GiveIndia said digital crowdfunding platform LetzChange Foundation will merge with it, and the online donation platform will invest over Rs 15 crores in the combined entity.
GiveIndia’s investment will be used towards online subscription-based giving and scaling crowdfunding offerings, it said in a statement. The combined entity will provide a much wider choice to donors, in terms of selecting causes, programs, and geographies, Atul Satija, CEO of GiveIndia tells Fortune India.
“Last year, both GiveIndia and LetzChange together donated about 37 crore to various non-profits. We want to scale it to more than 100 crores of annual giving over the next few years, and support more than 1000 non profits from all over India,” Satija, says, adding, “Since online giving is still in early days, I feel that there’s a lot of work to be done and the potential to create a huge impact.”
An 18-year old organisation, GiveIndia has helped more than 200 non-profit organizations raise upwards of Rs. 330 crores from over 10 lakh donors, through payroll-giving, online giving, and subscription giving.
“It’s the best time ever to build an online giving platform in India, with growing middle class, affordable smartphones and pervasive mobile internet. However, this needs a lot of effort in building potential donor understanding, trust, acquisition and servicing,” Satija says.
LetzChange Foundation, which was set up in 2014 by IIT, IIM-alumnus Vikrant Bhargava, has peer-to-peer fundraising tools, event-based online fundraisers, a charity booster program, and is helping non-profits across the country with online fundraising.
While crowdfunding has been an upcoming method for capital-raising for startups and new ventures, issues around people’s comfort with it persist.
“The biggest challenge we have is credibility and trust in non-profits, and while not entirely unfounded, majority of this is just perceived. Also, there’s no rating or other trust mechanism with wide enough adoption to become industry standard,” Satija says.
But things are changing slowly. “People have gotten very comfortable shopping online but donating online is still very small. It requires a lot of trust-building. The good news however is that millennials are far more comfortable with online giving than most others,” he adds.
