Fundraising is the art and science of turning good intentions into actual impact! Throughout my career I have been raising funds for social impact, for causes of basic necessities like food, water, shelter, livelihood to a green economy, bridges over rivers to even a roller coaster in a developed country. I have been actively involved in raising funds for these causes from as small as $10 up to $50 million from a variety of sources and instruments. As the Head of Development at a nonprofit organization for social impact projects in India, I’ve navigated the corridors of CSR leaderships and foundation offices, and let me tell you, it’s not always smooth sailing. Often, it feels like trying to surf a tsunami with a paper boat!
Corporate Social Responsibility isn’t just a box to tick. It’s a strategic dance between business goals, stakeholder expectations, and social impact. With so many initiatives competing for attention, securing a dedicated slice of the CSR pie often feels like requesting a moment on a crowded stage, and convincing the audience that your act is worth their applause.
Foundations receive hundreds of pitches, each expecting to win the golden ticket. Getting noticed requires more than a well-crafted proposal; it demands storytelling that resonates and relationships that endure. Sometimes, it’s less about what you say and more about how you say it, and how quickly you can make a compelling case before the next shiny pitch distracts them.
Donors want results, but impact is often a marathon, not a sprint. Managing expectations without being over promising is an art. We’ve all faced the uncomfortable moment of explaining why a project’s full fruits may take years to ripen, a diplomatic tightrope walk that can test even the most seasoned fundraiser.
India’s complex regulatory landscape can feel like a labyrinth where one wrong turn can lead to delays or disapprovals. Keeping up with FCRA regulations, tax exemptions, and reporting requirements is a full-time job, and sometimes, it’s like speaking a different language altogether. Ironically, securing funds for a project often means fundraising itself. Resource constraints can limit outreach and follow-up, turning what should be a strategic focus into a haphazard firefight.
A mix of storytelling, patience, relationship-building, and a dash of humour helps. When engaging with CSR and foundations, understanding their priorities, aligning your mission with their vision, and communicating impact clearly can turn challenges into opportunities.
To my fellow fundraisers who are navigating this maze: keep your spirits high, your pitches sharper, and remember, every “no” is just a “yes” in disguise waiting to happen!
Let’s keep the conversation going. Share your stories or tips below, because in the game of social impact, we’re all in this together.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of any organization, foundation, CSR, non-profit or others.
Bihar has a rich historical and cultural heritage and is one of the most populous states in India, with a population exceeding 13 crores[i] and a predominantly rural population. The state faces several challenges in digital literacy, access to technology, digital inclusion, economic development, and equitable growth. However, recent initiatives in e-governance, education, and entrepreneurship hold much promise and potential for contributing towards India’s vision of a digitally empowered society.
Digital literacy remains a significant challenge, with rates below 30% (national average 38% for household digital literacy[ii]), as reported by Ideas for India[iii]. Bihar’s low digital literacy follows its socio-economic conditions, including high poverty rates[iv] (33.76% below the poverty line and 51.91% multidimensional poverty as of 2021) and limited access to digital devices. Rural areas, which hold 75% of the state’s population face challenges due to inadequate infrastructure and low literacy levels. The state’s overall literacy rate, as per 2017 data, stands at 70.9%[v], with rural areas at 69.5% and urban areas at 83.1%. Female literacy, at 60.5%, is significantly lower than male literacy at 79.7%, further complicating efforts to bridge the digital divide.
The digital divide in Bihar is a significant barrier to inclusive development. According to the India Inequality Report 2022 by Oxfam India[vi], Bihar has the lowest internet penetration among Indian states and a wide urban-rural digital divide, with only 31% of rural residents using the internet compared to 67% in urban areas. This rural-urban divide is further worsened by socio-economic disparities.
Internet Penetration: Bihar ranks among the states with the lowest internet penetration in India. The rural-urban divide is stark — while urban centers like Patna are better connected, most rural areas still suffer from slow or no internet access.
Device Access: Among the poorest 20% of households, only 2.7% have access to a computer, and 8.9% have internet facilities.
Gender Gap: Women are 15% less likely to own a mobile phone and 33% less likely to use mobile internet, with India having the widest gender gap in the Asia-Pacific at 40.4%. In many households, men have primary access to mobile devices and internet usage. Women, especially in conservative or low-income families, are often excluded from digital usage.
Electricity Issues: Frequent power cuts and unreliable electricity supply further hinder the consistent use of digital devices in rural areas.
Language Barriers: Most digital content is in English or Hindi, which becomes a constraint for people who speak regional dialects such as Bhojpuri, Maithili, or Magahi.
