What makes Mumbai run?

Behind the music, colour and spirit of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon held every January, lie a maze of nuts and bolts that are tightened each year, taking the event beyond its festive origins. Meet the organisers who are making the marathon fit for serious runners, this year, even offering time chips and a cool $1,000 prize. Next come the NGOs who swing into action eight months in advance to leverage the city's biggest fundraising opportunity

MARY Ellen Matsui is a busy woman. On a wet day in August, my meeting with her, scheduled to last an hour, is interrupted at the 59th minute. The next lot of visitors troop in, having braved the erratic rain. It's not an unusual occurrence, Matsui, who is of Canadian origin, tells me. At the Khar headquarters of Atma, the NGO she heads as Executive Director, the hustle is familiar in the run-up to the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM).

Dream runners leave the starting line in this file picture of the 2011 marathon

Isn't the marathon in January 2012, I wonder? She laughs. "Yes, but preparations begin eight months prior. And almost as soon as the event is over, it's time to start again."

Matsui is referring to the solid groundwork and frenetic organisation that the build-up to the event sees nine years after it first brought the city to the streets for a Sunday morning carnival of cheering and running.

Matsui isn't alone. The scaffolding of this mega-event is propped up by increasingly professional processes that are taking it from its parade-like origins to what is probably the city's biggest fundraising opportunity, and the most serious challenge for runners.

Mumbai wants to run
As this story went to print, we learnt that places for the open category of the 21km and 42-km marathon (half and full marathon) were already filled up on August 2, 18 days before the last date for registration. If that isn't ample proof of the way the city now looks at the marathon as a serious sporting event as opposed to entertaining, nothing is.

Bruno Goveas, Director, Media Relations, Procam, the organisation that manages the SCMM, agrees. "The participation figures for the 21 km and 42 km races have increased exponentially, if you compare them with the formative years," he says.

Take a look at the figuresu00a0-- in 2004, the full and half marathon saw entries by 800 and 3,500 people, respectively. In 2011, that number jumped to 3,000 and 11,213 for the respective categories. That's a jump of 275 and 220 per cent approximately, in a relatively short, seven year-period. So much so that Goveas says that the number of entries they have been accepting for the last three years has had to be capped at a relatively constant figure to take into account the capacity of the holding areas and roads to handle numbers for the entire stretch.

Keeping this in mind, for the 2012 edition of SCMM, they will be accepting 11,500 entries for the half, and 3,000 for the full marathon.

All for the serious runner
Even as the city's fitness enthusiasts begin taking the event seriously, organisers have put in place various systems to encourage serious runners. For instance, timing chips have been made compulsory this time, and preference is being given to applicants who attach time certificates to their application.

"We want to accommodate as many serious runners as we can," admits Goveas.

The 2012 edition of the SCMM has made Champion Chip timing compulsory. Although it existed since the inaugural year, Champion Chip timing, which works via a chip worn around the ankle, was optional until 2011.

The chip has a dual purpose. "It records time and curbs cheating. Timing mats are placed at fixed locations along the route, including at the start and finish gates. For Open category runners, their ranking is calculated on their net timeu00a0-- from when their foot hit the mat at the start gate to when they cross the finish gate," Goveas explains.

The chip also curbs cheating, because unless a participant crosses all the timing mats along the route, his or her timing is not ratified and leads to disqualification.

New beginnings
That's not all. Starting 2012, for the first time, winners in the open marathon will stand to win prize money, with the male and female winners taking home a cool $1,000 (Rs 44,730) each, while those who finish in the second and third places will get $750 (Rs 33,547) and $500 (Rs 22,365) each.

"The participants in the open marathon are amateur, but serious runners, and this move is to salute their spirit and reward their hard work and efforts," says Goveas.

Compared to the early years, when participants who could not participate in the dream run would register for the half or full marathon simply to experience the magic of race day, the organisers are now keen to ensure that preference is given to the serious runner. Applicants for the 2012 marathon were encouraged to attach timing certificates. While that doesn't mean that first-time runners cannot run, it definitely shifts the focus of the event squarely from fun and games to serious athletics.

What's more, full and half marathon runners will be grouped according to their time certificates, to give priority line-up at the crowded start line to runners depending on their pace. "This ensures that each participant feeds off the other person's pace, a win-win situation for all."

Full marathon runners will be prioritised into below 4u00a0 hours, 4 to under 5 hours, 5 to under 6 hours and 6 hours and above, while the half marathoners will also be grouped in four batchesu00a0-- under 2 hours, 2 to under 2 hours and 30 minutes, 2 hours 30 minutes to under 3 hours, and 3 hours and above. There are operational reasons toou00a0-- it will also be easier to identify and follow a pacer of a particular time slot if he/she starts with others in the same category.Blood, sweat and a lot of hard work

While the organisers are at pains to make the marathon a sporting competition to be reckoned with -- Goveas says it's now tagged as among the top 10 marathons in the world -- charities and NGOs too have now realised its fundraising potential, and have begun to work towards raising funds well in advance. This, after previous years, when the complicated fundraising structure intimidated organisations from harnessing the full potential of the marathon.

