Women are taking the lead in steering family philanthropy, while climate and environmental sustainability demands a higher share of the donor pie, says the India Philanthropy Report 2024 by Bain & Company and Dasra, which released today
Giving as a percentage of wealth has remained stagnant below 1 percent for years now, irrespective of the donor base of wealth-creators and philanthropists increasing year-on-year.
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Giving as a percentage of wealth is 0.08 percent in FY23 across categories of philanthropists, says the India Philanthropy Report 2024 by Bain & Company and Dasra, which released on Thursday. First-generation of wealth creators (called now-gen givers in the report) ranked highest among their peers, giving 0.19 percent of their wealth. They were followed by women philanthropists at 0.14 percent, professionals at 0.13 percent.
Philanthropic contributions vary significantly between individuals and families in each income or wealth cohort, and the differences are a function of commitment to specific causes, who in the family is managing the giving, and also about clarity on which causes and partner organisations to give to, says Radhika Sridharan, partner, Bain & Company, and co-author of the report.
Giving as a percentage of wealth has remained stagnant below 1 percent for years now, irrespective of the donor base of wealth-creators and philanthropists increasing year-on-year. This is also a factor of the ecosystem to enable formalised giving still being nascent in India, says Neera Nundy, co-founder and partner at Dasra. That said, she adds that this data point may not track the different ways in which Indians choose to give. “As a society, we are giving to our communities, to our religious institutions. Giving to NGOs is perhaps a smaller part. So I do believe that we are a culturally strong giving society, and it doesn’t get captured in this number.”
Overall social sector expenditure in India, reaching approximately Rs23 lakh crore, or 8.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), falls 4.7 percent short of Niti Aayog’s annual social funding target. As per the report, demand-supply gap in social sector funding could increase by Rs15 lakh crore. About 95 percent of social sector funding is from the public sector, while the rest is private sources.
The report categorises private donors as ultra-high-net-worth individuals or UHNIs (net-worth over Rs1,000 crore), high net-worth individuals or HNIs (net-worth between Rs200 crore and Rs1,000 crore), affluent (net-worth of Rs7,200 crore). Under family philanthropy (the term includes charitable giving by UHNIs, HNIs and affluent individuals), more than 60 percent growth in UHNI giving was driven by existing donors. Other private donors include companies falling under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) ambit, retail givers, and foreign private funding.