The digital divide affects important sectors like education, healthcare, and finance. For example, in 2017-18 only 9% of students enrolled had access to a computer with internet for education[vii]. Initiatives like BharatNet, aimed at providing rural connectivity, have been unable to deliver effective outcomes. Bihar is one of the focus states for the Digital India Programme, but execution lags due to infrastructural challenges.
In recent years, Bihar has made significant strides in leveraging digital services in improving governance and public service delivery. The National Informatics Center (NIC) Bihar State Centre, established in 1988, plays a central role in this transformation (https://bihar.nic.in/). It supports departments such as revenue, district administration, rural development, finance, agriculture, employment, election, social welfare, and food and civil supplies with IT solutions. The ServicePlus portal is a key platform, offering services like certificate issuance and case status checks, though rural access remains a hurdle, particularly for marginalized communities, requiring better infrastructure and awareness. These barriers require continued investment in training and infrastructure to ensure widespread digital literacy. Common Service Centres (CSCs) and Vasudha Kendra are crucial for providing government and private services to rural and remote areas in Bihar, enhancing digital inclusion and accessibility. However, they are not enough to cater to the growing needs of the rural population. People travel to block towns and larger villages, to access even basic G2C services, indicating the lack of any nearby facility.
For bridging the digital divide, a digital entrepreneurship program in 500 villages from five districts, viz., Darbhanga, Samastipur, Patna, Nalanda, and Gaya was launched in 2023. Bihar is witnessing a transformative wave of service accessibility led by women digital entrepreneurs. These trailblazing women are not only redefining the entrepreneurial landscape but also catalyzing inclusive development across the state. This initiative provides capacity building and mentoring in digital skills, customer service, entrepreneurship development, financial support and resources, and digital tools to women from socially and economically disadvantaged communities, helping them become successful rural digital entrepreneurs and build a Digital Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. This holistic approach equips them to offer essential digital services in their communities, such as facilitating access to government schemes, online education, and digital financial services. From being computer illiterate to providing a host of over 70+ digital services, these digital entrepreneurs have come a long way only within 9 months of their venture-start in their villages. Some of their services include a large suite of G2C services, design & printing services, online form filling, Banking services, and Mobile payments, among several others. They have also been cross-selling and diversified in selling non-digital products. In this short period, they have already served over 250,000 rural customers (around 40% female customers), and is expected that as their businesses mature, they will be providing digital services to over 7.5 lakh population. Apart from making digital services easily accessible at the village level, they are generating income and securing their futures, with some of them steadily earning upwards of INR25,000 monthly. This program is not only bridging the digital divide but also promoting economic security and social equity, local inclusive economic development, gender equality, awareness, and opening opportunities for skills development.
While government efforts are underway, a coordinated approach involving public-private partnerships, local community engagement, and targeted digital inclusion programs is essential. Programs like these need to be scaled up across the state covering the entire 8,387 Gram Panchayats for bridging the digital divide and contributing significantly to Bihar’s and India’s digital economy.
Across India’s villages, a quieter and powerful transformation is unfolding, led by women entrepreneurs building microenterprises that are changing not just their lives but also contributing towards local prosperity.
In rural India, microenterprises (and many a time, even termed as nanoenterprises) are typically small-scale and often home-based ventures. These include tailoring shops, grocery stores, food processing units, poultry farms, handloom or handicraft businesses, among many others. They usually operate with minimal capital, often under INR 1 lakh, and rely on family support systems. While these businesses may appear modest on the surface, they’re laying the foundation for grassroots economic resilience and social transformation.
When a woman in a village starts a business, she’s not just earning an income, she’s stepping into a position of agency. She becomes a decision-maker, a provider, and importantly, a role model.
In Jharkhand, Shashi, a determined and resilient woman, has become a role model of empowerment in her village of Kura. With knowledge, financial and device support, she started her Digital Business, which became a hub of convenience and accessibility for people in her village and neighbouring villages. Her journey as a digital entrepreneur empowered her and gave her the agency to make a meaningful contribution to her community. Today, she’s also a Mukhiya (village head) and fondly known as “Digital Mukhiya”, continuing to be the voice of women’s empowerment.
Microenterprises help address the rural employment gap, especially for women who often can’t migrate or work outside the home due to social norms and family responsibilities. These businesses absorb local labour, retain economic value in the village, and reduce dependence on urban employment.
In Assam, Mintai’s Jacquard Handloom Weaving business now employs 3-4 local women who were previously unemployed. They earn and save, and for the first time, imagine futures that include good education for their children or owning a business.
