As Seema Guha noted earlier in this debate, NGOs in India have been put on notice, and we all have to be more careful—and creative—about our funding sources. As such, Amnesty International India is developing and hoping to expand its local fundraising strategy,
There are three parts to AI’s local funding strategy. The first two are raising money from charitable trusts and foundations, and from wealthy individuals. But the most important is the third part, where the majority of our staff work: face-to-face fundraising—what we refer to as “regular gifts”—is crucial to our operations.
Until March this year, this donor solicitation was done out of two of our offices, Bangalore and Chennai. This month, we have started operations in three additional cities—Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad—for raising money through regular gifts. In this process, we stand on the street during office hours (including slightly before and slightly after). We stop individuals and talk to them about Amnesty International and our program of work in India. This conversation usually lasts about 15 minutes and also includes a run through of our seven active projects in India: under-trial detention, tribal rights in coal mining areas, and women’s right to report sexual violence, among others.
