How to Raise Money for Your Cause

Fund raising for a social cause is one of the biggest challenge for any non-profit. And this is an essential component to make a success of any social enterprise.  For any non-government organisation, the major revenue stream is donation from its members or the community to sustain itself.

Many NGOs go in for regular fund-raising endeavours to remain operational while any major project requires massive financial support which calls for innovation.

One can list out numerous fund-raising ideas as growing number of NGOs try every possible way to raise funds, but largely, the NGOs continue to struggle for continuous stream of financial support.  Usual refrain that one gets to hear from them is that "there are not enough people who donate", or "no one gives", "people are callous", "the rich are least bothered", etc. etc.  However, if one goes by the performance of some of the successful NGOs like Rotary, HelpAge, Oxfam, CRY, etc, they continue to fund their major service projects with success.

To make a successful fund-raising effort it is essential that one realises that an NGO or not-for-profit is just like any other enterprise and requires professional management to manage its resources and projects.  All it requires is following the time-tested management principles and fund-raising strategies to make the not-for-profit succeed in making positive changes in the society.

Here are Five Principles of making a success of fund-raising efforts.

1. Design a communication campaign: It is essential to have a comprehensive communication plan to make your organisation or your project known to the world, especially to those segments of society who matter and can provide financial support.  Write down the project, the beneficiaries, the project cost, and how it is going to make an impact.  Once the project is ready, create informative brochure, flyer, website, content for social media like facebook, twitter, youtube, etc.

2. Create Your Story: The human interest is the one that moves the people.  The story of any one or two individuals who would get the benefit from the project would make a lot of sense in making the donors understand the enormity of the project, and how their participation would help these people in need. Make it gripping and real which becomes possible once you connect with the beneficiaries and check out their lives for the challenges they are facing.

2. Share it with larger audience: Once the project is ready announce it to the world through a media  briefing, sending out news releases to various channels, giving details of the project, and how it is going to make a difference in the society. The philanthropic organisations or individuals who step in should be a part of the media briefings with appropriate acknowledgement of their participation.

3. Reach Out to Philanthropists:  Everyone is a philanthropist but one can decide whether you need smaller contribution from large number of givers or large contribution from a small number of donors. For a larger project, one need to list out all those High Networth Individuals in the community, corporations and reach out to them with appropriate presentation containing project details, photographs/video presentations, in a complete docket with options and opportunities for giving.  Also list out how the donor would get the recognition for joining in the cause.

4. Your Members as Ambassadors:  The members of the not-for-profit have to be informed and prepared to be the brand ambassadors for the cause that the organisation intends to promote.  Each one can identify the potential donors and pitch them with the ideas, and opportunities to associate themselves with the cause. An internal newsletter and other means of communication need to be deployed for a regular update on the progress of the project.

5. Share the Stories of Success:  As the project proceeds or concludes, every beneficiary who gets touched through these efforts, has a story to tell.  Follow it up closely the case of each and every individual.  Find out how the project has transformed their lives.  Share these stories with the media, with members, the donors, and the community at large, and you can see how the people respond and support.

The key to the success of the fund-raising however remains is meticulous planning, identifying your prospects, reaching out to them with appropriate communication, and telling your story effectively.

Guide for Entrepreneurs

For a country to grow, you need entrepreneurs, feels Mr. Chandra Mohan, a rare blend of an engineer-scientist, an inventor, a visionary entrepreneur, an educationist and, a top-class thought leader in total quality management. And when he speaks, everyone listens.  His second book, which is autobiographical guide for the entrepreneurs, was released in Chandigarh today, “Making Entrepreneurs: Lessons from a Lifetime”.


Mr. Chandra Mohan, who was conferred Padmashree in 1985 for his entrepreneurial acumen and innovative business strategies, believes that the difference between entrepreneurship and small business is significant and lies in innovation and high risk-taking ability, leading to far larger and faster wealth creation.

And risk, he points out, is at its highest when one is launching a drastic innovation in product or production technology in an intensely competitive field. This is just what he himself did with Punjab Tractors Ltd (PTL) and the 100% Indian ‘Swaraj’ tractor that his team designed and built from scratch in a national lab 47 years ago, then mass-produced and marketed it against the best of CKD-based global brand names.

