Saturday, 14 May 2016

Importance of small grants for NGOs according to Relief India Trust

Introduction:
A lot of small NGOs mostly the grass root level NGOs find it quite difficult to generate funds despite of their excellent work. It is mostly because of their limited resources to research and approach the potential donors. The small NGOs are also at times not confident about themselves, think that the donors normally prefer large scale NGOs for donation. This is certainly a myth. There are a variety of small NGOs all around the world who are successfully operating by getting only small donations from several donors. The Relief India Trust is although a reputable and large NGO but it considers all the small and huge grants with equal importance.
How much is a small Grant?
There is not a fixed definition of a small grant but according to the Relief India Trust, a small grant can range from anything between Rs 100 to Rs 25,000. For the purpose of clarity, also assume that the small grants are meant exclusively for small NGOs who don’t have reasonable means to generate huge funds on their own. Further, they don’t have enough budget to raise expensive fundraising campaigns.
How donors trust the small NGOs?
There has been a perception that the donors normally donates only to the large scale reputable organizations. But this is not true as if the small NGOs have been doing good work then they can catch the attention of the donors. Further small donations can also make a big impact for the small NGOs and therefore they should consider all kinds of donations. Following are some of the reasons that donors give small grants to small NGOs:
·         There can be  donors who have limited resources and they look for some good organization who can make good use of their small donations. Such donors prefer small NGOs as they think that their small grant for small NGOs can make a good difference. They also feel hesitant to approach big NGOs for their small amount of charity.
·         There are several donors who are interested in supporting those small NGOs who are working at the grass root level. The Relief India Trust is working at the grass root level as well other than the other mainstream NGO’s operations. The Relief India Trust is lucky in the sense that it receives both small and huge grants from all types of donors.
·         The donors also have the opinion that the small NGOs are well managed and they can effectively work for the welfare of the society far more than larger scale organizations.
·         Further, there are a lot of small donors who are dedicatedly working in a particular sector in which a donor might be interested in. Donating small grants for a particular sector can make a notable difference in the society and it truly justifies the small donations given by the donors.

·         Sometimes the donor wants to help a lot of NGOs and he spreads out his wealth into a number of NGOs.