Generous response to Daan Utsav in Covid-19 pandemic year: Survey

Companies, Bollywood actors and individuals come forward to donate during week-long festival of giving

For those who believe the Covid-19 pandemic has changed everything, here’s some good news. A survey conducted by Bengaluru-based GiveIndia this September indicates that it could have actually made people more generous.

According to its findings, 85 per cent respondents reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had made them kinder and more willing to donate, while 49 per cent said they wanted to help others in need. “Increased philanthropy could one of the most positive consequence of the pandemic,” says Ashok Kumar ER, president, GiveIndia, which has seen a fivefold increase in donations during the six months of the pandemic.

Established in 2000, GiveIndia provides a platform that connects over 1.5 million donors to over 1,500 verified non-profits. “We have seen a widespread urgency to give more among individuals, corporate companies and institutions this year… and believe this trend could be here to stay.”

The survey findings have been valid­ated in the recently concluded Daan Uts­av, a week-long festival of giving that has been held every year during the week foll­owing Gandhi Jayanti. A 12-year-old volunteer driven initiative, Daan Utsav has reported a more enthusiastic resp­onse this year compared to the previous years, in spite of the fact that most of its events have had to be held online.

“Perhaps it’s because people were desperate to connect after so many months of lockdown. Perhaps it is because the lockdown has given people time to reflect — but the response to this year’s Daan Utsav has been overwhelming,” says Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah, a volunteer and organiser of the Lucknow chapter of Daan Utsav. From setting up children’s libraries, distributing masks and conducting mental health workshops to planting trees, adopting animals and organising a digital mela to connect rural producers with buyers online, Habibullah says that each event was attended by many more people than in the previous years.

“For example, our digital mela had over 280 NGO/rural artisan participants and 7,000 visitors in one day,” she says. “It was so successful that now we plan to do Facebook live sessions every two weeks to connect artisans directly with buyers.”

Like Habibullah, across the country, thousands of NGOs, clubs and individuals have participated in Daan Utsav 2020. “The energy has been incredible this year,” says Habibullah. Kumar agrees. GiveIndia has noticed a huge surge in donations this year. “Individuals, corporate companies and institutions have nearly tripled their donations to our platform during Daan Utsav 2020,” he avers.

GiveIndia launched 100 Heroes programmes for NGOs for fundraising on the first day of the Utsav. When it ended, 239 NGOs has already raised Rs 1.5 crore in seven days. “We’ll run this programme till Diwali and are not only matching each donation made to the top 100 NGOs, we’ve also waived the platform fees,” Kumar says.

Corporate companies like Flipkart, Sterlite, Fortis, BigBasket, and others have engaged their employees in a range of Daan Utsav activities like collection and donation drives, cleanup and plantation activities and more. “Through our platform, Flipkart, Ola, AU Small Finance Bank, Sterlite technologies and others raised funds for support staff and Covid relief,” says Kumar. Other consumer brands like PhonePe have also run donation campaigns for GiveIndia.

It’s not just about monetary donations towards worthy causes. Many Daan Utsav events have encouraged non-monetary philanthropic initiatives like sharing skills, teaching others and donating used items. Bollywood actor Vidya Balan donated a sari for an e-auction to raise money for a charity this year. Cashify, a re-commerce marketplace for electronic gadgets, donated refurbished smartphones to students struggling to cope with online classes. Project Pehchaan exhorted people to simply teach their support staff five sentences in English and upload the videos. As Daan Utsav’s volunteer network has realised, simply connecting people can have positive outcomes. “For example, when we found that clubs like Inner Wheel and Rotary weren’t being able to physically work with communities because of the pandemic, we used the opportunity of Daan Utsav to connect them with organisations like Robin Hood Army who’re working on the ground,” Habibullah says.

GiveIndia reports that dozens of corporate companies have used their suite of products and activities focusing on developing philanthropy to conduct team-building exercises with their employees. “There are many ways of paying forward the many positives that life has offered us,” says Kumar, who is heartened by the fact that less than 12 per cent of the respondents of the GiveIndia survey reported that they would actually be donating (less) in these difficult tim­es. Habibullah has observed a much greater enthusiasm to participate and a need to connect with others after all these months of lockdown. “Could it be that observing the suffering of so many others during the pandemic has height­ened general levels of empathy?” she wonders. 

It’s too early to tell, but one thing is clear: Something good might have emerged from this pandemic after all.