This kind of bottom-up economic activity contributes to local economic resilience, the ability of communities to survive and thrive even during external shocks. The social impact generated by women entrepreneurs is profound. This often translates into higher educational aspirations for children, especially girls staying and completing their school education; increased income leading to better nutrition, access to healthcare and sanitation leading to improved health outcomes; acceptance and shift in gender norms; and financial independence gives women negotiating power within households leading to lower rates of domestic violence.
Despite their success, rural women entrepreneurs continue to face systemic challenges like, (a) collateral requirements and credit histories disqualify many from accessing formal loans, (b) getting products to larger and fairer markets remains a logistical challenge, (c) stifling social norms due to resistance from family or community, (d) accessing business education to develop ‘aptitude’ matching their entrepreneurial ‘attitude’, and ( e) digital divide due to limited access to smartphones and digital tools. While schemes like Stand-Up India and MUDRA loans have made progress, implementation gaps persist.
Rural women’s microenterprises are not side projects. They are economic engines, social change-makers, and community stabilizers. When one woman is empowered to start a business, a ripple begins, touching families, uplifting communities, and reshaping rural India from the ground up.
If you’re a policymaker, social investor, donor, or even just a storyteller, your support can help expand that ripple into a wave and finally a movement of economic security and resilience.
In last 2-3 years, I have been part of several discussions to define and build a consensus on understanding of urban marginalised and vulnerable population (UMVP) in the context of India, and how this population group has been evolving and growing in numbers. India’s rapid urbanization over the past few decades has transformed its cities into economic powerhouses contributing 60% of India’s GDP. While in 2023 around 37% of India’s population lived in urban areas, it is estimated that by 2036, half of India’s population will live in cities. However, this growth has also led to the marginalization of a significant portion of the population. Cities Alliance estimated that 25% of the population living in urban areas are below the poverty line. By this estimate, a shocking 125+ million people are marginalised and vulnerable living in the urban areas. The urban marginalized and vulnerable groups comprising of slum dwellers, informal workers, migrant labourers, women, children, and the homeless face numerous challenges like access to basic citizens’ rights, services, and opportunities. As India continues its urban transition, addressing the vulnerabilities of these populations is critical to achieving inclusive development.
The UMVPs live in precarious conditions, often lacking access to basic services like clean water, housing, sanitation, healthcare, and education. Their vulnerabilities are shaped by socio-economic, cultural, political, and structural factors that leave them excluded from mainstream urban life. They often lack the necessary documentation to access government schemes and services, such as ration cards, Aadhaar cards, or voter identification. This exclusion prevents them from benefiting from welfare programs like the Public Distribution System (PDS), healthcare subsidies, or housing schemes. The UMVPs can broadly be classified in five sub-groups,
Slum Dwellers: According to the 2011 Census, about 65 million people in India live in urban slums. Slums across India have poor housing, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, and a high risk of diseases, especially communicable. People living in the slums often have insecure tenure, making them vulnerable to eviction and displacement due to urban development projects. Displacement not only disrupts their livelihoods but also pushes them further into poverty. Poor living conditions contribute to health problems, including respiratory diseases (especially TB) and waterborne infections.
Homeless Population: India’s urban homeless population is particularly vulnerable, facing extreme marginalization. With no permanent shelter, the homeless are exposed to harsh weather conditions, violence, and health risks. They have limited access to government welfare schemes and often fall outside the purview of census data, making it difficult to design targeted interventions. HLRN estimates that there could be more than 3 million homeless individuals. Extreme poverty, unemployment, displacement due to natural disasters, mental illness, substance abuse, runaways, are often the causes of homelessness, and their numbers are continuously increasing in urban India.
Informal Workers: The informal sector accounts for nearly 80% of India’s urban workforce. This includes daily wage labourers, street vendors, domestic workers, and construction workers, among others. Informal workers lack job security, social protection, and access to formal financial systems, leaving them vulnerable to economic shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the extreme vulnerability of informal workers, who faced sudden job losses and had low-to-no access to financial aid. Informal workers often are slum dwellers, or live in low income housing colonies, or are even homeless.
Migrant Laborers: Migration to cities in search of employment and better life is common in India. However, migrant labourers, often from rural areas both intra- and inter-state, face significant challenges in urban settings. They often find employment in low-paying jobs with little to no benefits, live in temporary or inadequate housing, and struggle to access public services due to a lack of local identification documents. Temporary migratory population is also a sub-set of this group, who come to cities for seasonal work, migrate from one place to another, also migrate within the cities in search of work. Construction workers and artisanal nomadic groups can be good examples of migratory population.
