RE-TWEET IT!
Tweet
I shared a message with my email subscribers. It was about my “Magic Number“.
My friend Shel Horowitz tweeted me some feedback about it. One point he made was the possible lack of confidence inspired by my mentioning (to a primarily U.S. audience) that we’d only raised around $135,000 since starting this effort.
Curious, I Googled the topic – and found this recent article in TIME.
“With 3.3 million registered NGOs, India’s nonprofit sector raises between $8 billion and $16 billion in funding every year.”
Hmm… that was interesting data. And then, I came to this startling statement.
“…of $2.15 billion in foreign aid recieved, around $680 million was used for organizational expenses.”
That’s almost 31% of the funds raised being spent on administrivia. (For comparison, my Foundation averages THREE percent!)
And that led me to think about constraints and hurdles I’ve faced in fund raising adventures over 7 years, which might make for an interesting blog post. Here it comes.
There have been many limitations in my efforts to raise money for helping children from under-privileged families receive expensive treatment for congenital heart defects.
The biggest among these were:
Credibility – Ten years ago, with no track record to point at, I had to rely on the trust of people (who had never even met me!) to support my fledgling efforts. Fortunately, enough of them cared to help make it happen… and bring us to this point where I can point at many smiling faces for proof.
Time – Until recently when I chose to make this project a full-time activity, I was juggling duties as Assistant Professor at a busy University hospital with managing a thriving online information business, leaving me severely hard-pressed for time to handle everything that needed attention.
Laws – Constantly changing and getting ever more restrictive (for legitimate reasons, to prevent money-laundering and terror funding), these made it increasingly harder to raise and transfer foreign funds into India.
Patient factors – Having a waiting list without adequate funding was impractical. So whenever funds became available, we went through a sequence of activities to find and bring in kids to undergo surgery. The lack of a structured process made this time-consuming and uncertain.
Transparency – Without popular 3rd party validation agencies with sufficient clout to have impact, getting ‘certified’ as a valid NGO in India was impossible. The few smaller ones had exceedingly complex application steps which would require a full-time staff member to deal with requirements. (One had an 86-page form just to apply for registration!)
Amid all this, I gamely battled on. Patched together a system that worked, even if not very efficiently, to raise funds and carry out 70 heart operations.
But suddenly, policy changes at our primary payment processor jerked the rug out from under us in July. Suddenly, the fragile edifice cracked and looked ready to collapse. It took a determined and focused phase of activity to cobble it back together – and a more permanent solution is being worked on as we speak.
From one perspective, seven years of action without leading to a rock-solid system to overcome all these hurdles seems to indicate a slacking off and waste of time, or misguided effort and lack of direction. And regardless of how harsh you or anyone else may judge me on this, I suspect it won’t be 10% as hard as I’ve been on myself.
But compared against the average Indian NGO which is often better staffed, organized and managed than my smaller Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation, our performance (even if not shining or stellar) is fair. As this “Civil Society” article says,
“Very few of India’s NGOs are very big: there are perhaps just 200 with more than Rs 25 crores (US$5 million) each to spend in a year. Around 70 per cent are the very small organizations, some with as little as Rs 4 or 5 lakhs (US$10,000) in a year. It is these small outfits which reach out to communities, work at the grassroots and represent the true spirit of an active and vibrant voluntary effort.”
Are there problems? Of course. There is corruption and mishandling of funds. Some Indian charities are structured so that they are merely tax saving entities rather than delivering value to their beneficiaries. And overheads can be steep, as the 31% average figure indicates.
But that’s the tiny minority of “rotten apples” you’ll find in just about any barrel you choose to poke around in. As “Civil Society” comments,
“These are valid concerns, but not as widespread as it has become fashionable to imagine. Essentially people who take up causes really care and they are as honest as the system allows them to be.”
And so the battle continues. Evolving and adapting to the uniqueness of India’s non-profit environment is an interesting, sometimes frustrating, and never uneventful experience, one where creativity and innovation are often better and more rewarding weapons against uncertainty than credentialing and striving to comply with norms.
That’s why I try different and unconventional approaches. Like running this special “Business Booster Sale” which promises to give business owners incredible value for making a contribution to charity.
Far better than just going to them, hat in hand, with an appeal seeking a donation, don’t you think? Take a look at this offer (you’ll be blown away by how much value you’ll get) and tell your friends about it too. But hurry – because it ends on December 31st, 2010.
And you can also be in my “Magic Forty” – get more details here
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
