 1. What do you sell?
No, this is not a bakery with a social networking twist.
Share My Cake is a way of integrating 'giving' into our lives -and celebrations. 2. What's ShareMyCake about? Quick! How many gifts did your child get during her last birthday party? How many of them does she play with today?
Hardly any, we'd guess.
After all, how many Monopoly & Pictionary games can a child have? Every time you do a spring cleaning, you simply end up packing semi-complete & semi-working toys and games into a cardboard box and sending it off to the nearest charity or the nearest bin. What a waste!
ShareMyCake is a way to avoid all this waste, make a real difference to the lives of others. In the process, your child will also be more aware about (the billions of) people who are less privileged. 3. Tell me more.
Please visit this page (overview) and check out this comic strip(how ShareMyCake works) to know more.
4. How does ShareMyCake help the environment?
We must confess that this was not our primary focus. However, we realized that we were helping the environment in more ways than we could count...
5. Who are the people behind ShareMyCake?
Hi, I'm Lakyntina Lyngdoh Lakshmanan (Tina, for short), and I'm the founder of ShareMyCake.org
My primary qualification is that I'm a mom to two boys, and my family has celebrated many years of children's birthdays! I have plenty of experience with seeing the opportunities...and wastage that celebrations bring.
Every year, we would have an 'annual home clean-up' where we'd pack off the kids old toys (most untouched) to the nearest charity. On one of these occasions, the idea for ShareMyCake took root. I was excited & convinced enough by the idea to quit my lucrative (as some people think) job at HCL Technologies and work full time on ShareMyCake - from September 2009.
By way of experience & qualifications, I have 14 years of work experience across multinational companies in India & the Middle East. I've worked in banking, financial services, and in IT services (with a focus on banking & financial services). But somehow I have the feeling that the best part of my career is only beginning!
Many years ago, I completed an MBA from IIM-Calcutta. Many moons before that, I completed an undergraduate degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering - from BITS, Mesra.
Obviously, I can't do something as big as ShareMyCake all by myself. I have various people helping me in various ways. When the ShareMyCake site goes live (what you are seeing here is a temporary transit site), I'll tell you more about the many other people behind the success of ShareMycake. 6. I want to help. What can I do?
You've already taken the first step by reading this. Now, please take the second step
7. I've registered. Now what?
Firstly, thanks.
We will be launching soon. We'll let you know when we do.
Thereafter, we'll contact you a few weeks before your birthday, and remind you to use ShareMyCake - to celebrate & make a difference.
8. Is this how the ShareMyCake website will look?
No. Not at all. This is what we call a 'transit site'.
We are busy getting the real site ready. Soon, we will be fully ready to change the world of celebrations.
9. Why just birthdays? Why not weddings and other occasions?
Excellent point!
And yes, weddings are next. After all, how many dinner sets and food processors can one use. The newly married couple are better off getting cash that they can use more productively, and making a difference in the process. They'll sure get a ton of blessings, this way.
However, we thought it important to focus on one form of celebration first. Hence the initial focus on kids' birthdays. 10. When does ShareMyCake launch?
Soon. We hope to be up and running in Q1 2010. Wish us luck.
11. What % of the money do you keep. How much of it goes to charity?
ShareMyCake plans to keep a minimal % of the receipts.
Most charitable NGOs have what they call 'overheads' - basically these are the costs of running the organizations - paying the rent, bills, salaries, etc. While most charitable NGOs try and keep the overheads as low as possible, they have their own limits! ShareMyCake is working on getting corporate sponsors to bear the bulk of the overheads. As a result, we will be able to work on a really low overhead of approximately 5%.
In other words, just 5% of the receipts will go into keeping ShareMyCake alive & kicking.The majority of this 'overhead' goes towards the fees that a payment gateway charges to process an online donation. Of course, if we get a bank / payment gateway as a sponsor, we could absorb this too. In effect, at least 95% of the money we receive goes to the intended recipients: the person celebrating, and the charity they wish to 'share their cake' with.We'd be happy to elaborate more on our model. Just ask nicely. 12. What charities do you work with?
ShareMyCake will work with a number of charities across various causes - from water & sanitation to education and empowerment of the girl child. It's amazing to see the number of causes (problems) we have and the number of organizations that are working hard - to make a difference. A detailed list of supported charities & social organizations, a profile page on each, and a summary of the reasons behind their selection will be available too. While we will be talking to a gamut of charities, our focus will primarily be on organizations that have limited fund raising resources. We believe we can help them the most. ShareMyCake will be following a stringent process to select charities & NGOs that are committed to their chosen cause(s). We will only work with charities that have demonstrated commitment and verifiable credentials whereby their authenticity is established beyond doubt. ShareMyCake will also be partial towards charities that can demonstrate 'cause & effect'. In other words, we would prefer to know what exactly a charity will do with the funds it gets as a result of your child's generosity. For example, your child will be thrilled at knowing that a school in interior U.P. has 20 new books in their library - thanks to him. Additionally, we would prefer to work with charities that have no strong religious or political affiliations. Know a charity / NGO / cause that we should be talking to? Please let us know. 13. Is this only for people residing in India?
Considering that celebrations & causes are pretty universal, ShareMyCake is relevant across the globe. Since we will be working closely with the charities / NGOs that we will support, we will initially be able to focus only on social organizations that have operations in India. As we expand, so will our 'coverage'. So, regardless of where you are located, and where the people you invite are located, you can certainly have a ShareMyCake birthday for your child. Please Pre-Register now. 14. Is this only for kids? It's just that while ShareMyCake can work in many ways, Marketing 101 says you must focus on one segment - for starters. We thought kids' birthdays made most sense. But...if you're (say) a 28 year old lady celebrating your birthday, marriage or Diwali, and planning to use ShareMyCake - we'd only be delighted! So would a bunch of needy people. 15. What % of my gifts (total cash) do I need to give to Charity? The minimum you can give is 10% (you keep 90% for yourself). The maximum you can give is 100% - in other words, you can earmark everything to a charitable cause. It's entirely up to you. What do we expect most people to do? Something between 30% & 60%, perhaps. Once we launch we'll even let you know what most people are doing. |
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