Crowdera Foundation holds Giving Economy Changemakers (GEC) 2020, a virtual celebration of the power of humanity
Crowdera, world’s only 100% free fundraising and crowdfunding platform for individuals & organizations, organized the 3rd Edition of Giving Economy Changemakers (2020) virtually. The event was conceptualized by Mr Chet Jainn, the founder & CEO of Crowdera Foundation and co-hosted by Mr Deepak Dwiwedi, the MD & CEO of Dainik Bhaskar and chairman of Nagrik Foundation. The event also saw participation from some of the other changemakers such as Kunal Sood (CEO & Founder of NOVUS and WeThePlanet), Sultan Al- Hajji (VP of oil company Total, UAE), Chehab Alawar (RGAFP Board member and Humanitarian award winner), Madhumita Patil (CEO of Chetna Institute), Srinivas Chunduru (Founder of Vanskilling) and Earl Bridges (President & Co-Founder of Good Done Great).
This year’s GEC summit has gone virtual because of the pandemic, and there were more than 200 nominations for GEC Awards from all over the world including countries such as United States, Canada, Kenya, and India etc. and There were 20+ speakers from all walks of life who addressed various sessions at the forum. The event also saw the announcement of a partnership of Crowdera Foundation and Nagrik Foundation for empowering 1 million NGOs and charities by 2030 and digitizing 1 Lakh NGOs and charities by 2022. The hosts Chet Jainn and Deepak Dwiwedi shed their light on the importance of digital transformation in the philanthropy world and to ensure that no charity should be left behind. Under this initiative, every charity will get free mobile-friendly websites and will be made aware of the benefits of digital fundraising via multiple digital Literacy programs and SDG awareness programs.
Since its inception in 2018, Crowdera Foundation has successfully hosted GEC events every year to focus on innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship, bringing together the leading philanthropists, entrepreneurs, social innovators, activists, artists and NGOs to lead the transformative change towards SDG implementation and exchange ideas and develop solutions. The main aim of GEC is to raise awareness about the United Nations defined Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030 for the welfare and enrichment of the people, fellow earthlings, and the planet.
Commenting on the summit, Mr Chet Jainn, Founder & CEO, Crowdera, said, “In 2016 when I attended the Novus Summit at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, my life was transformed. It was my birthday and felt like I found my new purpose and that very moment I decided to align my every future action with Sustainable Development Goals. But when I visited India and other regions of SouthEast Asia, I realized about the unawareness of people on SDGs. Since then, our search for changemakers and eagerness of creating more changemakers started.”
Commenting on the summit, Deepak Dwiwedi, Chief-In-Editor, Dainik Bhaskar quoted, “The partnership between Nagrik Foundation & Crowdera Foundation will focus on together digitally strengthen & empower the grass-root partners enabling communities & localization of SDGs Strengthening Rural India the real Bharat.”
The event brought various inspiring changemakers on one platform. One such changemaker, Mr Kunal Sood, the founder of NOVUS, X fellows and We The Planet and an award-winning innovator shared various anecdotes of his inspiring journey from serving slums of Mumbai as Harward’s Global Health scientist to be the social innovator at United Nations General Assembly. Kunal engaged the audience in an engaging talk of using humility as a tool to unite and hope as a tool to embrace suffering and turn it into a superpower. His motivational speech about preserving the planet, reducing violence, benefits of healthy living, the importance of innovation and methods of building sustainable cities and communities captivated the attention of other speakers and especially youth in the audience.
Commenting on the sidelines of the summit, Kunal Sood, The CEO & Founder of NOVUS and WeThePlanet quoted, “If we align our actions with our values and go further and faster together, impacting lives we can find true abundance without fear of favour” he added.
The second section of the summit recognized the efforts of some of the prominent changemakers and felicitated them under various categories of GEC Awards 2020. The first category of GEC Excellence Awards was for the changemakers who not just created an impact on their community but successfully managed to start a global movement with their initiative. The three awardees under categories were Mr Kunal Sood, Padma Bhushan Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International and Mrs Chitra Subramaniam, a serial journalist and social entrepreneur.
The second category of GEC Prominent Awards, a category for global changemakers who are working for multiple causes and are aligned to various SDGs felicitated Rajan Samuel (MD of Habitat for Humanity), Dr. Manilal Valliyate (CEO of PETA India), Harish Mamtani (CEO of SEEDS schools), Shantilal Muttha (CEO of Shantilal Muttha Foundation), Late Madhavrao Bhide (founder of Saturday Club Global Trust), Aditya Tiwari (youngest single parent in India to adopt a child with Down’s Syndrome), Miten Mehta (Global Alliance Officer – Google Cloud Practice), Dr Nilesh Bharne (IPS officer who has worked in multiple rescue operations have in pandemic got 150 + NGOs together to prove the famous saying ‘Together We Can”), Ram Kolavennu (COO at foundation of Excellence), Sara Schairer (Founder/Executive Director of Compassion It NGO), Dr. Kalpana Gopalan (Additional Chief Secretary, Dept of Youth Empowerment & Sports, Govt of Karnataka), Sandeep Nemlekar (Managing Trustee at DEEP-ARCHAN Charitable Trust for Enabling Needy in Problem Solving), Dr. Megha Phansalkar (Urban Regional Planner and Social Entrepreneur) and Ramesh Aggarwal (WASH Rotary Action Group Board of Directors ).
The event ended on a high note as Mr Jainn appreciated the changemakers and the audience for turning the days of the summit into a huge success. He ended the event with a promise to present more promising speakers and awards and to take the same vibes and enthusiasm to the following next year of the event.