Women and Children: Women and children within urban marginalized communities living in slums or informal settlements often work in low-paid informal jobs while managing household responsibilities. They are more likely to experience gender-based violence, discrimination and exploitation, limited access to healthcare, and lack of educational/skilling opportunities. Children in these settings suffer from malnutrition, poor schooling, and limited opportunities for social mobility. They often attend poorly equipped government schools or are forced to drop out to contribute to household income.
India’s urban marginalized and vulnerable populations represent a significant and often overlooked segment of society. Ensuring their inclusion in the country’s urban development is essential for sustainable and equitable growth, while bestowing opportunity and dignity for all citizens as their Right.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of any organization, foundation, CSR, non-profit or others
India has huge natural bamboo stocks that have been an integral part of Indian culture for many millennia. Bamboo in many ways is the mainstay of the rural Indian economy, sparking considerable social and ecological spin-offs. In the early part of the century, large tracts of bamboo occurred in many parts of the country but were treated by the forestry sector (which was then cast in a production forestry mode) as a weed of little economic value and was used mostly by the rural communities for crafts, making implements and as housing material. It was the discovery of bamboo as a source of long-fiber by the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun that started the process of using bamboo in a variety of industrial applications, so far unexplored, with several paper mills and rayon mills being set up. But in the absence of a clear policy there was rapid degradation and decimation of the resource in much of the country. Bamboo resources plummeted so alarmingly that at present the resource is limited to few pockets in the country. Two-thirds of the bamboo in the country is restricted to the North-Eastern Region (NER) while the remaining one-third is spread across the country.
But there is hope for the resurgence of bamboo, and this is based on evidence of significant new and contemporary economic opportunities that have emerged over the past decades. A bamboo revolution that holds the potential of reversing economic downturns and ensuring profitability, is very much possible. Bamboo is an untapped avenue of economic growth, and a burgeoning bamboo sector can rope in prosperity, profits, and sustainable livelihoods.
Despite the severe degradation of the resource in the past, India still has a considerable growing stock of bamboo, and comparative annual harvest figures[1] still place India at the top of the global league. It is important to realize the considerable latent potential that bamboo has to contribute to economic growth, poverty alleviation, generating employment, rehabilitating vast tracts of degraded land generated due to past agricultural and industrial practices and policies, and revitalizing the social, economic and ecological well-being of rural economies.
In line with this, goals should be aimed at focusing on recovering the resources lost to the rural poor as it has been a natural capital that has helped them to keep their economies afloat even in times of significant cash crunches. Attempts should be made to replenish bamboo stocks, make it economically beneficial to rural communities in a way that it provides them opportunities to earn a sustainable income and improve their standard of living. Efforts should also be made to increase the economic opportunity from the use of bamboo as an industrial raw material, to raise employment opportunities (especially for the educated and unemployed rural youth), and to rehabilitate the degraded lands across the country (making available and productive a natural resource which is increasingly becoming scarce and expensive).
Over the years a variety of strategies have been developed to reduce the poverty of rural and rurban population through small enterprise development, based on various forest produce. In rural areas, the poor are overwhelmingly dependent on natural resources and in most cases, it is the only capital they possess. They have little power or ability to climb out of poverty. They are not only financially poor, but also opportunity-and knowledge-poor. In this respect, bamboo is one of the few natural resources that could provide a lifeline to sagging rural economies and help integrate them into the market economy. As bamboo is not one commodity but the fountainhead of many products, it could open up a number of markets simultaneously for the rural poor with the added advantage of being a low-risk option.
The bamboo sector also forges personal links with the rural community, allowing them to participate closely in production processes and directly access profits through value addition as compared to other industrialized processes. As the sector is dependent to a large extent on manual labour, it demands many hands to contribute to the cultivation, harvesting, preservation and value-added manufacturing processes. The upshot is that it provides livelihood options in varying activities to a large number of rural workers. This is the main reason why developing countries find it more viable to be involved with the sector whereas developed countries prefer becoming consumptive markets for these very products. Women in particular stand to gain from this sector as they secure means of livelihood due to their dexterity with the material and their ability to shape it into products and more important, they gain from the flexible work hours this sector affords. Bamboo can thus break marginalization through empowerment and also bridge gender divides.
Employment generation and livelihood creation are enabled through strong backward integration of bamboo production and processing. Though tree-like in stature, bamboo is best grown and managed like an agricultural crop or managed as such within the forest. This needs labour input, which calls for significant people involvement. Again, volume production in bamboo is achieved through a large number of unit poles, unlike timber where one large log provides a substantial quantity of wood. But on the other hand, the lightweight poles enable people participation in its transport. Furthermore, the easy linear splitting ability of bamboo, quite unlike that of wood, enables primary processing for a final industrial product to be undertaken by the rural community. The above properties lay the economic basis for definite win-win community-industry partnerships in bamboo, with the bamboo being managed or grown, and primary processing undertaken by communities in rural areas.
