Facing Failure

We all encounter failure in life at some point in time. What differentiates us is in the way we FACE it. The timing and scale of the failure decide the nature of our response. Most importantly, it's our level of maturity that determines how we LEARN from the failure.

For me, it was a sobering moment this week, when I decided to call off the biggest-ever fundraising campaign I had launched earlier this year. It was called Mission 16.

Background :

My school friend Gunit lost his 16-year-old son Simar to Cancer last November. Inspired by the spirit and valor with which Simar fought the disease, I wanted to do something about it and ensure that the children diagnosed with Cancer get some support to fight the disease. I was also motivated by my Dad, who was fighting last stage cancer at that time.

What Was Mission 16?

Starting with my run in IDBI Delhi Marathon on Feb 23 in New Delhi, I decided to raise awareness about Children with Cancer and raise funds for my Mission 16 - raising Rs 16 Lakh for 16 kids battling cancer in the loving memory of Simar, who couldn’t cross 16 years of age due to the deadly disease that took him away abruptly. My aim was to raise awareness, work alongside people involved in research, for cancer’s cure and treatment, sensitize communities about the need to fight Cancer as a society, as a community, as a family, together and help needy people who can’t afford healthcare, with funds and treatment in time.

The mission started off really well, I was able to raise a total of Rs 2.58 and was able to support three kids in the first 2 months. 9-year-old Krishna, 5-year-old Rick, and 13-year-old Pranjali benefitted from the amount that was collected. It was quite gratifying to get contributions from my friends, family, relatives, and colleagues, whom all chipped in to make this collection possible.

The Setback:

And then Corona happened. The biggest pandemic the world has seen for more than 100 years and hopefully the only one of our lives, fast unfolded in March in India, followed by the national lockdown on March 26. The shutdown of businesses, the traumatic state of the migrant workers, and the fast spread of the virus in the country, took away attention from the campaign.

It was ironic to see this because with the pandemic, the need for funds for the family of these kids who are still fighting cancer, became all the more necessary.

Calling it Off:

However, it was very difficult to build up the momentum and get attention back to the campaign. I deliberated on this a lot and finally, on Aug 27, decided to bring a premature end to the campaign.

What Happened:

Clearly, this was a bold initiative for me from Day 1. My only previous experience of fundraising was when I had collected Rs 5L for a school for underprivileged kids in Gurgaon last year. The audience I was targeting this time was much bigger, but the base was very much the same. So to expect me to raise 16L this time was a steep task, no doubt.

I believe that I should have planned the fundraise much better. Should have had a blueprint of where all the money is likely to come from. To expect my own social network to work for me was a short sight. I needed to account for some NGOs, CSR initiatives of large corporates, charity organizations, etc to be partners in the drive.

Post Mortem:

In reality, 16 lakhs is not a huge amount for a fundraise. It's not even big, considering that many campaigns go into crores nowadays. I started off with contribution of Rs 16,000 myself. So I just needed to get 100 donors to contribute Rs 16,000 or more and my job was done. In the end, there were 58 donors who contributed to the final raise of Rs 2.58 lacs. So in some way, I was 60% of my target for the number of donors.

Applying a 10% hit rate, I needed to reach out to at least 1000 people to get 100 donors. Did I reach out to that many? probably not, I guess I would have reached about 400 or so. So I was 40% of my 'reach out' target.

So against a 16% achievement on funds raised, I had a 60% achievement on the number of donors target and 40% achievement on the 'reach out' target.

Of course, a flaw in the above thinking is to expect other people to be ok to donate Rs 16,000, an amount which might be too much for many, while might also be too little for a few. The amount to donate is based on many factors and is a charity, its unfair to even discuss those factors. The fact that one donates, even if it is Re 1, is appreciated. PERIOD.

The one factor that stands out in all fundraising campaigns is 'relatability', to the cause, to the individual who is raising it and finally to the people being impacted. For me, the reliability was the highest as my own father was battling cancer and I could not imagine my child being a potential victim to and hence wanted to help assuage the pain of other kids who were already a victim.

Why the blog:

I strongly believe in the power of social media and the power of sharing. I believe that just like we celebrate every success, it's also important to recognize every failure. In fact, it's more important to discuss failure than success. Many times the learnings in failure and what should not be repeated are far more important and lot more difficult to know than the mantra for success.

What Next:

As per the famous dialogue "Picture Abhi Baki Hain, mere Dost", Mission 16 will be back, albeit in a different form. I am still determined to raise funds. There are still thousands of children who are fighting a real disease like Cancer and most importantly, there are hundreds, if not more, people, who are willing to contribute to a noble cause like this mission.