AHEM, Mr Murthy

As Infosys honcho N R Narayana Murthys comments about IIT students and deteriorating quality kicks up a controversy the Mumbai institution believes its alumni will deliver in cash cheque and now online Two batches of the Indian Institute of Technology IITu00a0 Bombay of 2010 and 2011 who pledged to donate one percent from their earnings to the institution have got a password and login ID to begin donating to their alma mater The portalu00a0 which will be linked from the alumni portal httpwwwiitbombayorg was being tested and is now ready for donation It may sound ambitious but the IIT is hoping that each batch gives at least Rs 50 lakh per year Inside of IIT PowaiIndoor stadiumJust not enoughWhen one thinks about it Rs 200 crore which is what the institution has collected from exstudents is humongous but for the alumni of IIT Bombay this is obviously not enough So to reach more donors and also include older batches in the list of contributors the association recently launched something called the Decennial Fund The fund which was launched by IITs alumni association will help the Mumbai Powai institution to raise more funds than earlier It also taps untapped potential for funds as it is now easier for overseas alumni to donate to IIT using the online option Earlier donations were given through cheques and demand drafts Across the worldOver the last 15 years IIT Mumbai alumni from across the world have contributed an estimated Rs 200 crore for their alma mater Earlier only donors who could donate crores were the ones who were coming forward Now though with the new portal even the smallest donations can be made easily as with more access because of the online route there is also clearer streamlining The person can login with his user and password and he can see for which purpose he wants to donate There are avenues like donating for hostels for mess workers or for professors Once he has that clear he can click on that link and look at information about how much money is being used from the funds donated towards that particular purpose whether there is need for more money and what is the balance Moreover if the donor is going to pay periodically he will get reminders on time He will also get all information about his donations and since it is only human to expect an acknowledgement a little gratitude for a sum irrespective of size he will get thank you notes as wellKeep a track Most importantly the donor now knows what happens to the money The donor can not only donate but also keep a track of his donation It maintains donor history tracks payments and enables donors to receive periodic fund utilisation reports at regular intervals Designed by Findability Sciences who helped create and run a similar platform for United Ways a USbased charity this is the first such initiative by them for an educational institution in India There are total 40000 alumni of IITB and out of that 10000 are the members of the IITBombay Alumni Association BAA The rest of the 30000 are not members of the IITBAA Out of 30000 alumni at least 10000 are in touch with the association Pay it backBakul Desai alumni from batch 1982 and directorincharge of IITBAA fund raising said We have found out that there are many people who want to donate to IITB and so far it was restricted to only few big donors who donated in crores Now that we have this initiative we can accept small donations in recurring fashion Some people can pay monthly some can pay yearly Last year we began something called give one percent of your salary for IITB We dont call it donation we call it pay back because IIT has given us so much that we need to pay back One per cent does not pinch Fresh graduates who earn about seven lakh per year have to pay only Rs 7000 a year which amounts to hardly Rs 600 or Rs 700 per month We are 40000 alumni worldwide and we have 20000 from that on our database From that 10000 are alumni association members and the rest are not So we need to reach out as many exstudents as possible Desai also adds that it is difficult to keep track of former students because of their mobility The alumni association tries to locate 200300 alumni every year because these people keep moving Generous with timeStarting from the batch of 2010 alumni collected pledges from almost 800 fresh graduates that they will donate one percent From the 2011batch alumni collected almost 1100 pledgesu00a0 Prof A Q Contractor Dean Alumni and Corporate Relations said We are fortunate to have alumni who have not only been generous with funds but also with their time The innovative approaches to fundraising organisation and mobilisation could only have come from IITians Several of our alumni have spent time participating in our academic and research programs bringing valuable international experience to these programsRam Kelkar President of IIT Bombay Heritage Fund said 1200 alumni in the US have donated over US 35million in Gurudakshina this includes about 25million in cash and the balance in equipment donations over the years Not only that as much as 20 per cent are repeat donors At a glancegtgtu00a0Annual donations to IIT Bombay are now in the vicinity of Rs 15 crore and the number of donors is close to a 1000 gtgtu00a0Over 40 per cent of the funds donated have gone to infrastructural projects which include Kanwal Rekhi School of IT Shailesh Mehta School of Management Gaitonde Lecture Hall Complex D S Foundation Gymkhana Victor Menezes Convention Center Shenoy Innovation Studio Suman Mashruwalla Advanced Micro Microengineering Lab PC Saxena Auditorium Lecture Hall Complex Hostel Renovation Broadband connectivity to hostel etcetera Alumni donations also supportgtgtu00a0Over 100 named scholarshipsgtgtu00a07u00a0 Research Excellence awardsgtgtu00a014 Teaching Excellence Awardsgtgtu00a05 Student Merit Excellence Awardsu00a0gtgt 7 Chair Professorships supported by alumni donations