The Art of ‘Giving’

Going by the sheer definition, Philanthropy is the voluntary act of ‘giving’ by an individual or a group to promote the common good. However, philanthropy in its true sense is a personal and a passionate journey for each individual/ family. In addition to wealth, Philanthropic activities are mostly backed by family legacies, a giving culture and a deep commitment to improve lives, create opportunities, and protect the planet.

While across the world, Philanthropy is taking a serious shape, form and an organised structure, back home, philanthropy takes place through a myriad of formal and informal mechanisms. According a recently launched global report by Campden Wealth and Rockefellar, the most popular vehicles for 'giving' were family foundations (64%), followed by direct donations to non-profit organisations/charities (45%), donor advised funds (16%), and corporate/ business foundations (15%). 

Relevance of Private Family Foundation

In India, informal philanthropy is predominant by way of donating to domestic helps, beyond their monthly wages, in cash and/or kind and religious institutions. Such donations go unnoticed as

• Indians culturally are not vocal
• The recipients too are not obligated to report the donations received

A private family foundation is set by a family, funded with the family’s assets and often run by family members who can also participate in its charitable activities. Because philanthropy is extremely personal, and each family is unique, a family foundation gives you clear directions to your aspirations. When I established RAAY Foundation, it not only helped our charitable activities to be adaptable and accountable but also be vision driven. It also created a framework to establish a philanthropic legacy, in addition to income tax and estate tax benefits. Other benefits include

• Identifying your objectives and guiding values

Yours or your family’s objective for philanthropy could vary from creating shared family experiences to public service. Within public service- each would have his/her own passions such as healthcare, women empowerment, education etc. A private foundation helps in identifying and establishing this goal while also narrowing down on the causes that are closest to yours’/ family’s guiding values. Accordingly, appropriate avenues are researched upon for resource allocations.

• Leaving a legacy

A family foundation will lay a plan on who from the Family would you like to involve today, and in the future in your philanthropic initiatives. This will not only ensure continuity of your Foundation but that ‘givings’ are rightly directed

• Setting a time horizon

Problems faced by a society change over time. Addressing large social problems takes a good deal of time and investment. Hence, long-term donation models should be flexible enough to work on new and unpredictable issues as they arise. A family foundation, backed by continuous research, updates the philanthropic missions, thus helping Families set realistic timelines for their philanthropy

Philanthropy in India will be driven by Techpreneurs

A lot of today’s ultra HNIs are self?made first-gen entrepreneurs, who have built successful businesses, particularly in information technology, that have emerged in the 1990s. Add to this, recent sale of assets has only increased their net-worth, thus making Techpreneurs among the most prominent philanthropists in the country. With more Techpreneurs joining the ultra HNI community, philanthropy in India is set to witness a sea-change in the coming decade.