Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini have pledged part of their wealth to charity, joining the ‘Giving Pledge’ movement initiated by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Melinda Gates where wealthy individuals commit part of their wealth to society. The Nilekanis have joined other Indian billionaires like Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, Biocon Chairman & Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and Sobha Ltd Chairman P N C Menon, to be part of the global movement for philanthropy. Each of those named above has committed half of his or her wealth to charity.
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NILEKANIS TO DONATE HALF OF THEIR WEALTH UNDER ‘THE GIVING PLEDGE’
In a statement, the Nilekanis explained why they joined the Giving Pledge movement, which says,”We see that inequality is increasing sharply in most countries. We see the young and the restless in this interconnected globe, unsure of their future, wanting more but anticipating less. We see a growing politics of polarization, of divisions, of brinksmanship. It is as if the world holds its breath. What should we do at this time? That is a question every citizen must ask. Those of us who have wealth beyond all our wants must ask that very sharply. Wealth comes with huge responsibility and is best deployed for the larger public interest. So, what must the superwealthy do?”.
Nilekanis join Bill Gates at philanthropy high table
BENGALURU: In a reflection of the growing enlightenment about philanthropy among India’s rising tribe of billionaires, Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani and wife Rohini have signed the Giving Pledge pioneered by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Signatories to the initiative commit to give away at least half of their wealth either in their lifetime or through their will.
The Indian government is truly imperfect, but amazing things have happened: Bill Gates
Seven years after Bill Gates pioneered the Giving Pledge, 171 ultra-wealthy people have vowed to give away at least half their wealth. Nandan and Rohini Nilekani have just become the fourth signatory to the pledge from India. The trio spoke to Anand Mahadevan and Archana Rai about the different but complementary roles that private philanthropy and the government need to play to solve the problem of poverty.
Indian Tech Billionaire Nandan Nilekani And Wife Rohini Join The Giving Pledge
Bangalore power couple Nandan Nilekani, cofounder of tech giant Infosys, who recently returned to the company as non-executive chairman after a boardroom shakeup, and his wife Rohini, announced over the weekend that they had signed on to the Giving Pledge. Their commitment to give away half their wealth, pegged at $1.7 billion, was made in Bangalore in the presence of Bill Gates, who launched the Giving Pledge with wife Melinda and Warren Buffett seven years ago.
Why millionaires are giving away their wealth
This story was selected by TOI Guest Editor Bill Gates.
BENGALURU: “I didn’t know I was going to become this rich,” says philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, when asked what moves her to give, “but when it became clear that I would come into money, I
wanted to do good.” The first chunk of Rs 100 crore that she got from the sale of Infosys shares in 2013 went entirely into Arghyam Foundation that works on water and sanitation, which she set up in 2001.
Nandan and Rohini Nilekani join Bill Gates-led philanthropic group
The grouping, which is called Co-Impact, has been set up with an initial corpus of $500 million and will focus providing healthcare, education, and economic opportunity to the underserved populus in developing countries. Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini have joined a grouping of billionaire philanthropists including Bill and Melinda Gates to set up a fund that targets social impact at a large scale.
The end of secession: Why the elite withdrawal from public services is coming to an end
With the approaching winter the air quality in many Indian cities, especially in Delhi, becomes a public health hazard. Something so fundamental as breathing easy can no longer be taken for granted. It’s a wake-up call worthy of a civic revolution.
Rohini Nilekani’s Message for GivingTuesday India
believe that events Like #GivingTuesdaylndia and Daan Utsav are ways for us to reach beyond ourselves. In a country where far too many people are still waiting to experience economic and social dignity, these are attempts at building an integrated society, a good samaaj, which is the true foundation of successful nations. I hope people and organisation will reach deep into their hearts and pockets to make #GivingTuesdaylndia honestly successful.
IDR | Why crowdfunding is important for philanthropy to support
By Gautam John
Crowdfunding is a unique tool that is greatly underused in the Indian social sector. Philanthropists can support and encourage nonprofits to adopt this new model of fundraising.
Sometime in 2013, Bill Gates said, “Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks than business [and] if these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.”
