Sunday Times 2
Sunshine Charity needs your help to be invited to the Global Giving Open Challenge
The Sunshine Charity has been invited to the Global Giving Open Challenge, and they need your help to get through, says co-founder Sharadha de Saram. The Sunshine Charity was established in the aftermath of the Tsunami in 2004, to provide food and clothing to children in Trincomalee affected by the natural disaster. Now quietly celebrating ten years of making a difference, Sunshine has expanded to providing the children with educational tools and healthcare support.
“If you go on our website [www.SunshineCharity.org] you will see we are just a small civil society that managed to survive ten years on goodwill and genuine concern,” said de Saram. They get a lot of support from well-wishers who have seen what the charity has accomplished over the years. An important institutional partner of the Sunshine Charity is the Global Fund for Children which in fact guided them towards linking up with Global Giving. The GlobalGiving Open Challenge will help raise funds for annual health clinics, pharmaceutical drugs and worming treatment.
Global Giving is a crowd-funding community that connects donors with non-profit organisations. Their online platform allows local organisations to link with global funding sources and also provides helpful tools, training and support for each organisation to become better at what they do.What sets Global Giving apart from other similar organisations is their focus on feedback. Once projects get connected to funds, they are required to compile field reports which are sent back to the donors.
“The field reports are really helpful,” de Saram said, “to figure out how we are doing as well as help benefactors see where the money is going”.
“Social philanthropy is not just charity,” she continued, “it is about the human connection. We must go out and build relationships with the people we want to help.” She dislikes the disconnectedness of chequebook philanthropy and advocates for a more interactive model based on the “shramadana” concept. She explains “shramadana” as “the sharing of time, skills, labour, thoughts and energy for the awakening of all”. This is why she and others at the Sunshine Charity are excited about Global Giving.
“Global Giving raises awareness and gives us a platform to interact and build strong relationships with our benefactors,” she said.
Getting space on Global Giving.org is not easy. Organisations that apply to participate are scrutinised thoroughly to satisfy IRS guidelines and other requirements before they are allowed to post projects on the website. Once they pass the first test, Global Giving issues an invitation to take part in what is called the Open Challenge. This is where the Sunshine Charity is right now.
According to the website, “Open Challenge participants that successfully raise at least $5,000 from 40 unique donors will be invited to become long-term members of the Global Givingcommunity”. Global Giving is interested not only in improving the fundraising capacity of its participants, but also overall effectiveness. So once The Sunshine Charitybecomes a long-term member, they get permanent space on the Global Giving website as well as access to a library of proven effective resources for developing their organization, to better listen to, act on behalf of and learn from the children they serve.
What The Sunshine Charity needs from us now is simple.If you would like to support the cause, log on to www.GlobalGiving.org and type “sunshine charity” in the search box.
“Even 10 dollars will go a long way,” says Sharadha de Saram.