By 
It all started with an honest Facebook post. When Friendicoes-SECA, an animal welfare organization in Delhi, posted that it may have to shut down due to unpaid bills of over Rs 82 lakh, animal lovers offered to help the helper.
BitGiving, a crowdfunding platform, set up a fundraising campaign and a target was set for Rs 20 lakh, the minimum amount required to keep it afloat. It was met in just 36 hours. The target was then raised overnight to Rs 40 lakh, of which Rs 39 lakh has already been raised. “It’s been a very emotional time, to go from facing closure to receiving so many generous contributions,” says Geeta Seshamani, vice-president, Friendicoes. The NGO runs a shelter, helpline, ambulances, a hospital, and looks after over 1,500 distressed animals at any time.
The contributions from over 1,300 online backers range from Rs 100 to Rs 30,000. From people who adopted their four-legged pals from Friendicoes, and those who got unconditional help for strays, to those who recently lost their pet companions, moving stories have flooded the donors’ comments section. There are animal lovers who have chosen to donate despite being broke, and others who sacrificed vacation money for charity.
Friendicoes is not the only organization to have been resuscitated by online philanthropists. Last year when Khabar Lahariya, a regional language weekly brought out by 40 women journalists for 800 villages of UP and Bihar, found itself in dire need of funds, it took to crowdfunding platform Ketto and raised Rs 13 lakh in 50 days with the help of 20 volunteers who ran sustained campaigns in their networks. “Not only did we raise funds, we also expanded our reach and got more people interested in our recently launched digital edition,” says Disha Mullick, director of outreach, Women Media and News (WoMeN) Trust, which publishes the paper.
Traditional fundraisers have constraints of time and space. Besides, the online medium has facilitated impulsive donations, feels Nikhil Pahwa, editor of Medianama.com. “When you see a cause, there’s an instinct to help. Online campaigns let you act on this impulse with just a click or two, while traditional channels would require a physical effort, and hence an afterthought may creep in.” Ishita Anand, founder and CEO of BitGiving, reveals a case in point.
“Last year, we raised about Rs 14 lakh in two campaigns run by ‘Stop Acid Attacks’ for building a shelter in Delhi for acid attack survivors,” she says. The unprecedented contributions also helped the organization set up a café in Agra called ‘Sheroes Hangout’, run by the survivors. “Another thing that works for online fundraisers is that people are not ashamed of making small contributions when armed with virtual identities and the option to go anonymous,” points out Rajiv Sobhani, VP, business development, Ketto. So what makes a particular campaign tick? Content plays a big role, says Sobhani.
For instance, Friendicoes is using videos to introduce its endearing furry inhabitants to potential donors. Recently, Ketto hosted another campaign that raised over Rs 6 lakh for Kranti in Mumbai. The NGO had set a target of Rs 5 lakh to improve the living space for 15 girls, all daughters of sex workers who were repeatedly thrown out of their rented homes. “The last landlord did not even refund a deposit of Rs 5 lakh which we had paid for the apartment. We’ve started living in a chawl and don’t have fans or furniture,” says Robin Chaurasiya, co-founder of Kranti.
When she was approached by Karishma Mehta, the founder of Humans of Bombay, to do a photo series and a subsequent fundraising campaign for the girls, Chaurasiya thought the target would take at least a month’s time. But given the popularity of Mehta’s Facebook page, it was met in merely 15 hours. “What connected with the people was a narration of a personal encounter with these girls, and pictures of them,” says Mehta. But there is a catch to such campaigns. Organizations that turn to crowdfunding in desperate times target the bare minimum amount to keep running and often succeed, but subsequently face donation fatigue. “This campaign might have saved us for now, but we need to keep raising funds to sustain ourselves,” says Kartick Satyanarayan, executive member of Friendicoes.
Chaurasiya points out that the funds raised might have provided a roof for the Kranti girls, but they still have loans to repay and a monthly rent of Rs 65,000 to churn out. For Khabar Lahariya, an attempt to raise a similar amount of Rs 13 lakh failed this year, and the needle stopped at Rs 5 lakh. Pahwa suggests transparency as a solution. “While doing a second campaign, it is important that organizations reveal in elaborate detail what the earlier funds were used for. That establishes trust in the donors’ minds,” he says.