"It is complicated," Matsui smiles, when I bombard her with a volley of questions regarding the fundraising angle to the race. "And that's why we saw the need for an organisation like ours to step in and help other NGOs navigate the process." Atma, therefore, helps other NGOs, and focuses on those that work in the field of education.

Last month, it held a four-hour workshop for city NGOs to deconstruct the nuts and bolts of the fundraising process of the SCMM. "There are over 66,000 NGOs in Mumbai, and yet, not enough is done to leverage the marathon as the biggest fundraising activity of the year, in comparison to what's done internationally. We help NGOs rebrand and market themselves to generate maximum donations," she explains, over a glass of juice at the office.

"Just getting to the marathon, is a marathon," she says, explaining, "It's a complicated event. It holds out a lot for NGOs who go about their fundraising activities systematically and smartly. Unfortunately, what tends to happen is that organisations get competitive, instead of collaborating to maximise returns for the entire non-profit sector. Often, NGOs don't have a designated person to take care of all marathon-related activities, making it burdensome."

At the workshop, therefore, simple details, like getting a dedicated SIM card for the duration of the event to creating pledge kits to motivate their donors as they raise funds, are important. "Then, individual organisations have unique strengths. If a particular charity has a large celebrity base, it can focus on the Dream Team -- the high net worth individuals (HNI) who can together help it raise, say, Rs 10 lakh. They can tap into their networks and collect donations from their similarly placed friends." " explains Matsui.

"But you don't have to be an HNI to raise considerable funds. The number one thing, is you have to ask."
Now, Matsui and her team plan to hold the workshop every year, and encourage more NGOs to participate. "The more streamlined and smart we get about strategising to generate funds from the marathon, the better. And we want to facilitate that process."

The marathon was once about having a jolly time while chatting on the mobile phone, spotting celebrities, and wearing a token sticker on your T-shirt to announce your support for a cause.

Mumbai has certainly run a long way from there.

The handbook: How running raises funds for charity

How NGOs do it
NGOs buy charity numbers (bibs) from United Way, against which they must get a minimum donation of Rs 5,000 per bib from supporters, since it's a fundraising bib and not just a sporting number. They can then device activities around these bibs. Think auctions, raffles, solicitations and prizes or just approach their supporters and donors, and ask for a fixed amount per bib. All donations are collected by the United Way who disburses the funds back to participating NGOs.

How you can do it
Anyone running in the marathon can raise funds for the NGO of their choice. If you still need a bib, you can obtain it directly from an NGO or if you've registered independently, you can still raise pledges. To find out which NGOs you can support through the marathon visit the United Way of Mumbai website. Once you've contacted an NGO, you can support it by raising pledges via supporters and tracking these donations on your pledge sheet and online 'giving' page.

How corporates do it
Corporates can field upto seven teams of employees of team size 25 or 15 each at a registration fee of Rs 3.5 lakh or 2.25 lakh respectively. UWM sends this money to the NGO after deducting a fee. Team members can individually raise money, and support a cause of their choice too. UWM will create online donation pages for each team to encourage and simplify fund raising. Those who do not want to use an online page can collect donations in physical form by using the pledge kit given to them, and which is also available.
(Inputs from Jayanti Shukla and Mary Ellen Matsui)

Heart patients are doing it too
Dr Aashish Contractor, Head of Department of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation, Asian Heart Institute, medical partners of the SCMM, says more heart patients now participate in the marathon. "The idea is to get people with heart disease to get back to normal life. In the first year, 26 of our patients did the dream run, which was a huge moral booster for them. The next year, it was 50. In 2008, one person did the half marathon, which went up to 5 in 2009 and 11 in 2010."

This year, they plan to field between 10 to 15 participants in the 21k run. "I do see the number of people attempting the half and full marathon categories going up. For the last two years, spots for our patients on the 21km run have been filling up in less than a week! Once one patient did it, the floodgates opened up. It sends a great message to society at large that life doesn't end with heart disease."

'All 38,000 runners are potential fundraisers'

United Way of Mumbai, the official charity partner of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, came on board with the event four years ago, and serves as the philanthropic exchange to facilitate all fundraising activities though the event. We speak to Executive Director Jayanti Shuklau00a0

What are your fundraising goals this year?
Last year, we raised Rs 12.16 crore, which makes it the largest single charity event in India and one of the biggest in Asia. This year, we hope to raise at least Rs 15 to Rs 18 crore.

Why do NGOs that participate in the SCMM need to register with United Way?
We make sure there is transparency and accountability by verifying that the NGOs have all their regulatory and legal compliances in place, and making sure the money reaches the right place. We also issue a tax exemption certificate to every donor on behalf of the NGO.

What does United Way do to help NGOs with their fundraising activities?
A substantial number of running bibs (numbers sported on vests) are blocked by us to be utilised onlyu00a0 against funds raised for charity. We also create an Online Giving Page for every NGO participating in SCMM 2012, where they can publicise and carry out their fundraising transactions online. We also organise fundraising workshops with NGO's, corporate and individuals to enhance their fundraising abilities, and assist them in approaching potential corporate or individual donors. We also meet corporate to educate them on how to make employee participation in the marathon fun.