V-ALL: Making Giving Back Fun and Engaging
Keywords moving forward- fun, giving, people and impact!
Growth, Innovation, and Giving Back
The past nine months at V-ALL have been a whirlwind of growth and innovation. We've welcomed a new intern cohort, partnered with nonprofits (NGOs) across two geographical regions, and expanded our team. Our team members have stepped outside their comfort zones, tackling new challenges and evolving our processes to adapt and improve our offerings.
V-ALL’s core vision remains the same: to create a platform that empowers anyone to give back. We believe giving back should be fun and engaging, encouraging people to donate not just money, but also time, talent, and resources to causes they care about.
From Fundraising Platform to Impactful Engagement Model
Our initial attempt involved a digital fundraising platform where users could create events and others could register for a fee, with proceeds going to a chosen NGO partner. We aimed to empower young people to use their skills for social good. However, challenges arose. People lacked familiarity with the NGOs, making it difficult to connect with their missions and stories. This led to low engagement and repeat use.
We realized a fundraising platform wasn't the most effective bridge between the social impact space and everyday givers. Following a trip to the North East, we pivoted to a higher engagement model, connecting high school and college students with NGOs where they could contribute their skills to support a social cause that is important to them.
The Internship Pilots: Making a Difference Together
Our first internship pilot brought together 25 talented interns with media and communication skills to support 11 NGOs across the states of Assam and Meghalaya in the North East and Delhi NCR. These interns boosted the NGOs' social media reach, crafted compelling narratives, and created engaging videos.
The interns expressed an enthusiasm for using their skills for a cause they believed in. They enjoyed creating promotional content and accompanying NGO teams on field visits to raise awareness. Sumana, one of our interns, who visited NESFAS (an organization focused on empowering indigenous groups and preserving local food traditions and practices), learnt about local and food traditions. She tried a variety of food from the khasi tribe and met multiple nutritionists. This was definitely a wholesome experience for her as she expressed her appreciation of the delicious cuisine and realized the need to educate the residents of mainland India on different north eastern cuisine.
Naphi and Iban, our other interns, who worked with Faith Foundation (A non-profit organization based in Shillong working to ensure the safety of children and adolescents since 2013) learnt to spread awareness on this topic and skills like making videos and Instagram reels.
“ There is one thing that really stood out for me was when Faith Foundation held a campaign on child safety and interviewed people in sharing their opinion about it. This helped me in talking about this issue with public as a first step towards change. I got to learn new things like creating Wikipedia page and improve my creative thinking skills.”
Iban and Naphi’s Instagram reel on their field visit!
Learning and Adapting: Building a Stronger Program
The internship wasn't without its challenges. Initially, we faced difficulty connecting with the North East interns due to geographical distance and the limitations of remote work. Additionally, holidays and breaks made it harder to maintain consistent communication. We adapted by incorporating more in-person interactions, frequent calls, and fostering collaboration among the interns. A visit by Pallavi from our team, midway through the internship transformed how the interns interacted with the organizations and V-ALL.
Similarly, convincing NGOs to join the platform initially proved challenging. However, as the internship progressed, they saw the value students brought and embraced the model's long-term benefits
The Future: Expanding Our Reach and Impact
Now that the internship has come to an end, the interns have a lot more to share regarding their experiences. They felt more confident in their ability to work with external stakeholders and saw an improvement in their storytelling, video-making, and presentation/ communication skills. For most the internship was a great learning experience and they appreciated the opportunity to try new things, meet new people, and get their creative juices flowing. Some of the interns created significant impact to be requested by the NGOS to continue their internship for another couple of months.
Witnessing the interns' success, we're confident they have the potential to make a significant impact in the social impact space. We're exploring ways to create a larger platform that empowers everyone to give back. Building on valuable feedback, we're now looking towards the next steps for this cohort to build a larger pilot in the North East with an improved platform of engagement.
“ As a child I envisioned my journey to help others starting after my education. When V-ALL offered this incredible opportunity to gain NGO experience and contribute to community, I knew I could not miss it. Working alongside a dedicated team was even more rewarding”.
Shraddha’s video for SeSTA, an NGO that works to empower communities in remote rural areas of North East India.
The Delhi NCR Internship Pilot: Building on Success
With lessons learned from the North East program, we're expanding to Delhi NCR. We aim to streamline communication and empower interns to be more independent. We've partnered with NGOs tackling diverse issues like governance, music education, and LGBTQIA+ empowerment. Discussions with high school interns revealed their desire to develop professional skills and build an impact portfolio, with some aspiring for careers in the social impact sector.
The program kicked off with a call for interns to develop creative narratives, resulting in impressive deliverables like engaging comic strips and detailed textual formats. Their passion and creative ideas reinforce our belief in the power of collaboration between skilled youth and NGOs.
Based on these early successes, we're actively forming partnerships with more schools and universities for the next phase.
Building a Tech-Savvy V-ALL
We've revamped the V-ALL website to be user-friendly, visually appealing, and attractive to potential givers and organizations.
Visit our new website at
The tech side of V-ALL is also growing – we've welcomed two talented young female coders to our team to build the platform for the next phase. We're excited to see how their expertise will help V-ALL achieve its goals.
We're entering the next stage of our journey with full force. As we embark on this new chapter with the Delhi NCR cohort, we remain committed to strengthening and evolving our vision. There is a lot in our pipeline over the next month from pilots to a platform to podcasts. We invite you to join us as we grow, innovate, and make our vision a reality.