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Philanthropy – Full text articles

Philanthropy: the givers club
Cordelia Jenkins – Livemint and the Wall Street Journal

On Friday, around 60 prospective philanthropists attended the "First Givers Club" summit in Delhi run by the online philanthropic donation forum GiveIndia. While the club has existed in Mumbai since 2010, said Dhaval Udani, GiveIndia's CEO, this was their first foray into the capital city. Mint was the media partner of the event.

"With this club, we wanted to create a platform for like-minded individuals to build a community of donors who share knowledge and vision; it will also help to facilitate giving effectively," Udani told his audience. "Our aim is to help you get more exposure and awareness of the different aspects of philanthropy; over the last three years this club has helped channel more than Rs.18 crore to the lives of more than 10,000 underprivileged in India."

Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, along with speakers Anu Aga of Thermax and Amit Chandra of Bain Capital gave their perspectives on how and where to give effectively and on the future of Indian philanthropy. Edited excerpts:

Rakesh Mittal set up the Satya Bharti school programmes in 2006. The aim was to set up 500 primary and 50 secondary schools of its own with a corpus of Rs.200 crore. After that, state governments began reaching out and Bharti began adopting government schools, creating a public-private partnership in delivering quality education to rural children.

"Given the new companies Bill, which has been passed by Parliament, I assume within the next two three months the rules will be finalized; there is going to be a mad rush for seeking funding. Already, I get a letter every other day for supporting a cause...If I see corporates have been very powerful instruments and drivers of philanthropy, this comes from the wider wealth creation and management role which they do in their businesses. Today they are looking at doing more beyond business, not because the government is forcing them, but because we cannot have islands of wealth. You cannot take this country forward if we are just worried about what I have and what I need for me and my family, and the ecosystem and the society around is crumbling. This country will not move forward."

"If I go back a few centuries giving had been a very rich tradition; it used to be that 10% of your income would be kept aside for a cause. During those times more money went into either building temples or temples of learning, which are the schools and colleges. Pre-1990, Indian corporates were not giving that much, including the individuals, and there was a reason because we did not have sustainable wealth creation opportunities, either for ourselves, our families, or our large stakeholders as we were running the companies.

"This all changed in the post-1991 year of liberalization. In the last two decades, more and more, new age economies moved this country to prosperous economic growth and suddenly you saw people wanting to give back to society because now you have a model which was creating sustainable wealth for yourself."

"There are individuals who may give money and their time, but there are also entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs who produce products which are low in cost but make a huge impact for the people who use it. This is the brief India is looking at in the landscape today and this will be a stepping stone for the future."

"Giving at Bharti has always been part of our DNA, it was always our endeavour to make a difference. At the beginning, in the mid-70s, we were more interested in creating businesses which could impact society at large. If I look at telecom, retail, agri and food processing we wanted to make a difference and not a buck. In 2000 we set up Bharti Foundation with the sole objective of supporting the youth of India and enabling the underprivileged to come and compete with anyone.

"We started writing cheques and one day I felt that was not the purpose, the fact is there are 320 million children in the age of 6-16, we talk of demographic dividend—absolutely yes, if we nurture this potential, but if we don't do justice to these children there is a disaster which is waiting to happen.

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