As an organisation whose mission is to empower underprivileged communities in the developing world and in Australia with knowledge, skills, and resources to improve quality of life, I believe that Dare 2 Dream has been most successful in fulfilling and furthering this mission in 2021-2022. The COVID-19 Pandemic has continued to raise many challenges but D2D has met these admirably. It continues to be an active and vibrant support group thanks to a small but dedicated Executive Committee and the support of the members and the wider community.

 

The 2021-2022 Executive consisted of 14 members  

Rita Shepherd (President), Vince Ruggiero (Vice-President), Daniella Zuppa (Treasurer), Jo Riccio, Helen Barnard, Lisa Slaven, Robert Shepherd, Milly Ruggiero, Janet Ruggiero, Daniela Colangelo, Ron Carey, Lisa Slaven, and Cate Mc Guire (Secretary)and Carolyn Ryan. This relatively small committee is a vibrant and talented group who have given many hours of their personal time, outside of the formal committee meetings to work on sub-committee projects and events.

 

Their contribution has been enormous in helping to manage the many facets of our Foundation including providing management advice, organising fundraising activities, sourcing donations, organising fundraising, managing Child Sponsorship, managing the website, maintaining communication with members, managing the finances, and promoting Dare 2 Dream and its work. I am most grateful for their dedication and untiring work and their selflessness in making the time in their busy lives to help others. I would like to offer special thanks to Daniella Zuppa for taking over the Treasurer’s role and to Cate Mc Guire for her Secretarial role. Tony Fogarty has voluntarily audited the accounts of Dare2Dream since its inception and we sincerely thank him for this. We also thank Perks Accountants for providing free the accounting software Zero D2D uses.

 

Membership

The Dare 2 Dream Foundation was established in 2011 with 12 members. This is growing slowly and currently there are 52 members.

 

Fundraising Activities

We are most grateful to the Committee members, family, friends, and community members who have supported our activities over the past 12 months.  While our organisation serves to raise awareness about disadvantage and the impact it has on lives, we are more than that. We are action based and an agent for change.  Many of the events run, have been to generate the funds to run grass roots programs.

 

Covid-19 has severely restricted fundraising in 2021-22. St Dominic’s Priory College no longer assists D2D so alternative arrangements have had to be made for the assistance the school previously provided. We also thank Cate Mc Guire for continuing to offer O0miak’s premises as a meeting venue. Covid played havoc with the operation of the URJA project in Nagpur and D2D agreed to suspend funding for a year meaning our commitment of $A8,000 pa ceases at the end of 2022 instead of 2021.                  

 

 

 

Projects funded:

 

Our main support has been for the work of ICID, our partner organization in Nagpur. We are currently supporting three projects:

 

1. Yuva Jyothi Children’s Home (YCH):

Currently there are 40 children under the care of the Yuva Jyothi Children’s Home; 36 boys and 4 girls. The main source of funding Yuva Jyothi has been the Child Sponsorship Program. Currently in its 13th year of operation, all the children are benefitting from the Child Sponsorship Program. YCH places great importance upon strengthening the relationships between the children and their families, strongly believing in the importance of family ties and reintegration. The whole program of YCH is directed towards the holistic development of the children. Child Sponsorship funds contributed to regular facilities like accommodation, food, clothing, health, hygiene, counselling, recreation, sports, school education, life skill education, tuition, recreational activities, and celebration of festivals, picnics, sports, vocational training, and family reunion.

The number of children as YJ is smaller this year than last due to movement restrictions in India. Some of the boys have had COVID but none luckily have required hospitalization.  Many of the staff have had COVID also.

A core group of sponsors have been providing financial support since the inception of the program in 2009 and it is our aim to increase the number who maintain their sponsorship. We believe a key to this is providing regular information to sponsors about the children at YJ. To this end, sponsors have received regular news from ICID, and Christmas cards. Thanks goes to Rob Shepherd for promoting and managing the Child Sponsorship program as it is an important source of reliable funding for Yuva Jyothi. Increasing costs in India have seen 3 tiers of sponsorship implemented- gold, silver and bronze and improved communication with Sponsors has meant greater income generated from Sponsorship. D2D has had to purchase credit card facilities. We now use ‘Square’ and only 7 sponsors have chosen to pay via credit card with the rest doing direct bank transfer. This saves time and credit card fees.

2. Urja (Energy)

D2D has been funding the Urja project since September 2019. In 2020 we received a request from ICID to suspend the project for 12 months as COVID had forced the closure of training centres and other activities associated with the project. Payments have resumed in 2021 and will cease in September 2023.

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Dare 2 Dream continues to fund wages for project staff and provides ‘top up’ salaries to some of the social workers, staff at YJ and a small honorarium to Fr Harry and the 2 priests in the Martin Nagar Community. This funding helps to maintain staff stability which is beneficial to the children at YJ and continuance of the projects.