Experience has shown natural resources can be harvested sustainably if people stand to benefit from it. The development of bamboo as a cash crop will result in the conservation and protection of the existing resource, and the scaling up of cultivation, which would be a natural outcome of the increased cash value of the resource, as against its present low cash to mere-subsistence value. The environmental benefits from the economic development of bamboo can be very significant.
As a resource that can be harvested annually, it could provide a regular supply of construction material to the communities. If the use of wood could be replaced with that of bamboo, it could reverse the process of severe and rapid degradation of forests and forest cover. Bamboo also helps protect soil from erosion, especially in the upland areas. Bamboo should also be strategically grown to reduce or prevent soil cutting from riverbanks, which is perhaps the major cause of siltation of riverbanks, resulting in reduced carrying capacity of rivers and flooding during the peak rainy season.
In last 3-4 decades, intensifying patterns of land and resource utilization, primarily due to pressure from the rapidly increasing population, have caused land and natural resource degradation in many parts of India. Bamboo is an ideal resource for rehabilitation, even in extremely degraded situations such as land used for brick making.
India with its rich potential of bamboo resources has only just started to develop bamboo marketing and trade. However, the significant bamboo resources in India make it ideally placed to benefit from the experience of China and other countries around the globe. Bamboo holds within it the promise of bailing people out from below poverty line levels.
Bamboo finds many uses today in addition to its conventional uses for handicrafts, scaffolding and the paper industry. It can be used as construction material, as a wood substitute and as food, fuel and a filtration medium. Its real contribution to housing lies in the dual role it can play – of providing a cheap and affordable wood alternative to the homeless while at the same time generating livelihood options for those involved with it.
Bamboo can propel economic growth through increased local production and the sale of high-value wood-substitute products, especially in bamboo-rich states. Robust local production of a local natural resource capital like bamboo will lead to the retention and circulation of cash within the state economies itself, rather than the cash flowing out for purchase of goods from outside the state. Export of cash value-added bamboo products to markets outside the bamboo states could enable incremental cash earnings that will add to the economic growth of the state. Asset creation and local consumption can get a fillip from the increased circulation of money within the state economy from local consumption of locally manufactured products. This consumption will be enabled not only by government purchases, but also as a result of the higher disposable incomes that will be generated.
In India, as elsewhere in other developing countries, strong correlative linkages exist between economic growth, rural poverty and the environment. Firstly, the poor are more vulnerable to the health effects of pollution because of their inadequate nutrition, poor access to health care and their unhealthy living environment. Secondly, the poor are affected faster by degradation of natural resources because of their greater reliance on them to meet basic needs. Environmental degradation, in turn, adversely affects the economy’s capacity to grow, because growth relies on the sustainable productivity of natural resources and the health of the population.
It is a vicious circle, which can be broken through a growth solution that is not only income generating for rural communities but also environmentally sound. Bamboo, a natural resource and one that protects the environment, enables the development of industries, which function through a symbiotic linkage between small and large enterprise that significantly benefits the community.
Bamboo is available throughout the country barring the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan (except for some areas). Existing traditional bamboo and cane handicraft products, though not many, could be improved, diversified, produced along industrial assembly lines and converted into value-added products that are already a part of mainstream industry. Value additions could be made to its use in the paper industry and its use in the unorganized scaffolding industry can be doubled. Simultaneously, other mainstream micro and small enterprise products such as matchsticks, pencils, toothpicks, skewer sticks, and blinds, as well as medium-scale industrial panel products that rival wood products, with strong backward community linkages and benefits can be explored. An increase in bamboo products and market opportunities will also result in increases in demand for raw bamboo, besides the production of fresh bamboo shoots and their processed products. There is considerable potential to set up medium and large-scale industries for generating value-added food and wood-substitute products for export markets.
The value-added bamboo industry is ideally placed to adopt that model. Given the right policy atmosphere and thrust, the value-added bamboo industry in India has the potential of reaching a size of USD 2.3 billion (USD 131.5 billion globally) in the next 10 years with a CAGR of 10.3%, employing 11-15 million people in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors[2].
The bamboo industry also fulfils the criteria needed by sectors that aim to achieve double-digit economic growth. Bamboo has a very strong and direct with rural communities, which would allow them to partake directly and in a more significant way to value addition as compared to other industrialized processes. The value-added bamboo industry thus provides an integrated solution that uses an abundant natural resource that protects the environment and can be processed and generated through community-owned enterprises, both small and large.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of any organization, foundation, CSR, non-profit or others
Manu Mayank 