Joy of Giving week: Marshal Support

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The Joy of Giving week started on October 2, and will go on till October 8. In this daily blog series, we will take you through seven habits of effective givers, one habit at a time, to help develop a culture of giving.

It is only when you are completely committed and sure of a relationship do you introduce your partner to your family, friends and relatives. Habit 5 to cultivate the practice of giving  is to gather external support for the organisation or cause of your choice. Look into your phone contacts' list, address books and networks to gather like-minded people who can support the cause along with you.

There are two ways to go about this- (i)    Looking at everyone you know and trying to see how they can help, also called the Rolodex approach
(ii)    Identifying what the organisation needs and trying to find connections that can help.

The Rolodex approach
All of us have a vast network of contacts, irrespective of what level we are at, in any organisation. This can range from friends, family, relatives, colleagues, vendors, customers, business partners to acquaintances.

- Make a list of all your friends and family and what they do.
- Go through your visiting cards and your contact lists on phone, email address book, WhatsApp groups, LinkedIn relationships and Facebook friends.
- Against each name, try to put down how they can help. Money is something that most people can give, and almost everyone could potentially volunteer their time. Many have some expertise or skill. Compiling this list would add to the “resources you can potentially tap. This is an extension of what you did in Habit 3 - going beyond the immediate resources that came to mind, to systematically compiling information about almost everyone you know.

Armed with this list, start looking at the problems you are trying to solve or the opportunities you want to tap for the cause/ organisation, and see which resources can be useful. You’ll be surprised to discover a lot of connections that you didn’t think of tapping.

It may initially seem awkward to reach out to people and seek help. But when you recognise it's not a personal favor you are seeking, you will realise you are going to be instrumental in helping someone discover the joy of giving.

Meeting the Cause/ Organisation’s Needs
You can broadly classify the support needed into three categories - money & resources, skills and strategic/advisory/intellectual support. We will talk about the third category in Habit 6.

Money
At the outset, understand exactly what the money is needed for and how it will make a difference to the cause/ organisation and create impact. Help create the story to sell the idea and create a pitch deck that can be presented to donors. Work with the team and ensure that the on-ground team is on board with the pitch and the deck that will be used (including promises of what reporting will be done to donors, what acknowledgements can be given, and so on).

Once this is done, you can start raising funds through crowdfunding platforms like Milaap, Ketto, ImpactGuru, and so on. Setting up the campaign is not enough. Pick up tips and tricks from an expert. They can guide you through the best practices. The offer of a 'matching donation' ie, matching the donation that a friend or family member makes, always works. You could also offer to pick up the fundraising costs so that contributors are assured that 100 percent of their contribution would go to the cause. This works as a huge motivator. Your involvement with the cause and organisation and your presence can be a reassuring factor for contributors, knowing that you would ensure the money is used for the cause.

Another way to help the organisation is by creating funding proposals for them. Check your company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy to see if your cause can fit into their purpose. You could also speak to your head of CSR to gauge interest and support. You can check out research CSR policies of companies and check out request for proposals (RFPs) put out by companies on platforms like goodcsr.in, help the organisation submit proposals, and try to find connects in those companies.

If the money is needed for something other than salaries and utilities, try and make a list of the items and services required. Find connects in companies that can donate those items or services. Companies often have unsold (but good quality) stock of items and service providers often have “bench time” or “idle time” that can be tapped for pro bno support.

Reach out to all the vendors and customers you work with too. If you don’t work directly with any customers or vendors, see if you can rope in colleagues who deal with them.

Skills
List out the skills and expertise that your organisation or cause can benefit from, and then mine your relationships to identify people who can provide the pro bono.

For example, people who can help with,
•    The entire HR spectrum - recruitment, development and training, OD, career planning, succession planning, team building
•    Systems creation- accounting & financial management & control, MIS & IT
•    Marketing- website, social media agencies, ad agencies & design firms to create collateral
•    Technical skills- depending on the cause – education- your child’s school?, health- someone you know in a hospital.

Above all, do not get disheartened when people say no. Ask any sales executive you know and they will tell you that a conversion ratio of 1 in 5 or 10 is considered good. So if you’ve asked 100 people and even 10 of them help in some way, you’re doing as well as a good sales guy. And more importantly, you’re learning a new skill even as you contribute.

Daan Utsav, the Joy of Giving week begins on October 2, till October 8. Over the next week, we’ll delve into each of these habits and help you with tips and methods to become an effective giver.

The author set up GiveIndia in 2000, to create a "giving culture" in India and, in 2009, he, along with several other volunteers, conceptualised and launched DaanUtsav, a festival that aims to bring India together to celebrate giving.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.