Chennai: Milaap, South Asia’s largest online crowdfunding platform, opened up for Covid related needs on 22 March, 2020. Soon after a month, thousands of individuals have collectively mobilised funds worth nearly Rs 90 crore.
The online funding campaigns not only span across helping stranded migrants and daily wage labourers get access to essentials and community kitchens but it has also come to the aid of peripheral communities such as trans people, male sex workers, circus artistes, drivers, delivery personnel, rural artisans, dancers and freelance workers.
Anoj Viswanathan, president and co-founder of Milaap said, “During the times of natural calamities like floods in Chennai, Assam and Kerala, crowdfunding has enabled people to unite and help the worst affected section of people rebuild their lives. It was a stroke of hope to see it happen at a time like this when everyone’s life is displaced in some way or another. Over the last one month, we have seen more than 5x increase in customer queries and a 65% increase in the number of fundraisers. It was new for us, but now, more than ever, we wanted to ensure seamless user experience. Therefore, we immediately built a special team to prioritise these needs, and waived off our platform fee for all Covid-19 initiatives so that people in need can get all the help coming their way.”