On November 10th, when the winners of India Giving Challenge 2011 (a Joy of Giving Week event) were announced, a new record in online fundraising was set in India. Over Rs.3 crores was raised from ~9,000  donors in the third edition of what has from its very beginning been India's largest online fundraising event and largest in terms of number of donors it engaged in the online medium. Larger than even the Mumbai Marathon! An interesting comparison can be drawn to the India Against Corruption movement of Anna Hazare that raised Rs. 2.94 crores. While this was one over 6 months, the above event accomplished this task in 45 days.


The Challenge, an online fundraising event, motivates NGOs, corporates and individuals to raise funds for their chosen cause and get rewarded for their efforts in turn; through a matching grant given in various categories during the course of the event. 


A total of Rs. 96 lacs (compared to Rs. 65 lacs in 2010 and Rs. 56 lacs in 2011) was won as matching grants by 72 participating NGOs.  For the first time this year a donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) contributed Rs. 21 lacs to the overall matching pool.


The NGO Challenge was won by Teach For India who raised Rs. 43 lacs, overtaking the reigning champion of 2 years Parivaar Education Society (Rs. 39 lacs) who came in second after a tough fight. It was a battle akin to David and Goliath that was fought between the two as Teach For India’s 1,868 donors contributing an average of Rs. 2,348 per person slowly but steadily took over Parivaar Education Society’s 113 donors who contributed an average of Rs. 34,641 per person. Teach For India got 150+ of its fellows involved in their fundraising and each fellow was raising money for his/her own class in a municipal school. Relatives and friends of these fellows, who have taken a 2 year sabbatical from work, gave generously to their wards who have made a remarkable and not so common break from career paths that are followed by others. 
Down the leaderboard too some of the NGOs were really close together with third positions taken by  Apna Janakalyan (Rs. 12 lacs) and Vidya & Child (Rs. 11 lacs) coming fourth.


Mridvika Mathur, Manager, Development of Teach For India says, "India Giving Challenge 2011 was an opportunity where Teach For India encouraged its Fellows to raise funds for their own classrooms and community projects. It was a chance for them to demonstrate their leadership skills and take complete ownership to gather resources for a cause that was so dear to their hearts. It was due to their conviction and sheer passion that Teach For India could ace this challenge.” 


And it was sheer passion and conviction indeed that helped Fellows such as Aritra De to raise funds from family and friends. Aritra surprised himself by raising Rs. 1,48,000 -  over a lakh more than what he had aimed for. Says De, “I did not expect to reach my target but managed to cross it. I realised early on in my fundraising that connecting donors with the cause was important. So I connected with people over phone/email about my work with Teach For India but did not ask for donations. Only when they were keen to know more about what I do, did I make a donation appeal. People were more than happy to donate then and even volunteered to spread the word amongst their own networks.” De, who raised money to build a library at and improve the infrastructure of the school at which he teaches, sent pictures of his classroom and school to further engage people to his cause. 


It was the same for the team of the NGO Sahaara Mumbai too where all employees reached out to their friends and family.  Infact the annual event has become a much awaited one at Sahaara Mumbai for both the team as well as donors because of the excitement that it generates. 


This is the official press release of the India Giving Challenge 2011. It can also be found here.

Can you imagine a school where primary class children pour water on sand to build homes and ladoos instead of learning by rote from textbooks?

Effective Oct 1st, 2011, we have reduced retention on iGive pages from 9.1% to 6.5% (a reduction of 28%). This means that even more of the money donated by your network of donors will now reach you.

Earlier for every Rs. 1000 donated to your favourite NGO, Rs. 909 would reach the NGO and Rs. 91 was retained by GiveIndia. Now for every Rs. 1000 donated, Rs. 935 will reach the NGO and Rs. 65 will be retained by GiveIndia to manage its expenses including transaction charges, providing e-Receipts to the donors, disbursing the amount to the NGO as well as providing the technology platform through which you can do your fundraising :-)

We know some of you have used iGive pages before and we hope that this reduction will help many more of you to try it out. We also hope as a result of this, your friends, family, colleagues & networks will give even more to your favourite NGOs.

Some links to get your started:
What is an iGive fundraising page?
Create an iGive page in 3 simple steps
Ideas to raise more funds

Jill Beckingham

The words "charity" and "good cause" have assumed paramount significance in today's world more than ever before. For a country with a burgeoning population of over a billion people; the need to reach out and lend a helping hand to the underprivileged has never been greater! Set in this background, the sterling initiatives and activities of individuals like Mrs. Jill Beckingham, are most praiseworthy. Being the wife of the British Deputy High Commissioner to India, she has effectively lent herself to many a noble cause during her stay in the country. The fact that she is an expat residing in India makes her charitable initiatives, actions and accomplishments even more creditable!

In Ahmedabad at the start of the India-UK Friendship Walk

Jill Beckingham is the brains behind the "Footsteps 4 Good" initiative. This initiative follows her 357 km India-UK Friendship Walk from Ahmedabad to Dandi, replicating Mahatma Gandhi's famous Dandi March in celebration of his birth anniversary last year. In fact, backed by her trusted clique of aides, support staff and thousands of individuals, Jill herself walked every step of the way. Her relentless drive, motivation and passion for the ultimate cause saw her and the many that joined her cover upto 25 km everyday. The tremendous support that she managed to garner coupled with her deeply ingrained belief in the initiative, saw them raise Rs. 75 lakhs that was distributed amongst six charitable organisations - three in Ahmedabad and three in Mumbai. This was an achievement of epic proportions!

If 2010 was anything to go by, the Footsteps 4 Good walk/run promises a lot more this year! Come October 2, celebrate the Birthday of the Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi by joining the first Aditya Birla Mumbai 10 km run/walk fund raising event, supported by Tata with sponsorship from Glaxo SmithKline. This event is open to all, aged 12 and above, provided they have donated to their chosen charity. This is also Aamchi Mumbai’s first All-Charity walk/run event as all the money raised during this event goes to charity. There is NO REGISTRATION FEE towards this event.GiveIndia is the Charity Partner of this event.

The only pre-condition for anyone to participate is that they must make a donation of at least Rs.2000 to one of their chosen NGOs in Mumbai through GiveIndia. These NGOs are - Mumbai Mobile Creches, Apnalaya, Toybank, Muktangan, Prerena, Door Step Schools, Magic Bus, Lend-A-Hand India, Women’s India Trust and Habitat for Humanity.Register Now!

Running/Walking is a great way to do good for your own health and do good for society. Moreover, the track length of 10 km does perfect justice to one’s endurance levels if a dream run of 6 kms is too short and the half-marathon at 21 kms is too long a distance. For a nation that prides itself on non violence, October 2nd is no ordinary day and while the entire nation would soon be buzzing with news and views around the popular Joy of Giving week which commences from that day, let us Mumbaikars also put down our best foot forward towards philanthropy, quite literally!