic alliance retailing: These bands would also be available at Retail shops, Coffee outlets, Gift stores, Music Stores, Online, Through SMS, Banks.
So what is the movement?
By wearing a RIGHTeveryWRONG transparent solidarity band a person makes a statement against all wrong doings be it with
Children
Girl Children
Female foeticide
Communities
Environment
Wildlife
Stray Animals
Various other causes that is dear to ones’ heart where one wants to make a change.
The basic message being “Invest in a just, caring and responsible society while driving transparency.
Other Merchandise at a later stage:
T-shirts Pet Collars
Shoe laces Key Rings
Caps Lapel Ribbons
Head Bands Postcards
Mouse pads Pens
The campaign would get bigger and extended over a period of time.
we would directly sell thWe woe bands through DSAs like it’s done in Europe and USA. We had done a pilot at Chennai as mentioned earlier and it is the best way to reach out to various people at Malls and high traffic places.