Funding for a real purpose!

There were times when we used to reach out to certain people   when in need. But, with the power of social media and internet, many people across the world are now able to raise funds for a good cause and things that matter. And many people are joining in to support them. This was indeed proven when recently a crowd sourcing website in India called Milaap helped a critically injured girl in Tamil Nadu pay her hospital bills. The site has raised more than 1.6 million rupees for the family.

For independent filmmakers who often work with small teams and struggle to get their films out, a successful crowdfunding campaign can be a real boost.

Surbhi Dewan an independant filmmaker who started out making a very personal film about her own family history and used crowd-funding to get funds for the film. She says, “The film was shot on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. It was only when we reached the post-production stage that we started thinking about raising funds for the film. Crowdfunding seemed like a good option because apart from having faith in our families and friends (to show us support), we knew that there was a clear audience out there. We just had to figure out how to reach them. What we had not realised was that the crowdfunding campaign would become an effective marketing model, not just for fundraising, but for the film itself. We received a lot of media coverage, we connected with many like-minded people from across the world that helped promote the campaign within their networks, and we received many generous contributions from complete strangers! It was a great feeling to see the campaign be successful.”

Crowdfunding does not help these people financially but also impacts many who read about heart touching stories that they share. Amar Daniel Gabrian, the founder of Ananda Sagara, an organisation that provides an ecosystem for children of migrant construction workers says, “Milaap, a crowd funding site, helped us to connect with a network of people who all are looking at this world positively and want to do so much more in this world. So, apart from helping us getting more funds than we had expected, it gave us an opportunity to share our story of faith and hope to the larger world. It was very encouraging when people called us from different parts of the world, encouraging us in our journey. They helped us to share our story of faith and hope to more than two million people in this world, which would have been impossible to do on our own.”

Varun Sheth- CEO and CO-Founder at Ketto, a crowd-funding website says, “Crowdfunding is a way to raise funds through campaigns both online and offline. One of the challenges is that since it is an online, virtual concept, the trust factor is yet to be carved out in people’s minds. The idea-adoption rate is however, fast in terms of crowd funding. Many more NGOs are opting for crowdfunding because of the positive approach they have received from the crowd in the form of funds.”

Kannada Crowdfunded Film Lucia

Lucia, a Kannada thriller film by Pawan Kumar used crowdfunding to instill the essence of raising funds, especially in a field like independent filmmaking.