Friendicoes: Not shutting down, for now
Crowdfunding has come to the rescue of a well-known animal welfare organization
A sustained social media campaign and crowdfunding have helped Friendicoes-SECA, a 36-year-old animal welfare organization, avert the threat of closure.
On 13 August, Friendicoes, which cares for 2,000-plus animals across four facilities in the National Capital Region, put out word on its Facebook page that it would have to shut down services like the night ambulance, as well as its shelter in Defence Colony, Delhi, if it failed to raise ₹ 82 lakh to pay medical and food bills, among other dues.
At the time of going to press, Friendicoes had 59,514 “likes" on Facebook—a community of confirmed animal lovers. The original “Friendicoes Under Threat of Closure Due to Lack of Funds" post of 13 August was shared more than 1,600 times. Regular posts are still going out on Friendicoes’ Facebook page detailing the items for which money is owed and how supporters can contribute. Friendicoes has also been using its Facebook page to highlight that the municipal corporations owe it more than ₹ 30 lakh under their animal birth control or sterilization programme.
Of the ₹ 82 lakh, Friendicoes urgently needed ₹ 20 lakh. So, on 25 August, it launched the “Let’s Save Friendicoes From Shutting Down" campaign on the BitGiving crowdfunding platform: The campaign raised more than ₹ 10 lakh on Day 1. “The last time we saw a response like that on the platform was for Nepal earthquake relief," says Ishita Anand, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of BitGiving.
The campaign target was revised to ₹ 40 lakh soon after launch.
“It’s very unusual to revise the funding target," says Anand. “The amount was raised in response to funders saying it should be more," she adds. At the time of going to press, Friendicoes had raised ₹ 32,72,230 from 1,128 people, who contributed amounts ranging from ₹ 150-50,000.
Anand says there are several reasons why Friendicoes’ campaign has been such a success. “The most important things in a crowdfunding campaign are to convey your story to the contributors and tell them what the urgency is," she says. Friendicoes met both these criteria, and it is supporting the fund-raising effort by creating a “buzz" in other ways, like a Thunderclap “crowd-speaking" event that goes live today at noon—Friendicoes will post a one-time message on the Facebook timelines of more than 1,600 signees. This is expected to be seen by nearly one million people.
Part of the reason Friendicoes dug itself into the ₹ 82 lakh hole is because it doesn’t turn away animals in need of care—even when the people who rescue animals from the street can’t pay, or when a sick or old pet is abandoned at the Defence Colony centre. “Every morning, we find dogs abandoned at the shelter. We have to take them in," says Geeta Seshamani, vice-president, Friendicoes-SECA.
All the activity so far is geared to paying off the debt. What about funds thereafter? “We’ve never asked for money till our backs were pushed to the wall," says Seshamani, acknowledging that Friendicoes perhaps needs a regular fund-raising effort.
Abodh Aras, CEO of Welfare of Stray Dogs, a Mumbai-based non-profit, says, “In India, where there are so many human miseries, it is difficult to raise money for animal shelters."
Anand says it might help if Friendicoes could devise a strategy to divide the work it does into distinct blocks and ask for funding for these separately. This might also help raise awareness about its work.
That might be a good thing: Did you know, for instance, that Friendicoes cares for retired police horses at its “Lifetime Sanctuary" in a faraway corner of Gurgaon? If the horses hadn’t been taken in by it, they would have been auctioned off. “Typically, tongawallas buy them. At 22-23 years, the horses are too old to carry loads," says Seshamani.
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