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We are fortunate to be partnering with ICID which complies with the high level of accountability for funding we provide.

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D2D has found it extremely difficult to raise funds during the last 12 months.

In 2021 the D2D Committee brainstormed fundraisers that could help us maintain our support of the poor in India who need it more than ever. Many of the ICID staff live in poor conditions and have had COVID. We believe that they should continue to get wages as their situation is through no fault of their own. Therefore, major fundraisers we decided to promote in 2021-2022 were:

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GIN Bottling- 600 bottles of premium gin were ordered from Prohibition Gin. to be sold at $99 each with a $29 per bottle profit to D2D. At the time of writing costs have been covered and we look forward to continued sales over the next 12 months.

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Dinner: A very successful fundraising dinner was held on 28 August 2021. We especially thank Ron Carey, Lisa Slaven and Rob Shepherd for their help in organising the dinner. Numbers were capped at 105 but tickets sold out in 4 days. This was a heartening response, and allowed us once again to promote the organisation.

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Tea towels: Helen Barnard took the lead in organising the production and sale of D2D tea towels that feature a WORLIE design that the Yuva Jyothi child favour. Unfortunately, Helen resigned from the Committee in April 2022 due to personal reasons and

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Prospect Fair Stall: This was suspended in 2021 and we are hoping it will occur in Oct 2022

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Raffles: 7 left over prizes from the 2021 dinner were used to fund a raffle early in 2022. A further raffle with a bottle of “Grange “as 1st prize will be drawn prior to Christmas 2022.

 

Promotion of D2D

• Website

Daniela Colangelo is D2D’s website manager who keeps it up to date publicising events and activities. She has posted details of events and we thank her for taking on this role and learning how to manage the website.

• Face book & Instagram

The Dare 2 Dream Facebook and Instagram pages contains updates and news. This is a way of keeping our supporters informed of what is happening and have been managed by Rob Shepherd.

 

 

Future Plans and challenges

 

• Fundraising and sourcing donations from sponsors are becoming increasingly difficult when there is a plethora of organisations like ours competing for donations. COVID Restrictions make planning of fundraising events very difficult. Our biggest strength is that that 98 cents in every dollar goes to our beneficiaries and we need to continue to promote this.

• We have been relying on our friends and acquaintances to attend functions and for fundraising. There is a need to find other people to involve and to locate other possible venues to sell our goods. The cost of buying goods in India and transporting them back has increased significantly, so it is important to know what will profitably sell in Adelaide.

• D2D’s track record has kept us in good stead with some supporters who know what we do and are keen to continue their support. We must continue to maintain our good reputation. This became evident when we were contacted by a supporter who wished to run a COVID appeal, (which they did) to source funds for D2D’s work.

• I don’t believe D2D can fund any major ICID projects beyond 2023 due to limited fundraising. We need to discuss what we can do in the next couple of years to help ICID

 

• After pursuing corporate donations, we are now aware that our organisation is too small and not well enough known to offer reciprocal benefits to corporate sponsors. Having completed two projects with measurable success, D2D has investigated government funding for projects but funding has dried up as money is diverted into Covid stimulus packages, vaccination etc.  

• All members of the D2D Committee are volunteers and busy people. Sharing the workload is important as is succession planning for younger members of the Committee to take on leadership roles in the future.

• Fundraising events by the Committee have been fewer in 2021-2022 than the previous years. I believe it is important for Committee members to take the initiative in convening events and coming up with fundraising initiatives during Covid-19.  I thank those who have done this and been innovative and worked hard with friends and family to make these events a success.

 

• D2D is working towards financial sustainability of our own organization. We must balance supporting current projects with the need to look ahead to bigger projects and ensure a financial buffer to cover the “lean years’ when there may be a short fall in fundraising.

• By growing the supporter base of Dare 2 Dream we can spread the workload of the organization therefore it is important to have a vibrant and active management committee.

• Child Sponsorship costs have doubled over the past ears, but sponsors have generally   chosen to continue to contribute $20 per month. We are mindful of not losing sponsors who cannot afford more than the $20 per month., so must work to increase the number of sponsors.

• Tony Fogarty has retired as our auditor, and it was necessary to find another person willing to do the work pro-bono or a small cost. Luckily, we have found Colin Davies who has agreed to do the work pro bono.

• There is no doubt that all members of the Dare 2 Dream Committee firmly believe in the mission of our organisation and are prepared to be advocates for the socially and economically disadvantaged people in India who we assist. Our challenge is to keep translating this into practical actions that change lives for the better.

 

 

 I sincerely thank all who have contributed to the work of Dare2Dream, and I look forward optimistically to the next year and hope that we can continue to make a positive difference to the lives of others.

 

 

Rita Shepherd (President)

20 July 2022