FTI Fundraising Strategy (public read only)

DRAFT ONLY!

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To support the overarching and related strategies with appropriate level of funds.

Fund raising strategy

Pre-Convention –

(up to the point when 1500 assembled and ready to go)

Post-Convention

(political organization after 1500 assembled and ready to contest elections on a common platform)

Key principle: NO ONE will fund FTI UNLESS it is a credible team (leaders, platform)

Pre-Convention – say, to end 2010

Activity	Sub-activity	Funds needed	When	How raised/to be raised
Internet	Web domain	Rs.600 per year	Ongoing	Sanjeev will bear subject to reimbursement
	Web hosting	Rs.600 per year	Ongoing	Sanjeev will bear as virtual domain, but FTI will need its own hosting in due course
	Web design	?	Once per year	Anil/ Anubhava have funded
	Web maintenance	?	Ongoing	Anubhava/ Sanjeev contributing time and expertise. Will need independent resourcing in due course. Other members manage activities (e.g. Blogs)
Advertising	Google Ads	Rs.36000 per year	Ongoing for two years	Can be operated through Sanjeev’s credit card account subject to reimbursement by FTI; funds to be raised through FTI membership.
	A major ad in Times of India and the Indian Express	Rs.1.1 crores for TOI alone	One off in 2010	This will be useful in 2010 when at least 250 members have already joined FTI. With that momentum, we should be able to fund this internally partially, and get some external contributions. (Need to review cost-effectiveness of this activity)
Meetings / events	FTI conference	Rs.2 -4 lakhs?	2009, 2010	Members to contribute. plus some donations
	Events to raise awareness	Rs. 2 lakhs per year	2009, 2010	Members to contribute plus some donations
Full time FTI staff				Not needed till after the 1500 members have assembled.

Summary: Most of the funds needed in this stage will be raised by FTI members themselves. The biggest item is the national advertisement which need major donor support else it will NOT be done. Detailed strategies below:

Strategy 1: Raise initial (seed) funds internally through contributions from FTI members and membership fee.

Explanation/ discussion

If FTI members are serious about contesting elections, they will have to be willing to put in serious amounts of their own money. No one, no party will ever fund them fully for elections or for any public activity. It is expected that FTI members will contribute as needed for various activities of FTI.

Strategy 2: Raise funds through donations to the FTI trust.

FTI Trust should seek and obtain income-tax exempt status. After that donations can be sought by:

· Disseminating information to possible donors through FTI magazine, website, blog/s (includes supporters/partners/patrons)

· writing letters to CEOs of large companies in India seeking their contributions to the development of leaders and otherwise supporting FTI.

Strategy 3 Raise funds through alternative means

Explanation/ discussion

To get the funds needed FTI Trust should seek and obtain income-tax exempt status, following which wide dissemination of this to potential donors.

Option 1: Patrons

Identify likeminded people (specially retired who have money to look after them as well as can contribute some time in nation building) in the cities/districts who believe in the idea of freedom to become city coordinators/patrons to propagate idea of freedom.

Option 2: Make FTI self-sustainable like Gandhiji’s Ashrams

Generate goodwill (eg. help people find jobs), and then seek donations and support (eg. a % of their salary, like Kanshiram’s movement).

i. Support young entrepreneurs by giving them Guidance/Mentoring/Moral support so that they become your long term supporters & contribute a
part of their profits for FTI Etc may be some of them can be outstanding future leaders too.

ii. Network with like minded groups like TIE/CII/FICCI/AMCHAM Etc where you can find supporters long term financiers for full time members of FTI

iii. Award ethical businesses by annual forums of eminent citizens like FTI annual meeting so that they become long term supporters of such ideas.

Option 3: Reimbursement from grants for projects?

Option 4: (Don’t understand)

• Employees vs Leaders (Leaders lead, employees follow instructions)

Post-Convention – say, to end 2010

After the 1500 members have assembled, political organization will be needed, including major advertising budget, and a full time office.

The following extract from a related document (to be discussed)

Fund-raising:

· We should have a sustainable fund-raising mechanism that provides enough income to back our candidates and run elections in a honest manner. India has a billion people. Thousands of ordinary individuals work for corporate entities. One possible method is to reach out to at least 0.5% of this billion, and convince them to shell out one rupee each.

Transparency:

· Complete transparency in all our expenses, activities, and policies is a way of ensuring more members join us. We should have transparency on expenses; right from the money we have spent on building our current website to the salaries, and big expenses we will make when we grow.