About Keeday
The basic premise of Keeday is that there are quite many young individuals across the country with the keeda or bug in them to make the world more ecologically just and socially inclusive, or fundamentally, an easier place to live in. They are looking for resources, support, meaningful opportunities to engage in, a community that understands them and they feel connected to. Keeday is a platform for these individuals to find fellow keedays from across the country, who are in their various stages and phases of exploration, to come together and be of support to each other in their journeys.
Multiple experiments are carried out to facilitate that, Seal Tank being one of them. Seal Tank intends to be the exact opposite of Shark Tank. In the conventional social enterprise space where one pitches their idea before Venture Capitalists for funding and support, it is very much like entering a Shark Tank*. The VCs would try to find all the different faults in the idea, and after all the grilling, if they find some “scope”, they would invest in the project, which comes with certain asks and returns. They might want to be a Co-Director or a Co-Founder of the initiative, they would want a return of investment within a certain period of time, etc. Seal Tank is an alternative to such models that fail to carry the spirit of sharing and caring trust. At Seal Tank, one would only find friendly beings like seals with the intention of supporting and fortifying the ideas everyone else holds. Participants share about the ideas they are working on and ask for the specific support they require. The rest of the group offers their gift, whatever they are in their capacity to offer, in terms of time, resources, skills, knowledge, tools, money, or other forms of capital. It is a space that operates on trust and conviction, where projects and ideas are not critiqued, only nurtured and supported.
The only rule of Seal Tank is that all participants must offer/accept their gift (monetary or otherwise) to/from at least one other participant, thus everyone getting to be Venture Socialists. Three Seal Tanks have been hosted so far between January and April this year, which found more than 30 participants combined. Over 200 hours of time and Rs. 1.5 lakhs has been pledged by the participants to and for each other in total, among other resources.
Another experiment being carried out within the Keeday community is Chit Chat Fund. Keeday members contribute small, inconsistent, unequal amounts of money at irregular intervals towards a common pool. The idea is to create a corpus that could help the group in times of needs and emergencies. But instead of deciding who gets access to a portion of the fund through taking out a chit or bidding for it, the process in Chit Chat Fund involves the community coming together, chatting, and deciding together who can be given and how much. The fund shall also be used for supporting learning journeys, project prototyping, and during cases of emergencies.
Both Seal Tank and Chit Chat Fund aims to redistribute money and resources for greater social good.
Keeday has also formally been registered as a non-profit in the name of Keeday Makauday Foundation. People generally use the term keeday makauday to refer to things that are useless, or of lesser consequence or importance, as it means insects. But if one looks at it, bugs and insects are the most important beings on the planet. They help sustain Life. The intention of registering was that, for many people who venture out with their own initiative, it takes one or two years to be moderately sure if they want to continue with that. There is a cost involved in registering one’s social enterprise, which many wouldn’t be in the capacity to manage or put in. At the same time, one needs a registered entity if they were to receive funds or grants. Keeday has put in that cost of registering so that others won’t need to, until they are sure of it. Keeday will act as an umbrella organisation where all different initiatives and projects related to ecology, education, social justice will happen. Young individuals can run their projects and initiatives under Keeday Makauday Foundation without worrying about registration costs and also receiving mentorship support from a wide network of individuals from across the country.
Keeday is also a space that intends to enable important conversations and host listening circles as an attempt to bring in some easiness in life and help foster constructive actions.
Having said that, one can also find the laziest of all people at Keeday. Our website — https://keeday.org — is a testimony to that.
To know more and get involved, reach out to bug.us@keeday.org
* Shark Tank here refers to a show in the same name. We believe sharks are gentle beings and we wish they are protected from any negative connotations.
