Philanthropic funding in the next decade should focus on solutions to comprehensively address issues faced by vulnerable sections of society and bridge a mismatch of funding that occurs in different geographies and sectors. These were the key takeaways of the India Philanthropy Report, 2020, which was released on Saturday. The report also highlighted the need to invest in adolescent girls as it noted that the country was faring particularly poorly on gender equality.
The report, co-created by Dasra foundation and Bain & Company, took a broad 10-year-view of the Indian philanthropic landscape. It stated that the domestic philanthropic funding had grown rapidly in the last decade from around ₹12,500 crore in 2010 to ₹55,000 crore in 2018 and the share of individual contributions had increase from 26% to 60% in the same period.
Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the India Philanthropic Week, Deval Sanghavi, co-founder, Dasra, said typically funds did not go towards the solutions approach as it is a more complex method of funding and required multiple agencies to work together along with the government.
“The good thing in India is that we have some very good examples already, but they are not highlighted enough. For instance, polio was eradicated with the systems solution approach,” he said.
The report states that despite the country ranking low in gender equality, less than 1% of philanthropic funding went towards addressing issues related to them. It said an investment of ₹11,000 crore every year in secondary education for adolescent girls has the potential to add ₹47,000 crore to the gross domestic product per annum.
The report also highlighted the geographical disparity with regards to funding, citing the example of Maharashtra, which received 34% of philanthropic and corporate social responsibility funding as against Jharkhand, which received less than 1%. This is despite the poverty rates in the former being much lower than Jharkhand, which is home to some of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities.
“Givers globally, when they start out their journey, want to give it in their backyard. Hence a lot of the giving happens in economic centres like Mumbai. Hence, what ends up happening is that the areas with the lowest economic activity usually are the least in terms of philanthropic funding,” Mr. Sanghavi said.
