Raymond Pledges To Donate A Million Garments

 Raymond Pledges To Donate A Million Garments 

To Lesser Privileged Sections Of The Society

~Raymond in association with Goonj extends ‘Look Good, Do Good’
initiative both online and offline across India~

India’s leading fabric and apparel manufacturer and retailer, Raymond launched its social initiative in association with Goonj known as ‘Look good, do good’. This one of its kind garment exchange program focusing on ‘dignity of work’ will be rolled out in Raymond stores across 600+ towns across India as well as online on www.myraymond.com. Due to the ongoing pandemic, consumers can also book an appointment to get their old clothes picked up and avail tailoring service appointment through Raymond Home Assist, which enables them to get their shirts and trousers tailored in the comfort of their home or book an appointment at the store.

Anyone can donate their old garments and avail free tailoring services for Raymond fabrics or gift vouchers that can be redeemed online or through any of the participating Raymond stores for Raymond Ready to wear. Additionally consumers who seek personalization can also redeem the voucher at Raymond Made to Measure stores.

Celebrating this unique initiative, S. Ganeshkumar, COO- Lifestyle Business, Raymond Ltd. said, “At Raymond, we believe that initiative is even more significant amidst the pandemic. The aim is to encourage consumers to do their bit of helping the less privileged while looking good. Through this initiative, we aim to reach a large number of customers and encourage them to participate in this garment exchange program and contribute by donating their old clothes. With an exchange of 1.5 Lakh garments and a redemption rate of 73% seen last year, we are certain that this year will see a great success rate as well.”  

Raymond has pledged to donate over a million garments through Goonj – an NGO that utilizes urban discard as a tool to alleviate poverty and enhance the dignity of the underprivileged people of the world. This social initiative will give much needed impetus to the Tailoring community that was adversely impacted due to the onset of Covid.

India’s biggest fundraising event helps

India’s biggest fundraising event helps NGOs raise crores

India’s biggest fundraising event, which brings together hundreds of NGOs and their donors competing for rewards and recognition, launched earlier this month.

The 7th edition of the GiveIndia Fundraising Challenge 2021 kicked off on February 1 and nearly 200 nonprofits have already raised over ₹2 crores. This one-of-a-kind online event continues till March 28 and is expected to raise more than ₹15 crores by the time it ends. Nonprofit organisations typically leverage the tax saving made on donations at the end of the financial year to appeal to their donors and compete in the challenge.

Several NGOs use GFC as an opportunity to maximise their fundraising, often raising a significant part of their annual budget. For instance, last year the NGO Team Everest who has so far won every edition of GFC raised ₹2.29 crore which is more than half their yearly spend and a little over a fifth of the ₹10 crores raised by a total of 367 NGOs who participated.  

Team Everest is one of India’s largest youth-run organizations with 8,500+ volunteers, many of who help with the fundraising during GFC. Their flagship program 'I am the Change Scholarship' supports parentless or single-parented students from financially weaker backgrounds to do their undergraduate degree.

GiveIndia, a Bengaluru-based nonprofit organisation, runs the annual challenge to encourage NGOs to learn and adapt newer ways to raise funds and end the financial year with high collections. It comes with incentives in the form of ‘success slabs’ and ‘mega rewards’ to inspire all NGOs more.

This year organisations who raise ₹50+ lakh and ₹1+ crore will get mega rewards of ₹9.5 lakh and ₹20 lakh respectively, and success slab awards start from ₹5.25 lakh to NGOs who raise ₹30+ lakh to ₹7,000 to those to raise ₹50,000 or more. Some of the participating NGOs include ISHA Foundation, Goonj, Vidya Poshak and Cuddles Foundation to name a few.

Over the years, the fundraising challenge has seen a 60% YoY growth in terms of amount raised, 80% increase in participating NGOs, and 40% YoY growth in the number of retail donors, with last year seeing contributions from over 21,000 everyday givers.

“At GiveIndia, we are committed to supporting our NGOs in their fundraising efforts and bridging the gap between donors and trusted nonprofits. We are also committed to building a robust everyday philanthropy ecosystem and the year on year amplification we have seen with GiveIndia Fundraising Challenge tells us we are on the right path! It is a very exciting time on our calendar with all of us at GiveIndia glued to the GFC leaderboard to see how well our partner NGOs are doing,” said Priyanka Prakash, Director, Head of Online Giving, Marketing and Partnerships at GiveIndia.  

Apart from the rewards, through the challenge, GiveIndia brings a range of benefits for NGOs, including the skills to expand and engage with donor networks, communication kits to appeal for donations on social media, emails and messages, webinars to take them through the platform, matching grants, best practices, and the ability to raise Indian and foreign donations.

Epigamia launches Step-Up Initiative to provide access to food and water to

Epigamia launches Step-Up Initiative to provide access to food and water to migrant workers & village communities impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, with support from Danone Manifesto Ventures                                                                                                                                                

Epigamia has launched the Step-Up Program with a mission to provide food & water to communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by a purpose to improve food & food systems within the country, Epigamia has set up many initiatives under this program, right from providing food to migrant workers, to improving access to water in villages around the country. Danone Manifesto Ventures, one of the investors in Epigamia, is supporting the Step-Up program through its global COVID-19 Relief Fund, which helps its investee companies across the world by supporting the latter’s community outreach programs to improve the lives of those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other initiatives.

