“Madam, I don’t have change”, a very common approach when you pay cash for any random purchase. Either you buy toffee or adjust next time. Same goes for the cab or auto while they don’t have any option to compensate the money.

But have you ever calculated the amount of change you leave without much considering the worth? It’s not about limiting cash transactions or adapting a digital India culture but ultimately leaving our money for free. Either intentionally or unintentionally.

At least in Metro cities where the purchasing power is much higher, this petty amount doesn’t matter at all. What matters is time, which is precious. You can’t argue all the time for petty cash.  The general perception, “Just Rs 100, you can’t get anything”? All thanks to inflation and we all are part of new era budgeting.

But there is a flip side to it and how it can help to change lives!

I know an old couple who are helping poor children for many years. No, they are not pensioners, not even big businessman. Just like any average middle class surviving on their own saving. Every month they make a few standard packets for children who are undergoing some medical treatment in a government hospital. Most of them are under BPL and can’t afford to buy basic things. The attendant who has to stay with them must survive on their own. But how to resort with no financial support? Then here comes the role of this elderly couple. Rs 100 is their monthly budget on each child. Shampoo pouch, Oil, sugar, biscuits, paste, sprout, soap etc. This is their monthly expense multiply by the number of children in that ward. Imagine how much crucial is little amount to those. It’s the same Rs100 which can accommodate so many things for them. And they desperately wait for them every month to get their basic things as help.

Though Rs100 is not a big challenge to donate still that couple struggles to collect from donors. It’s not easy. Being not associated with any organisation is another hurdle. The only factor which is working out for many years is trust and the community they are part of. Sometimes they get enough funds and mostly they need to compensate with their own hard-earned money.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that one can give only if they have more. No, it’s not so! One can give any time. You need to have a virtue, generosity and a little more compassionate towards society. To bring the balance and to fill the void. After all, we are the only one who can give back to the society, be it in any form. There is another challenge of Transparency as everyone wants to know where exactly your money is being used.

Awareness is little and so the voluntary involvement. We shouldn’t limit it to get the tax benefit. It really helps people to leverage, to think of those who are not self-sufficient. Donating a mere Rs100 can surely change lives, just think over it!

Here Sumara makes it easy for you. While you shop online you can donate as well and 100% transparency about donations!

Sumara is a simple chrome extension that lets users make FREE donations whenever they shop online on e-commerce stores like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong and Shopclues. All this at no extra cost or effort from the user.

More About Sumara

Concept
The idea behind a platform like this is to encourage donations in Indian society. Indians do not make as many donations as they should. As online shopping is already on the rise especially in metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, it would be a good idea to piggyback on the shopping behaviour of consumers to encourage them to do donations. With Sumara, we are coupling donations with online shopping. This is like a Feel-Good Shopping.

No extra cost: User does not pay even a single penny extra on top of what he purchases.

How It Works: Sumara can be installed from the Chrome Web Store. It is a one-click install. Once installed, it is Done. Now, whenever a user shops online, he will be able to make a donation.

How does donation occur: At every product page on the e-commerce websites, we display the user how much money would be donated from his side if he were to buy this product. As soon as an order is placed, we let the user know where exactly his money is going. This creates an instant gratification for the user where the user has 100% transparency about his donations.

Spread the Word: Whenever a user makes an automatic donation, we encourage him to share this on Facebook so that even his friends and family can get inspired to do the same.

Donation Partners:

We are collaborating with NGOs as our Donation Partners whom we will pass on our contribution. As of now, we are partners with Small Change.

Timing

We are gearing up for the upcoming Diwali Sales on almost all e-commerce stores. And also in process to collaborate with #Daan Utsav (Giving Tuesday), a national movement that supports the Joy of Giving.