Thanks Rajan and Atul!

Several years back when Rajan, Roopak and other members had expressed their doubts whether IndiaWilds will survive or not as promoters of companies are known to move from one fad to another. I had said that I am committed and passionate about the cause. Passion doesn't understand the financial impact. Members had given many suggestions. Rajan, Roopak, and others had at that point of time wanted to personally contribute money. I had refrained from accepting it. I had said that if it is some kind of membership fees, life time membership fees, workshops etc, then perhaps we can look at it. There were also suggestions for getting sponsorships and advertisements.

At that time I had not said anything about sponsorships and advertisements. I knew that our ranking based on online traffic at that time was not good. Today, it is Good and am sure it will soon become Fantastic. The only conservation site which is ahead of us is that of wwfindia (which was established more than a decade back. I am mentioning this as a fact, I have excellent relations with them). Though I am not mentioning the statistics of IndiaWilds here, I can share it with any potential advertiser. I am sure with the kind of members we have, they can help us in reaching out to marketing guys who decide on media buying ie. where the advertising is placed.

Till now we have kept the commercial sites (selling cameras etc) out. I am told in abroad, forums take them on board as sponsors. I havent thought through this idea in detail.

Regarding workshops: It is a mess. In this field everybody proclaims himself to be an expert and they fight against each other. Many of our members read the articles in tips section multiple times and then talk offer it as a learning in their tours. I don't want to get into it. Only in cases when members want to contribute towards IndiaWilds and as a gesture I offer them one-to-one workshops with me, I am fine with it. Also, doing a session for 20-30 people in some corporate is ok. I don't think this will be done many times, so I guess we shouldn't devote more time on it.

There are many people sending me mails asking me to take up conservation projects in their areas. We will do so, however, we will take it up slowly but steadily.

As far as wildlife films are concerned, the amount of money that is required to create quality natural history programming, in the initial years it is tough to make money. However, rest assured that there will be many films as I know and believe that films as a medium has its place in conservation. Short films as well as feature length films along with the monthly IndiaWilds newsletter and articles will form a potent combination for conservation advocacy.

Also, I would like you guys to encourage anyone interested in conservation to become our members, read our articles and newsletters etc. Budding photographers can learn photography here and also get initiated into conservation. So it would help if you all can forward our newsletters in your organisations or make a post in your intranet site give a link back so that interested people can follow it. There are many ways to help.

There will be many situations, there are many people who don't believe or are able to appreciate our previous work and the future vision. However, that doesn't pull us back. We need to stand together else our effectiveness will be lost. In the August 2010 issue ie. IndiaWilds Newsletter Vol. 2 Issue VIII I had talked about Democracy, Activism and the Power of WE. IndiaWilds Newsletter Vol 2 Issue VIII
Also, conservationist are hunted down by the mafia. So more important that we stand together.

Some more suggestions have come by email. I have asked a few of them to post here so that others can also discuss those points.

Hmm. Long post. To pick up the key point, we can look for sponsorships/advertisements. If any one of you has contacts with the relevant marketing guys or even CSR guys in the corporates, then you all can help.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi