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The old days of social organisations struggling to receive donations seem to be coming to an end with a social tech way of garnering funds. A 24-year-old social worker has launched an application called Era Sustain which generated funds for social organisations by displaying advertisements to its users on their mobile phones.
Erasustain is the brainchild of Anubhav Bansal, who is a young social worker and chartered accountant. Running his own non-government organisation (NGO) in 2019 for the purpose of societal development, Bansal faced problems to receive funding for his organisation when he came up with an idea where people can be able to provide fund to the NGOs without actually paying a single penny out of their pocket.
With the business model of creating a platform of digital donation, Bansal designed Erasustain where they collaborate with NGOs without charging money and ask them to attract volunteers to install and sign up on the application. The user is required to commit to an NGO and the funds generated from advertisements displayed through notifications are transferred to the commuted organisation. Currently, the application donates Rs. 0.25 for every advertisement seen by a user.
“Funding was the part which frustrated me during my social work. The idea behind this application was to create a platform which can facilitate people to be a part of the social cause without spending their own money or time. The users do not need to open the application on their mobile phone as the advertisement is displayed in the notification bar. If a social partner gets 1,000 committed users, they generate at least Rs. 15,000 recurring donation every month,” said Bansal.
Bansal graduated as a chartered accountant in July 2023 and started working on Erasustain on the very next day. The application design also received funding of Rs. 15 lakhs from union government’s startup initiative facilitated by Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO) and was launched officially in April this year. Apart from letting NGOs collaborate with the application for free, it is also offering an additional grant to a limited organisations of Rs. 50,000 to help the NGOs attract more volunteers.
“There is a lack of technology in the social sector. A few years back we couldn’t believe that we can earn through creating videos and today it is one of the most high-earning jobs. Similarly, Erasustain is a revolution in the socio-tech sector. If more socio-tech platforms are made available, it will be enough to make the NGOs more self sustainable and independent,” Bansal added.
