Fund Raising for Little Hearts Surgeries
The July month fund raising Program done by the Rotary Club
that I am part of, was a roller coaster event . We went through several
swings in plan , execution ,support , guidance etc., . Planning for this
event began some five months back . The reason to do the fund raising
event was compulsive. Rtn Saravanan ( Sara ) was a man possessed with this
purpose ,to help out children suffering from Congenial Heart Disease (CHD
) He took it upon himself to establish a fund that will help these young
kids get their lives back. Once he explained us the purpose , we all signed up
to do the event that will raise funds , that
at a minimum will help perform 200 surgeries a year.
The fund raising committee met several times ( I was part of
this ). The key decision was to decide on the nature of the fund raiser.
Normally fund raisers are done through musical concerts or dramas etc. But Sara
had different ideas . He did not want the regular musical show. He wanted a
talk that will address issues/ concerns faced by the youngsters of today. We
looked around for good speakers and those who could bring in the mass to the
auditorium . We narrowed down on Shri Gaur Gopal Das ( GGD ). The
topic was “Success Mantra “ – Path to success .
The next stage was the date of the program . We looked
around and then choose July 29th – We checked most of the venues and
found no other program was in the offing that will take the crowd away. This
also matched with GGD’s availability.
Sara started the discussions with GGD’s team on the date ,
terms and the purpose and tied that bit down
The next was the venue – Lot of discussions – Key items that
figured prominently was the Revenue and Pricing ( seating ) , car parks ,
venue’s ability to attract crowds – Music Academy came up as the venue that was optima.
Then the teams started planning for campaigns – Face book ,
Print media , Rotary Circles , friends etc etc – Design of the posters , backstage drop and so on.
We thought we had started very early but time flew and the
event was barely five weeks away. Sponsors were difficult to source , there
were also views that this kind of an event may not attract sponsors nor
crowds .
Sara and the team did not give up . Sara called up all our
Club members and confirmed their attendance and ticket sales—all by himself .
Two Companies launched the sale of the ticket
Online for the show. Sales were sluggish . Pattern from the vendors showed that
normally the ticket sales picked up closer to three days ahead of the event
. We all continued our look out for sponsors and Sara came with the
idea of our Club Souvenir that can again generate revenue with advertisements .
This was a big relief to getting sponsors for the main event . With the help of
our prolific journalist Senior Rotarian Rtn S R Madhu, work
began on it.
We monitored the sales of tickets on a daily basis . The
report gave no joy to us . We at one stage ,thought
we will have GGD speaking to an empty auditorium !
However, true to pattern , the ticket sales picked up
towards the days closer to the event . Sara managed all these on his own. He is
a busy Chartered Accountant in Practice and July was a peak month but Sara
managed the show excellently. The Committee members chipped in with their
contributions, be it getting advertisements for the Souvenir or tickets
design or delivering tickets etc etc … We also had
a Skype call with GGD to lay down expectations at both ends .
The Ford team sprang a surprise – Their internal music
band played one day ahead of the event and collected Rs 125,000 – this will
help five children surgeries . I realized that if the cause was powerful ,
people will support – The Ford band is also a band that is liked by all in the
company and they rock with their talented stars.
The Rotary team was grateful to the Ford Teams for this great gesture
The event by itself was a great success – GGD delivered a
stunning lecture laced with his usual wit , great zeal and energy and getting
the crowd with him all the time . His messaging was wonderful . Everyone
who came to the event enjoyed the evening The hall was packed and that was big
relief for us as organizers .
As we do the number crunching on the event in terms of the revenues and costs—GGD talking about the cause
during his lecture , made its big impact . We had monies collected to do
50 surgeries and as I write this down , eight kids have had corrective surgeries
and are looking to get back to school and lead a normal life ( just seven days
post the event )
Some reflections on the whole process and the Event :
1>
If the cause is compulsive , then everyone comes
together . Sara took up a great cause and this rubbed off on all of us.
So , anything that you want to do , must have a compulsive reason that everyone
will sign up to .
2>
Dr Prashant Shah , the surgeon who is going to
do the surgeries was key man that helped us to stay on the mission. We visited
a hospital where he performs surgeries and were taken aback at the kids in the
ward – We could see the before and after – We saw the kids waiting for surgery
and those that had the corrective surgery – It was clear that kids that had
this CHD needed help and with the surgery can lead a normal life. Dr Prashant
has this mission to correct CHD in children. Dr Prashant says he can do 500
surgeries a year
3>
As we walked our journey
of the Fund raiser , we realized
that we need to not have just Plan B but Plan C , Plan D and so on. Things change all the time and they are dynamic.
4>
Shri GGD was a big crowd puller . It was his
first lecture in Chennai but the man has his own crowd that revers him. I had
chance to spend some time with him and was impressed with his thoughts . He was
impressed with the cause that we had .
5>
Rotarians from my club were a great support –
everyone did their bit – Everyone in the club wanted the fund raiser to be a
success. Spouses of Rotarians chipped in as well.
6>
One may think that there are not many children
with CHD – Not true – It is estimated that there are close to 12,000 children
that suffer from this in Tamilnadu alone . Many of them are not even aware of
this . The chance for us to give lives to these children is big.
7>
Overwhelming support continues and is needed for
this Project to be big success – 200 surgeries is just a beginning .With
corporate and Global funding , we can do more.
8>
The team has set a good Governance process to
ensure that only needed children get funding support.
9>
The success of the Fund raiser and this program
going forward , will certainly go to Sara . If not for him picking this up , we
would not have had the opportunity to work on such a impactful project.
10> We
enjoyed the stress of this project – We kept our humour in good stead –
if not for that , some of us may have crashed in the run up to the event
11> If
you want more details , write to rsrikan1@yahoo.com
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