Article
IDR | The power of pooling philanthropic funds
Deployed well, this form of funding offers multiple advantages. Here is a quick guide to understand the various options available and find the one that best matches your requirements. By Reshma Anand & Gautam John Pooled funding from multiple donors has historically been used in emergency response situations, such as natural disasters and human made […]
Interview
Water Philanthropy in India: A Conversation with Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani in conversation with Dr. Ravina Aggarwal, Director, Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s conversation with Dr. Ravina Aggarwal, Director, Columbia Global Centres in Mumbai. Their discussed the state of the water crisis in India and how philanthropists can help address this issue. Although I had started […]
Keynote
Rohini Nilekani: Digital Dependencies
This is an edited version of Rohini Nilekani’s comments on the “Digital Dependencies” panel at Digital Impact Mumbai Conference presented by the Stanford PACS on Feb 7, 2018. The panel discussion on “Digital Dependencies” was conducted by Lucy Bernholz, Director, Digital Civil Society Lab, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. They discussed ways that […]
Article
Stop the waste from burying us: State or society is usually blamed, but let’s look upstream at producers of waste
You cannot walk or drive more than a few metres in any Indian city without encountering mounds of rubbish. Even in our villages, you will find garbage billowing around fields, piling up along roads or even lining the forest floor. At many beaches, you are as likely to find your toes tickled by strands of […]
Article
How India’s richest 1% can effect change
The super-rich must not just be super-generous but also be seen to be super-generous, to inspire more people to give. TurningPoint: India is giving more at this stage of its economy than many other countries. When a few people get super-wealthy very rapidly, societies sit up and take notice. When some of them talk publicly […]
Article
IDR | Crowdfunding: What can philanthropists do to support it?
By Gautam John There are many opportunities for funders to help their grantees experiment with this new channel of fundraising. Here are some ways they can support nonprofits in building this capability. Philanthropists and funding organisations grapple with various kinds of risks when considering grant making opportunities. Some are failure risks of theories of change, some […]
Article
Want Empowered Women? Start Thinking About how to Help Young Men.
We need to turn to the 200 million young men of India with as much urgency and focus as we spend on the millions of young women in the country. Every day, we hear of horrible atrocities that have taken place against girls and women in India. This is despite the fact that as a country, […]
Panel
We The People | Are India’s Rich Charitable Enough?
According to a report, the richest 1% Indians possess 58% of all wealth in the country. With the country’s growing income gap, the silver lining seems to be the deepening philanthropic streak in India’s ultra rich; the Nilekanis being the latest addition to the list of Indian billionaires who have pledged a portion of their […]
Interview
Giving Pledge is not meant to be prescriptive: Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani on why she and her husband Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani signed up for Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge initiative. In a phone interview from Bengaluru, Rohini Nilekani explains why the couple felt the need to sign the pledge, how wealth can influence policy and how societal platforms will help them scale up. Edited […]
Article
1st-generation entrepreneurs – Premji, Nilekani, NRN – make Bengaluru India’s philanthropy capital
With four Bengalureans being the only Indian signatories to Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, the IT city could very well be the philanthropy capital of the country. Representatives of India Inc here adopt fresh approaches to humanitarianism — from closely-monitored capacity building in existing nonprofits to promoting tech-led scalable market solutions for development issues. Additionally, younger […]