Layer
CASE STUDY
Empowering NGOs with Effective Email Outreach: PURE India's Success Story
- IndustryNGO
- Company size51-200
Interesting Insights:
PURE India runs its projects in 14 states across India with 40-plus corporate partners
The company
PURE India Trust works to provide quality education and employment opportunities in rural and semi-urban areas. Its founder, Prashant Pal, spent several years working abroad, and in 2011, was deeply inspired by the movement of social activist Anna Hazare to do something positive for society. Two years later, he returned to India and started a trust. Work began from a small center in Delhi, while Pal still had a day job, but in 2018, he decided to do this work on a full-time basis.
"It wasn't easy, especially when there was no salary coming in by the end of the month and we were using up our savings," Pal says. "Back then, we had no funding or CSR. But over time, many corporates started trusting us, and we started getting some funds. Over time, they started supporting us, so we started experiencing growth of 200% to 300% year-over-year." Run with the help of 100-plus staff members, Pure India has 50-60 active projects across India.
"We began by assisting schools and launching our education programs, career guidance, and mentoring initiatives," Pal says. "Many of the companies we collaborated with suggested we delve into skill development, which led us to focus primarily on entrepreneurship across India." The company's growth took off on a new trajectory when Pal began working full-time in 2019—a time which he considers a turning point.
"Initially, we focused on direct implementation," Pal says. "However, this year, we've started experimenting with collaborating with NGOs. Currently, we have partnerships with eight or nine NGOs, with whom we've conducted small pilot projects. We're now transitioning to the second phase of our NGO collaborations."
"Often, when I meet people at a conference, I hear that they keep getting my updates by email and commend me on doing a good job. It makes me happy that while not all of them are responding to my emails, they're aware of the work I'm doing. Emails are important in that sense."
- Prashant Pal, Founder, PURE India
The problem
Pal's YouTube channel, boasting over 31,000 subscribers, has been instrumental in reaching out to various groups and institutions, and serves as a vital platform for announcing workshops and attracting participants.
Pal recognized the need to streamline PURE India Trust's outreach process. "We've painstakingly built our mailing list over time without resorting to purchasing contacts," he says. "Dealing with CSR is challenging since you may reach out to 100 people and receive just one response, and sending individual emails to 1,000 people is impractical." As Pal recalls, the company used to send emails via Gmail using the BCC option. But during his time at another company, Pal obtained experience with automation tools, which inspired Pure India's move toward a more efficient emailing solution.
"Often, when I meet people at a conference, I hear that they keep getting my updates by email and commend me on doing a good job. It makes me happy that while not all of them are responding to my emails, they're aware of the work I'm doing. Emails are important in that sense."
- Prashant Pal, Founder, Pure India
The solution
Pal found Zoho Campaigns because the tool is part of the NASSCOM Foundation's Tech for Good initiative and came at a discount for NGOs. He found it useful.
Pal moved to Zoho Campaigns to streamline his emails. In fact, it was the first software that they purchased, having initially been using Gmail. "We purchased Campaigns in 2023 because we wanted to make a bigger impact—not only for Pure India to be successful, but also to help thousands of other NGOs who are struggling and don't know about funding processes," Pal says. "We started conducting capacity-building programs across India to reach out to a large number of NGOs, and then we conducted workshops. Now we have almost 2,000 NGOs in our network, and we reach out to them through Zoho Campaigns.".
Benefits and ROI
Pal is clear about the importance of emails in his operation. "Email is more formal," he reflects. "We're dealing with important work in the social space, and if you want to connect with somebody, you follow the formal route. All the corporates use email actively. They might not respond, but they will read. Email gives us more visibility and gets us more attention."
Pal is also conscious about not overplaying the email game; as a nonprofit, PURE India doesn't want people to feel that they're asking for funds when they send an email, but instead that they're simply giving an update. "But when they keep getting your positive updates, over time, they also convert into donors," Pal says. "Nowadays, the emails that I send are mostly about activities that we've recently done and want to share with everyone."
"Recently, we launched a scholarship program, so we wanted more people to know about this program and used Zoho Campaigns to reach out. Another organization we work with is running an award program for Panchayat Sarpanch, and we wanted more sarpanches to apply for that. We created a video and then encouraged them to participate in the awards program. Campaigns has been helpful in making these initiatives happen."
- Prashant Pal, Founder, PURE India
For an NGO, building a database is very important. "You need to have the right database of companies, donors, other players in the industry, and the groups you work with," Pal says. "If you have the right set of databases, email marketing is definitely going to be a big change for you. It helps you send personalized emails instead of sending the same newsletter to everybody. Not everybody is interested in a newsletter."
Looking ahead
Pal's plan is to travel across India, reach out to more than 5,000 NGOs, and train them on different the growth paths NGOs tend to travel. "The ground-level impact is really tough because there are different types of organizations," Pal says. "Some work at the grassroots level, some work as intermediaries, and some are just donor agencies. We're a grassroots organization, but also now intermediaries."
Pal will be traveling to conduct various offline workshops across India, for which he expects to be using Zoho Campaigns frequently. He's confident that the road ahead will be successful. "Our clients keep giving us projects every year," he says, "which makes me feel successful, and that our actions are being accepted. That means we're on the right path."
To know more, visit PURE India.
- IndustryNGO
- Company size51-200
Interesting Insights:
PURE India runs its projects in 14 states across India with 40-plus corporate partners