Neha Joshi is the Head of Non-profit Partnerships at Give. Established in 2000, Give and its partners enable individuals and organizations to raise and donate funds conveniently to any cause they care about, with offerings such as crowd-funding, corporate giving, cause marketing, and philanthropy consulting.
The organisation annually organises DaanUtsav where Hundreds of India’s top NGOs go for online fundraising. This year, Give announced a matching reward pool of ₹4 crore for the participating non-profits. Simultaneously, it also runs ‘100 Heroes’ where donors from across the world donate to causes and NGOs close to their hearts.
In this interview, Ms Joshi elaborates on ‘DaanUtsav’ and ‘100 Heroes’ campaigns and how it is shaping its mission that includes poverty alleviation in India. Scroll down to read the interview.
Q: DaanUtsav 2022 began on October 2. How long is it going to continue this year?
A: Every year, Give launches 100 Heroes at the start of DaanUtsav, which is on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2. Although DaanUtsav ends on October 8, 100 Heroes is a two-month-long event right through the festival period in which thousands of donors from across the world donate to causes and NGOs close to their hearts. This marquee event sees hundreds of NGOs tapping into the vast pool of donors in India and abroad.
Q: What are your expectations in terms of NGO participation and fundraising from this year’s 100 Heroes Fundraising Challenge?
A: We are obviously expecting larger participation this year as 100 Heroes is India’s biggest online fundraising carnival. We are offering a matching reward pool of ₹4 crore for the participating non-profits which is again bigger than ever before. Last year, 100 Heroes raised over ₹16.71 crore for the NGOs, and we expect the number to be significantly higher looking at the enthusiasm so far.
In the 2021 edition of ‘100 Heroes’, over 550 NGOs participated in the challenge, competing for rewards that helped them make a bigger impact on the ground. The NGOs raised a whopping ₹16.71 crore from over 15,000 donors. A little over ₹2 crore was given away as matching rewards last year.
Some of the top fundraising NGOs from last year include Swasti with ₹1.72 crore, Isha Education with ₹92.8 lakh, Team Everest with ₹85.6 lakh and Balajee Sewa Sansthan raising ₹46.6 lakh.
Q: What are the key social areas that you are working in?
A: Children, education, food security, shelter, elderly care, access to healthcare and livelihood are some of the areas that our NGO partners work. Give believes that working in these areas is essential for freedom from poverty. We believe that every Indian should have the right to live in dignity and free from want.
Q: Please summarise your journey of the last two decades with your key milestones in that success journey?
A: Give enables individuals and organisations to donate through its network of NGOs working on different aspects of social change. Give works to ensure that donations are channelled to the programme and organisation of the donor’s choice and that the donor is kept informed of its impact. The fundamental premise of Give’s operating model is that the donor is an ‘investor’ looking for social returns.
Give exists to alleviate poverty by enabling the world to give. Established in 2000, Give, together with its partners, to enable individuals and organisations to raise and donate funds conveniently to any cause they care about. Give’s community of 2.6M+ donors supports 2,800+ verified nonprofits, serving 15M+ people across the country.
Q: You have been working for various social causes for more than 2 decades now. What has been the change in corporate spending on various social issues post implementation of CSR rules in 2013-14.
A: The concept of CSR is not new to India as some of India’s large corporate houses have for decades been pioneers in setting up foundations and structures for philanthropy and they have been doing great work in the social sector. India Inc. also displayed great commitment towards philanthropic spending during Covid-19 when it went beyond the mandatory CSR requirements.
What CSR regulations have done is that they make it mandatory for corporates to spend a percentage of profits every year. This has definitely resulted in more funds coming into the social sector. According to a study, over USD 12 billion have flowed in as CSR funds since the law was passed and this number is set to grow in tandem with India's economic growth.
Companies as part of their CSR commitments now want to support causes aligning with their business goals rather than giving across several causes. With such focus, the deployment of funds will be more concentrated and the impact would be visible and tangible.
Q: How much do your donations come through individual donors/philanthropists? What is the share of funding coming through corporations/companies?
A: 100 Heroes is primarily an individual giving event where NGOs promote their fundraisers through different channels to their supporters as well as social media. Corporates primarily participate through employee engagement activities during Daan Utsav like employee giving and volunteering. Some corporates also offer matching donations to NGOs for the fundraising that they do on the platform during the event.
Q: How do you see the culture of ‘giving’ evolving in India over the past 2 decades? Where do you see it going in the coming years?
A: India has come a long way when it comes to online individual giving. No doubt, the digital revolution in India played an important role. Let us not underestimate the effect that the pandemic had on people. We notice that Individual donors are giving a lot more than they have ever before
With an emphasis on the impact on the ground reports, online givers are now more confident than ever before that their donations are going to the right causes. As far as the corporations are concerned, the large CSR pool has allowed them to take up causes closer to their business goals, shape policymaking and have a big impact on development organisations and civil society.
These are all positive steps. Going forward, Give believes that giving in India will be bigger and better. Overall, it will make a significant difference to poverty alleviation in India.
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