Give till it hurts

I remember collecting Rs 200 for HelpAge India as a schoolgirl in Mussoorie. I wasn't alone "" most of my friends from school, too, were vying with each other to collect money for the organisation that helps India's elderly.

That was in the 1980s, but funds from schools still account for a major chunk of the non-government organisation's (NGO's) funds "" last year HelpAge netted Rs 5 crore through this route.

What has changed is that HelpAge and other NGOs are looking beyond the obvious when it comes to filling their coffers.

Collecting for a cause is no longer just about cajoling people to write out cheques.

Indian NGOs now have snazzy, Flash powered websites that encourage online contributions, telemarketers or direct selling agents who promise you freebies in exchange for a donation; co-branded promotions with movies and on cable television....

What's behind this rush of activity? In a word: competition. The number of NGOs operating in India has been steadily increasing "" according to a study by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (Pria), at last count there were 1.2 million NGOs in India.

But the donor profile doesn't show any such rise. Pria research points out that under 4 per cent of all donors to NGOs have incomes of over Rs 1 lakh; and funds from international sources, too, account for less than 8 per cent of the total.

Actionaid India Chief Executive Jerininio Almeida concurs. "Although nearly 3 crore people pay taxes, only 2 lakh donate for social welfare every year."

Clearly, NGOs are facing an ever-shrinking share of an already-small pie. Most NGOs concede there's a deluge in February-March (tax time), but the rest of the year is a near-drought.

The task before them, then, is clear: get more people to donate, more frequently and on a regular basis.

That's easier said than done. The old, proven route of mailers and schools has worked only so far. Dipstick surveys by organisations such as HelpAge and Actionaid indicate that most people don't donate for a cause because they were never asked.

Which means there is a huge donor base out there waiting to be tapped. Reaching them, therefore, calls for innovation. The Strategist examines a few case studies.

CRY: The medium is the message

Child Relief and You (CRY) is probably one of the best-recognised NGOs in India. For the past 25 years it's been working for underprivileged children in the country, getting its funds through mailers, direct contributions and greeting card sales.

The organisation also tied up with greeting cards company Archies back in 2000 and receives a considerable chunk of funds from this source.

But now it's looking ahead. In November 2002 it set up its website that accepts online contributions "" in the first six months of its launch, the site generated Rs 52 lakh.

CRY Assistant Manager, communications, Meenakshi Kohli is confident that the web option will pick up. "The net is reaching more people everyday, and people are also becoming willing to trust credit card transactions," she says.

But the biggest event CRY has organised recently was its Republic Day telethon on Sony TV. Telethons "" where people can call manned phone lines to pledge funds "" are popular fundraising events across the globe, though they're still to take off in India.

CRY's telethon was a mixed-bag event of shows and chats with celebrities, interspersed with exhortations to donate for the children's cause.

Production house UTV made the show for CRY and Sony TV donated seven hours of airtime and sold only 50 per cent of it at its standard advertising rate.

The telethon brought in ratings of 1, which is better than most news channels' and what a usual Sunday afternoon gets. More importantly, it generated Rs 1.04 crore of donations, most of it on the same day, either through SMS, a toll free number, the Internet or telebanking.

The toll free number was busy throughout the show and Kohli says the programme reached 8 million homes.

Actionaid: It's better to receive than to give

Actionaid India jumped on to the innovation bandwagon after it realised that relying on its British parent for funding was perhaps not too prudent.

The result was events such as Aman Yatra (where youngsters toured the country on motorcycle), roping in page three celebrities for its cause and its own spin-off on Tupperware parties: fund raising at home, where a celebrity host calls over a group of well-heeled friends, throws in some entertainment and snacks and then asks them to contribute to the cause.

Delhi socialite Nafisa Ali hosted the first of the series. But now, says CEO Almeida, Actionaid India's efforts are based on a simple thought: Why shouldn't those who contribute to a noble cause get something in return? The result was "Karm Mitra: Friends in Action", a donor loyalty programme launched in 2004.

Under the scheme, half of a donor's contribution is used by the NGO for welfare activities. The other half is used for extending privileges to the donor, such as free movie tickets, concerts (for instance, the Sound of the Sea at Mumbai in August, 2004), holiday packages and a co-branded credit card with ICICI.

Direct selling agents market the scheme and are paid a 20 per cent commission. In the past 10 months, the NGO has raised over Rs 2 crore from 50,000 donors with this scheme.

HelpAge: The corporate connection

HelpAge India's coffers are mostly filled by the efforts of school children "" last year its plain vanilla approach to fundraising brought it Rs 5 crore each from mailers and schools, and Rs 32 crore from government and corporate funding.

That's not enough, feels the NGO. Which is why it is now looking to raise revenues by opening retail stores that will sell products made by its elderly members. The first store "" which sells greeting cards, photo frames, planners and the like "" was opened inside HelpAge's Delhi office in January and Communications Director Nidhi Raj Kapoor says the response has been "encouraging".

HelpAge is also roping in companies to assist it in fundraising. Early last year, for instance, it launched a co-branded credit card with ICICI Bank, where cardholders have the option of donating their rewards points to the NGO; a percentage of the purchase and the subscription fees also goes to HelpAge.

In December, HelpAge deepened the corporate connection. It signed on as a corporate agent for the Life Insurance Corporation and National Insurance Corporation.

Under the project, HelpAge recruits people who sell policies on its behalf. While the agents receive a salary for their efforts, the commissions they earn go to HelpAge.

The scheme is still to take off: so far HelpAge has just seven people on its rolls and has earned a paltry Rs 30,000. "It's a beginning," defends Kapoor. After all, he adds, "We are competing in a cramped market with other charities and causes "" all of which are equally worthy."

NAB: A vision for the future

Established in 1952, the National Association for Blind (NAB) is perhaps one of the oldest NGOs in India. Until now, most of its funds have come from schools, flag day, legacy donations and the Mumbai marathon.

Last year, NAB received Rs 3 crore in donations. But that's not nearly enough, considering India has the largest number of visually impaired people in the world.

And sources of funds are shrinking. Says Jeroo Khan, director, resource mobilisation and public relations, NAB, "We used to raise much more from schools than the Rs 90 lakh we got last year. But that's because other NGOs also go to the same schools."

That's why NAB has decided to try other methods. At the recent release of Hindi movie Black "" which portrays a blind, deaf-mute girl and her quest to lead a "normal" life "" NAB made sure it was present at all cinema theatres in Mumbai.

Moviegoers were handed a mailer along with their ticket, which had a form for donations: Rs 365 a year; Rs 7,300 for education; Rs 9,100 for rehabilitation and so on. More than a month later, Khan says the cheques are still coming in.

Most of them are for education and rehabilitation of blind people, two issues that were addressed in the movie. And all it took for NAB was to grab the opportunity.