Mr Chandra Mohan is passionate about upgrading technical skills of the young engineering graduates and insists on imparting entrepreneurial skills to them so that they can find solutions to teeming problems that face the country today, the reason that he founded and established the country's first school of excellence for TQM and entrepreneurship under Punjab Technical University.

Keshub Mahindra, founder and chairman emeritus of Mahindra & Mahindra, in his foreword to the book writes: “The true genius of Chandra Mohan is his inquisitive searching mind and his capacity to think out of the box.”


Looking back at the age of 80, Chandra Mohan has been entrepreneuring for the last 48 years of his professional innings of 57 years, with technology and innovation as the focus. That journey still continues, with a patent in photovoltaics filed as recently as 2008. Of course, he says, there have also been failures on the way – but they have not deterred him from sculpting new dreams. “Innovation is seemingly an organic component of my blood-stream,” he writes.

The book is what he himself describes as “a critical self-analysis in search of a process for identifying potential entrepreneurs out of students pursuing higher professional education and then grooming them for setting up their projects along with their professional courses... and mentoring them all the way through till they are ready to commence implementation as they graduate.”

With each of its chapters ending with highly useful tips encapsulated under “Learnings”, Chanbra Mohan sees entrepreneurship as a social responsibility, which he aptly concludes in the last chapter “Creating the Zen for Entrepreneurship?”:  “This self-analysis of lifetime journey began with the objective of drawing some lessons to help a society promote the cult of entrepreneurship for raising its living standards.”

(“Making Entrepreneurs: Lessons from a Lifetime”, Gyan Publishing House, pp.296. Price Rs.850)

Go Viral

Engaging your targeted audience on the social media is an essential component of online public relations efforts.  It is not about informing them but involving them in the campaign and make them act or respond to the communication. Though there are different tools available to measure the ultimate outcome of the efforts, to collate and integrate the analytics, Hubspot is a veritable to do the job.

This video provides interesting insight how one can integrate various online social media platforms to make the communication go viral.

What social media policy your company should have?

Social media is growing everyday giving access to every individual to use it with impunity.  And unknowingly, in a bigger corporate setup, employees use the platform sharing status or information unwittingly which they should not be sharing.
Many organisations restrict/block the access to the social media. But there are others who encourage their employees to use it but with utmost caution.
This video by Citrix provides an overview of the social media policy that the company has been following.  Of course it requires lot of work to customise the policy as per the organisation's needs and objectives.

Are You Passionate about Your Business?

As we enter 2013, many of us have lots of new year resolutions, and especially those in profession or business, do have a very clear plans in their minds what they want to achieve in the year ahead. 

(c) About.com

The year 2013 is most promising for all those "passionate" people who love what they do, and what they represent.  

In one of the facebook studies, I was surprised to know that almost 45% of the small businesses are on the social media.  It is though debatable that whether social media helps someone succeed too, yet the people who love their work and are passionate about it can be found there. They would write about their product, their services, the brand, and share photos with the community.  

For many of the companies in the FMCG sector, health, hospitality, and entertainment business have faired well through their active engagement with their audience through social media. 

Are you passionate about your work? Go ahead and make the best use of the exciting online tools. 
The best part is that 2013 promises to be an era of further integration of multiple platforms, with the entire world in your smart phone. 

Happy 2013. 

Creativity in PR

This is a latest global study by The Holmes Report in collaboration with Ketchum and No Go Create, would make any PR professional sit up and introspect. The study done in 2012 makes interesting revelation. Some consider it as an area of concern too, since only 6 percent of the respondents considered PR industry as creative, and another 6 percent labelled it as "non-existent".

It definitely is an area of concern considering that over 600 respondents from 35 countries including the clients besides agency and in-house executives participated in the survey.

However, it is worth exploring further as to what kind of creativity is being looked at by the clients in their PR services. Nevertheless, it is worth understanding, comparing the insight with our own Indian practice within our own respective organisations, and learning from it.
(Download pdf)

Creativity in PR, a Global Study from ArunSudhaman