The causes they take up may be big or small, they may benefit a few hundreds or reach out to much larger numbers, but the appeal to most individual donors remains the same – for you it is just one small step. It is this philosophy that led Rohan Bhansali, co-founder of one of India’s largest digital media agencies Gozoop to set up the 1SmallStep Foundation, a not-for-profit social enterprise that delivers high impact social projects across all sectors. Rohan is the son of  Rupa and Late Snehes Girdharhai Bhansali, and he and his mother are the trustees of 1SmallStep Foundation.
 

In the latest effort of the foundation, Rohan and his team have just completed the mammoth task of raising a mega sum of Rs 1 Crore to help the children from low income families complete their cancer treatment.
 

Some months ago on a visit to a home for cancer patients in Dadar, Rohan realised that there many families were abandoning their child’s cancer treatment since support from various charitable trusts took 4-6 weeks to procecess due to the extensive due diligence. 

After some in-depth research, meeting patients, doctors, social workers and others, and learning that 4 out of 10 children from low income families abandon their children’s treatment at the very beginning, before they can receive private funding, #1SmallStepforCancer took shape. Its aim was to develop an ‘Emergency Fund’ through which smaller amounts of financial aid would be given to children till a more stable source of monetary support for longer term treatment could be arranged. 

The campaign mobilised support from many quarters – a number of celeb film stars endorsed it online and the Rotary Club of Queen’s Necklace steped in with the offer of matching every donation received with a like amount. After a few weeks of extensive networking through social media, family and friends, the goal of collecting Rs. 1 Crore was achieved.
 

An investment banker turned entrepreneur, Rohan says that the effort of the 1SmallStep team is entirely voluntary. Work is done outside of office hours and the expenses of promoting and administering the campaigns is funded by Rohan and a few other private donors. Every rupee collected for a cause is spent for what it was given, Rohan says.

Before its highly successful latest campaign, the 1SmallStep team has similarly used ‘crowd funding’ to successfully execute another 35-40 projects ranging from big to small, in areas of education, animals, health & nutrition, etc. This includes the #GetOnTheBus campaign which was also awarded the best social campaign at the 2017 LI Digital Awards which raised Rs 25 lakh in 10 days to enable 120 students across 10 villages in Raigad district attend an English medium school. Other projects include providing a high protein diet to underprivileged, JeevDaya Fund for abandoned animals, organising entertainment and games for old age homes, providing wheelchairs to government hospitals and computers to schools, etc.
 

Speaking to the media, Rohan said that the purpose of the foundation is to “enable the  inherent goodness in people”. This is done by  putting together well researched, high impact social projects, with the message and appeals being spread through innovative campaigns in the social media. A lot of corporates and organisations have partnered with 1SmallStep for their CSR and social activities. 

For him, the key is to achieve “business-like professionalism in every philanthropic endeavour”. 

“Philantrophy has to be efficient, effective and sustainable,” he concludes.

To know more visit:  1SmallStep.in