Think risk
While most philanthropists agree with that sentiment, it does not necessarily reflect in their philosophy of giving nor in the way they manage risk for themselves and their portfolio.
There are different kinds of risks involved in grant-making–financial, reputational, and impact. If donors are to see themselves as partners in change, then identifying and mitigating these risks must be central to the conversation.
And sustainability, resilience, and network-building are all critical and interlinked elements of this conversation.
Think sustainability–a bit differently though
Every donor is concerned with the sustainability and longevity of the work they fund. Likewise, for nonprofits, expanding their donor base is a priority.
The traditional approach has been to target a few high value donors rather than build a network of many small donors. And understandably so. The effort and capacity required to do the latter is very different from what is required to unlock institutional or philanthropic capital.
Nonprofits must actively diversify their funding bases and look beyond ‘large’ ticket sizes.
While this might be seen as a choice or a trade-off, we believe that this is better understood as a continuum that nonprofits ought to progress along and something that philanthropy ought to acknowledge, support and accelerate.
Funds from foundations, corporates and high net worth individuals will continue to feature as substantial components of an organisation’s budget. But we also believe that nonprofits must actively diversify their funding bases and look beyond ‘large’ ticket sizes.
Advantage crowdfunding
An increasingly popular yet under-utilised model is one that leverages crowdfunding. There are multiple approaches to crowdfunding from creating one’s own giving platform as Pratham Books did with Donate-A-Book, to utilising existing platforms like Bitgiving and Ketto.
This idea, of creating a large network of small donors via a platform, is one we think has tremendous possibility and lends value to an organisation beyond just fundraising.
It de-risks the model
A diversified portfolio that balances foundation and crowdfunded support offers nonprofits in your portfolio resilience of two kinds.
- Funding resilience because it is de-risked from single points of failure–from changes in donor priorities to the regulatory.
- Insurance against operational risks: Building a large support base comprising many individuals enables nonprofits to create a community that supports their work and their mission.
Allows for innovation
Very often, traditional funding is tied to programmatic work or has limited headroom for people and experimentation costs. As a result, grantee organisations are constrained in their attempts to prototype, iterate and experiment with new models of change and impact.
Unconditional capital from crowdfunded sources could serve as a vital source of money for them to learn and experiment with new opportunities for impact.
Communicates impact
Crowd funding from hundreds of individuals also pushes nonprofits to improve their storytelling around their impact to engage this retail donor base. This has tremendous value beyond just the organisation as it creates new conversations and narratives for the sector as a whole.
Creates networks
In creating a compelling story about their impact, organisations also end up building networks with diverse participants–other nonprofits, donors, individuals and media, who might have common shared values. These partners can enable greater access to knowledge, skills and support for the grantee organisations.
Beyond risk
For philanthropists, there are other good reasons why you ought to consider supporting these newer models of fundraising.
- Crowdfunding can unlock further philanthropic capital for your grantees as it builds credibility for the work, the organisation and the sector among significantly larger groups of people.
- It also allows for varied funding engagements with nonprofits at different ticket sizes and through multiple lenses of programs, functions and issues, rather than only through the entirety of a nonprofit’s work or theory of change.
Fund it
There are many ways in which philanthropists can support this shift. You can start by recognising the importance of it and seeding the idea within your portfolios. Once this conversation starts, you can help in the following ways:
- Support the costs for creating the capacity within your grantees to tell their stories of change to large audiences who have limited knowledge of the issue and short attention spans.
- Nudge nonprofits to experiment with it by moving a small percentage of their philanthropic funding to matching grants against monies raised through crowdfunding,
- Underwrite the costs of implementation either in the form of the fees that existing platforms charge or, in some cases, for creating new crowdfunding platforms.
- Provide the initial few grants to crowdfunding campaigns to create a signalling effect of trust.
Philanthropists can support this shift to crowdfunding.
It is still early days for crowdfunding in India. There is a tremendous sense of possibility and a large upside in supporting this gradual shift for organisations, donors and for the sector at large.
Early adopters of these models will have a first mover advantage and this is why we advocate the time for donors to support this is now.