Crowdfunding: The practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from many people who each contribute a relatively small amount, typically via the Internet.
South City 1 Residents of Blocks A to M attempted their first crowdfunding project last month for the “Gates Project”, which is a project to provide a sense of security to the community by installing six gates at the periphery of the colony.
SCRWA kickstarted the initiative at the end of July 2024, by appointing a Gates Committee and initiating a WhatsApp and email-based campaign to collect money for the six gates and associated infrastructure. A brief plan was communicated to collect contributions from residents, many of whom have contributed and installed gates for their Blocks.
Residents raised many questions about the project, namely:
• Will the installation of gates make South City 1 secure?
• If the installation of gates is not making us secure, why should I pay now?
• Why is the contribution for security dependent on the area of a plot?
• Why should I pay as I stay in a Block where I am contributing at the Block level?
• Why should I pay if X% or residents are not paying OR my neighbours are not paying?
All these were valid questions and even the Gates Committee was hard-pressed to respond to these. However, as they say, naysayers be damned. Hundreds of residents threw caution to the wind and started contributing towards the project from Day 1.
The SCRWA team even got a frantic call from our Bank Manager, saying that an account that has so far had 15-20 transactions in a month was now getting scores of transactions in a day. We had to assure them that these were neither fraudulent nor spam transactions.
Within a week more than Rupees 8 Lakhs were collected. As of 23rd September 2024, the amount is close to 16 Lakh Rupees and contributions continue to trickle in every day even in the last week of September.
Three cheers to Crowdfunding for a Secure South City 1!!!
Update: The first gate has been installed on Club Road (not completed yet). The other 5 gates have been ordered and an advance payment has been made paid. All the six gates will be installed and painted by Diwali.
