May 2004

Editorial

Calling fundraisers!

Last year alone, over 400 people participated in our training courses on various aspects of communications and fundraising for voluntary organisations. The number of fundraisers (CEO fundraisers/ one person teams/ larger teams for fundraising) in India is steadily growing. Fundraisers come from varying backgrounds – from within the sector and the corporate sector (communications, advertising, public relations and similar fields) to fresh college graduates sympathetic to the voluntary sector.

While fundraisers especially with a corporate sector background, are seen as completely different persons from programme staff in Indian voluntary organisations, there are also a number of issues facing the fundraising fraternity with regard to a minimum code of conduct or ethics in fundraising. We hear of a number of initiatives to form fundraiser's forums and share experiences but a concrete initiative like the Credibility Alliance setting minimum norms of disclosure and governance for the Indian voluntary sector is lacking.

On the global scene, there are quite a few associations of fundraisers (www.afc.org.uk, www.afpnet.org, www.pfra.org.uk) that set standards for fundraising professionals, while serving as a networking platform. Indian voluntary organisations taking local resource mobilisation seriously, need to come together to form an association/ alliance that will guide young fundaisers as well as set strong ethical and practical standards in the profession.

- editor

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FR Snapshot

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News in Brief

What's happening in communication & fundraising?

Crediblity Alliance registers as a national level organisation
The Credibility Alliance was an informal group of voluntary organisations from various parts of the country that came together to set minimum norms of governance and disclosure for the voluntary sector in India. The Alliance has recently registered itself as a national level society and has set up office at S125, 2nd Floor, Panchsheel Park in New Delhi. Memberships to the Credibility Alliance will be open from 1st June 2004. For further details, contact the Chief Executive Mr Ranjan Rao Yerdoor on 011-51750783 or log on to www.credall.org.in

Nesa's direct mail campaign
Nesa (New Entity for Social Action) is a rights based organisation that works to secure life with dignity for Dalits, Adivasis and other vulnerable communities in India. As part of its local fundraising efforts, Nesa sent out direct mailers to a database of over 35,000 potential donors in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Mumbai. Direct mailers in Tamil, with a Tamil new year message was also sent out in April to another database of about 5,000 people in Tamil Nadu. 75 responses were received amounting to Rs 88,705. Nesa now has a list of 100 warm donors on its database. Being a rights-based organisation, this response has encouraged the communications and fundraising team.

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Tip of the month

Categorise your database of supporters

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The Vanishing Poor
A study of the shrinking coverage of pro-poor issues in the print media - Centre for Youth and Social Development

There was a time when newspapers had a development page. Editors fought hard to keep advertisements off that page. Over the years, as newspapers turned into profit centres and editors into developers of 'markets', the page shrank into half, a quarter, a column, and then, vanished altogether.

The Vanishing Poor is a study of the shrinking coverage of problems and issues concerning the poor in print media. Conducted by the Centre for Youth and Social Development, Bhubaneswar, it analyses the space and prominence given to social concerns in leading English and Oriya dailies over a period of six months. The areas under study are social development and poverty, women, child rights, Dalits and indigenous people, and human rights.

The study found that Oriya dailies allotted less than four per cent of space to problems concerning the poor. Of these, Prajatantra leads with 709 stories. Among the English dailies, The New Indian Express gave these issues the most prominence with 1.56 per cent of total space, followed by The Telegraph with 0.76 per cent and The Times of India, with 0.58 per cent in six months. Most of the stories were situational reports, and lacked incisive analysis. Coverage was largely superficial, staid and clichéd, and follow-up of stories rare.

The study is intended to push media owners, editors and reporters into mending their ways and allotting more time and space to pro-poor issues. But as a features editor with a leading newspaper recently remarked, “When I write about the good life, I get flowers, chocolates and phone calls. When I write about the poor, I get a call from my editor telling me to buck up or else...”. Tough choice, that.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends, associates and anyone who might be interested. And do send in your queries and suggestions to training@fundraising-india.org

MCC-- Murray Culshaw Consulting Pvt Ltd serves the voluntary sector in India. We offer training and direct support on communication and fundraising, undertake research on related issues, publish books and maintain a database of about 8,000 organisations in India. Contact us at:  2nd Floor  Vijay Kiran Building  314/1  7^th Cross  Domlur Layout Bangalore 560 071  India  Tel: 91-80-2535 2003/ 5115 0580
email training@fundraising-india.org  website: www.fundraising-india.org