 

Rohan Mirchandani, Co-Founder, and CEO, Epigamia, said, “The pandemic & subsequent impact on migrant workers in the cities got us going. We launched the Step-Up program in May 2020 and have donated and distributed over 7.5 lacs cups & bottles of yogurts. We have partnered with Danone Manifesto Ventures, who supported us for this initiative and provided some guidance on planning & execution. The Step-Up initiative is now a rallying cry in the organization with active participation from employees and our supply chain partners. Over 215 members of Epigamia’s team also stepped-up and donated a portion of their salary towards the distribution of cups".

 

The first phase of the Step-Up program was completed in September through partners such as Robin Hood Army, Zomato Feeding India, Annapurna Movement, Rise Against Hunger, Akshaya Patra, and Goonj, to name a few. For the second phase, Epigamia is focusing on supporting rural communities across the country. Epigamia has partnered with Habitat for Humanity India to help improve access to safe drinking water, and help the communities through training and support for livelihood options including agricultural productivity.

 

"Since Day 1, Epigamia has been a very generous donor supporting Annapurna Movement's on-ground food relief efforts. Through their Step-Up program, we could reach out to thousands of homeless children across Mumbai. These children who were only surviving on rice & dal meals finally had a chance to taste the extremely delicious & nutritional products from Epigamia! The smile on their faces has been priceless!" added Shievani Upadhyay Co-founder, Annapurna Movement.

 

Laurent Marcel, CEO of Danone Manifesto Ventures, said, “In 2020, we witnessed parts of the world suffer irrecoverable losses to their lives and livelihoods, and decided to support our portfolio companies’ initiatives to tackle unprecedented challenges through a dedicated COVID-19 Relief Fund. This led us to support Epigamia’s team and the frontline workers who fought the toughest of daily battles by aiding their financial, health, and safety initiatives. We are proud to assist Epigamia to fulfill their responsibility as a Corporate Citizen of the country in these challenging times”.

 

Danone Manifesto Ventures has also supported other projects led by Epigamia in the areas of People, Health, and Safety (focused on employment preservation by providing financial security and personal protective equipment) and Food Supply Continuity (ensuring frontline workers received hardship allowances). For this exceptional impact investment of approx. INR 5.23 crores in Epigamia made through its COVID-19 Relief Fund, which is outside of its usual investment activities, Danone Manifesto Ventures will be issued a special class of shares.

                                                               

Launched in June 2015, Epigamia is currently available in 30 SKUs under Greek Yogurt, Artisanal Curd, Snack Pack, Mishti Doi, Smoothies, and Spreads - made with Ghee, Plant-based Coconut Milk Yogurt and Almond Milk. The brand retails across approximately 12,000 touchpoints in 25 towns, including modern trade chains like Reliance Fresh, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Future Group, Foodhall, Big Bazaar, and Hypercity; e-commerce platforms including Big Basket and Amazon; and numerous general trade retailers. Additionally, the brand recently launched its Direct-to-Consumer online platform available in Tier 1 and 2 cities in the country.

Walmart, Flipkart and Walmart Foundation
provide INR 460 million of support to India’s Covid-19 Fight

To contribute personal protective equipment (PPEs) including N95 masks and medical gowns for medical staff, and other necessities for vulnerable communities

BENTONVILLE, Ark. and Chennai, India – Walmart Inc., Flipkart and the Walmart Foundation are supporting India’s Covid-19 response with a combined effort that will contribute needed personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and financial support for organizations providing essential relief materials to farmers and small businesses. 

Walmart Inc. and Flipkart will spend INR 383 million to bring in-kind donations into India to help with the front-line response efforts. The companies will focus on providing PPE, such as N95 masks and medical gowns, for distribution by non-government organizations (NGOs) to public healthcare workers. Walmart and Flipkart have already secured 300,000 N95 masks and 1 million medical gowns, and they will continue to leverage their global supply chains to source these critical necessities for medical workers who stand at the frontline of the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak in India. 

In addition to this in-kind support, the Walmart Foundation is donating a total of INR 77 million to Goonj and Srijan, NGOs supporting vulnerable communities through the crisis.  The funds will be used to support the procurement of essential relief materials, such as food, medicine, and hygiene items, for distribution by the organizations to support farmers, rural communities, and the micro-businesses.  

“Our customers and associates in India have been deeply impacted by Covid-19 and our hearts continue to be with them,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer for Walmart and president of the Walmart Foundation. “In times like these, we all need to come together to support our communities and the efforts of healthcare workers, NGOs and government organizations. We are grateful to all those providing relief in India and we want to help.”

“Our Flipkart teams are working around the clock to respond to the Covid-19 crisis with care and compassion. We are very proud of them. The emergency relief efforts we are announcing today underscore our commitment to continuing to work with the private and public sector in India to respond to this unprecedented challenge,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group.

While keeping supply lines open to ensure that Indian consumers have access to essential daily necessities, Walmart and Flipkart are also taking important steps to help protect public health and the safety of customers and associates as the Covid-19 situation continues to evolve. These efforts include enhanced hygiene practices across the supply chain and delivery network, insurance and health benefits for workers, contact less deliveries where possible and supporting cashless payments.