How NAMBIKKAY ?
The NAMBIKKAY Association seeks funds in three principal ways:
- Organizing charity events;
- Seeking corporate aid;
- Establishing sponsorship for individual children.
Organizing charity events
Organizing charity events is the most fundamental work of NAMBIKKAY members.
Aside from the funds these events are able to raise, organizing an event is of primary importance to us for a number of reasons:
First of all, these events provide us with an opportunity to share our convictions with others and to motivate people, and especially youth, to participate in a noble cause of solidarity.
Our vision is of an association in which we can help each other grow side by side.
NAMBIKKAY ‘s primary concern is of course to help the Shanthi Bhavan Children’s Home, but we see an equal necessity to bring the needs of less fortunate children to the attention of those who have been more fortunate in life.
Consequently we give special attention to working with schools and colleges, so that we might help young people open up to new horizons and commit themselves to a project with a philanthropic spirit.
It is equally important to us that events organized (concerts, theatre shows, markets, talent shows, etc.) allow people to live the fundraising experience as a personal encounter and not simply a transfer of money. Every event is an opportunity to present the orphanage, the children, and our educative approach. We take great pleasure in sharing details with people about how we spend the money we receive and explaining the different projects they are financing. Thanks to these encounters donors are able to become genuine stakeholders in the activities of the association.
Lastly, organizing events provides the association with an indispensable vitality that sustains our hope and attracts the interest of companies who share our values and wish to support us.
Seeking corporate aid
Our second area of work is to solicit corporate aid. With an annual budget of 88 000 €, organized events unfortunately do not fulfill our financial needs without being complimented by corporate aid, which assures stability in fundraising. A minimum of stability is essential when caring for children, especially when those children suffer from illness.
Members of NAMBIKKAY therefore canvass for companies likely to be interested by our work. Our aim is to form a genuine partnership between the company and the NAMBIKKAY Association. While on a financial level our Association is the one to benefit most from a partnership of this kind, we can nevertheless offer a company a possible increase in competitiveness thanks to the communications made by the Association of its partnership with the company.
Beyond the corporate image companies take from these types of partnership, companies also benefit from the affects of being part of a project that takes social responsibility seriously. On both an individual and collective level employees are mobilized in a new way and come to a new understanding of their place and contribution at the heart of the company. A company is first and foremost a human community, and commitment to work in solidarity with others less fortunate enables those involved to naturally increase performance.
Establishing sponsorship for children
The principal source of funding for charitable associations comes from individual donations. The third element of our work therefore consists in advertising and communicating the Association. This includes presenting the orphanage to people, informing them of the orphanage’s needs, explaining the issues involved, and raising awareness of the children born HIV-positive who so quickly become orphaned. We go out to meet people and to share with them our experience of the orphanage, Shanthi Bhavan Children’s Home, and stories of the children for whom the orphanage cares.
To help with this cause we decided to offer donors the opportunity of sponsoring a child. Establishing sponsorship has certain advantages, yet equally entails certain demands. The advantage of sponsorship is that it produces loyalty amongst donors, who know to whom their donation is going and what their money is used for. On our side, sponsorship requires we give regular updates about the child as well as an account of how the sponsor’s money has been used. Sponsorship thus provides us with the opportunity for genuine cooperation between the Association and people who offer their support.