Fundraising

Stats: 133 Contributors! Rs 1,80,677 raised. 

Hey you! 
Here is a detailed(not much, I guess) account of my fundraiser. I chose Eureka Child Foundation for the great work that they are doing. Milaap was a great option to host the entire thing. They have a payment portal set up. They charged 5% of the funds for the service provided by them. I would recommend them for any fundraiser that you would like to take up. Also, they have some projects already listed, in case you are unable to choose a particular organisation to raise funds for. 

I have always wanted to raise funds by doing something that I love- running. I was inspired by my senior who raised funds for akshayapatra couple of years back. 
The running season began and I was in a good place (Bangalore!). To add to that, I was running with a self-supported running group, Soles of Bangalore! They were like family to me. If you are in Bangalore or if you find yourself over there, at any point of them, try to get a run with the soles over there! 

I found out about milaap through my friend, Shuva, who raised funds for providing solar lights in Manipur. I was very excited and nervous. I decided to raise Rs 1,50,000. It seemed way too big and obviously out of reach. Well, what's wrong in aiming high? I love pushing my limits. It made me realise what a beast of task this was going to be. 

I started training a bit. I could not run in the mornings, so I hit the gym instead. It gave me such a high to train with the weights. (I think I should get back to the gym. That is what I need, now). I ran up and down Nandi. I went to killer kanakapura pipeline road. I ran in IIT Madras when I came here for a weekend. The goal of running three half marathons in less than 3 months did take me places! I guess I wont stop talking about my running experiences.

I decided to mail my friends about my fundraiser. I also pinged them on Facebook messenger. I did not post about this anywhere on the social media, yet. The best way to reach out to people is to write to them. 

It was an exciting journey with many ups and downs. Yourstory did a small article about this fundraiser as well! http://her.yourstory.com/bindu-upadhyay-marathon-1001
This just helped in spreading the word. I did not get as many contributions from this as one would think. Hardly anything. 

People were very kind and donated amount ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 7483. Some were anonymous as well. 

That's it for now. 

I will keep updating this page with other interesting insights, hopefully some graphs to study the distribution, and maybe photos! 

If you would like to raise funds for any organisation and need some help/fundaes, please feel free to reach out to me. 

Below is the write up that I put on the milaap page:
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As you walked back from school, you would have seen a kid selling ice cream or peanuts, just outside the school gate. Years later, as you drive past those busy traffic filled roads to reach your office, you notice a similar scene but with different faces. Many children in India do not have quality access to even basic education. Giving them the ability to read and write is the first step in giving them a chance at better life.
The learning levels in Tamil Nadu have been consistently low in basic Tamil and Math. Eureka Child Foundation, along with its NGO partners, aims at addressing this problem. ECF has been running after-school centres in rural areas to improve the quality of teaching there.
Eureka supports the running of after-school centres in 500 villages with a focus on improving learning outcomes in language, mathematics and science.
Eureka Child Foundations currently reaches out to more than 25000 children in 23 districts of Tamil Nadu in partnership with other local NGOs.
Bringing together my passion for running and every child’s right to education, I am running three half marathons in the name of Eureka Child Foundations. This year, you will find me at the Spirit of Wipro Marathon (Sep 21), Bengaluru Marathon (Oct 19th) and The Wipro Chennai Marathon (Dec 7).

Please click here to donate- https://milaap.org/campaigns/primaryeducationfundraiser
For all donations above INR 1000 you will receive a personalised thank you note and a sketch made just for you. This fundraiser aims to spread awareness about the initiatives taken up by Eureka Child Foundations, and also create a general awareness about maintaining fitness. The money from this fundraiser will fully fund 2 villages.
You can read more about ECF- http://www.eurekachild.org/.
You can read more about my running fever here-http://binduupadhyay.blogspot.in/2014/09/once-you-cross-that-finish-line.html
Please feel free to reach me via Twitter or comment below. 

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