For the first 32 years of its existence, ActionAid India Society received its funds mainly from European branches of ActionAid, raised through child sponsorship. In March 2004, they started raising funds from individuals in India, but they have rejected the child sponsorship approach. Instead, ActionAid India head Jeroninio (Jerry) Almeida explained to Alliance, they decided to pioneer a completely new approach and tell what he calls ‘the real story’ – an approach which has succeeded in raising around €300,000 from 40,000 individual donors in the first nine months.