Indian American Philanthropy: A Tradition of Seeding Change and Inspiring Giving
On August 10, the National Center for Family Philanthropy published an article by Sharmila Rao Thakkar shedding light on the trends and motivations behind Indian American philanthropy by interviewing leading philanthropists. This is an extended version of that same article.
Indian Americans have a long history of philanthropy, and the tradition continues to thrive with the current and next generation. In this blog post, we take a look at the various trends and motivations behind Indian American philanthropy – as well as share more about the first-ever India Giving Day that took place on March 2, 2023 and that will become a new annual tradition!
Introduction
Indian Americans are one of the wealthiest and fastest-growing ethnic groups in the United States, and they are increasingly becoming more involved in philanthropy. From supporting education, economic empowerment, and health causes in India to addressing social justice issues in the United States, Indian American philanthropists are making a significant impact in their communities and beyond.
Philanthropy is an essential part of many communities across the world, and Indian Americans are no exception. With one of the highest levels of household income of any American ethnic group (as well as an increasing number of Indian American CEOs of major companies and a growing proportion of Indian American billionaires), many Indian Americans are using their success to give back to their communities through philanthropy. During the lead up to the first-ever India Giving Day held on March 2, 2023, we had the opportunity to speak with several Indian American philanthropists and their families, which shed light on the motivations and giving habits of the community.
These philanthropists believe that giving back is not just about writing a check, but also about making a verifiable difference in the lives of others. They are actively engaged in supporting causes that are important to them, and they are using their resources and expertise to create lasting change and to inspire others to get involved in philanthropic causes that speak to them.
Philanthropic Values and Approaches: Giving Back is a Duty
One of the main motivators for Indian American philanthropy is a sense of cultural and societal responsibility. Many Indian Americans feel a deep connection to their home country, gratitude for what they experienced and have benefited from (especially in terms of the education they received) and feel an obligation to give back to their communities. The values of generosity and community are often passed down through generations and is a key factor in the giving and community service seen among Indian Americans. Donors support a range of causes and use a variety of approaches to giving, but education, healthcare, technology, innovation, and engagement with the next generation are common themes.
Indian Americans also tend to be highly engaged in their philanthropy, with many taking an active role in the organizations they support. In addition to giving, this includes serving on boards, providing guidance to the organizations they support, and getting involved hands-on and on the ground for programs they support in India. This high level of engagement is often driven by a desire to ensure that their donations are being used effectively and making a real difference with solutions that address root causes and result in systemic change.
Arvind Amin, one such philanthropist who believes that education is the key to addressing many socio-economic issues in India, has been volunteering for Pratham and Teach for India. Amin's approach of leading by example, including giving both time and money to help the organizations grow, has earned him high praise from those who have worked with him, including his two young adult daughters who now continue the tradition of giving both to causes near and dear to their family but also their own. Mena and Sarika Amin have set up a way to conduct due diligence on local causes and engage with their parents to vet organizations and garner their support. They also credit their father with bringing them into philanthropy, which they have pursued personally and professionally with careers marked in the sector. They support educational and health causes in India and the United States, as well as social justice issues impacting underrepresented groups domestically.
“When you are leading fundraising efforts, that means you have to be able to contribute to the extent that you should – and can. People will look at you and say, ‘He is contributing this much. Maybe I should also do my part.’”
For many Indian Americans, giving back is a duty. It is a way to pay it forward and recognize the opportunities that they have been given to achieve success. “We are privileged to be in this position,” says philanthropist Rajesh Shah. “It’s our responsibility to give back.” The aptly named Shah Happiness Foundation honors the inspiration of his mother to ensure everyone is able to lead a happy life, and helps build equity by giving everyone equal footing to a successful life path. “Most of our giving is related to effectively bringing equal opportunity to as many people as possible. From there they can use their drive, motivation, creativity and ingenuity to lift others up. It's ultimately a virtuous cycle.”
Ruyintan Mehta shares that he feels a deep sense of obligation to give back to India due to the world-class education he received, despite not having worked there. Philanthropy has been ingrained in his perspective due to history and religion, and he takes a very hands-on, active approach to his giving, visiting India, conducting due diligence, and funding smaller and more nimble organizations that can make an immediate impact. The one major takeaway Mehta hopes others will heed: “We need a culture shift from one of a scarcity mindset that leaves some thinking in terms of not enough to one of abundance, where we can inspire each other to give as much as we can. This is the gap I wish to close by raising awareness about needs and potential in our community.”
Relationship-building and learning are key for Mehta, who sees his role as a messenger to encourage giving amongst his colleagues and friends, to engender gratitude for the generosity from which he’s benefited. While he’ s not certain his children will support similar causes, or efforts in India at all, he does ensure that the people he encounters, including his family, understand that wealth is relative and what we have can make a significant difference in India, in a place where that support can stretch to truly deeply change the course of life for families like it did for him.
“If I were to characterize how we approach our philanthropy, first and foremost it would be about having a big heart; you need generosity, and you have to have the spirit of giving – which for me was innate (and now something we try to bring to our next generation),” shares Suri Sehgal, PhD of the Sehgal Foundation. Time and patience to learn, to understand what works and doesn’t, and then to tweak our funding to achieve the greatest impact – this has marked our philanthropic journey, principles of learning and relationship building, which coincidentally are also guiding principles from our business.”
By giving of their time, talent, treasure, ties and testimony, Indian Americans are making a dedicated effort to have positive impact on their communities and on the world.
India Giving Day
One notable example of this is the first-ever India Giving Day, which was held this past March 2, 2023, to create awareness, bring donors together, educate our communities about opportunities, and direct giving to vetted causes. The initiative aimed to inspire more giving among Indian Americans and others who care about India. More than $1.3m dollars from over 1000 donors were raised during the inaugural event. The India Philanthropy Alliance (IPA), a network of leading India-focused non-profits in the U.S. seeded the initiative to bring more coordination, cooperation, communication and collaboration to support humanitarian, health, education and environmental causes in India through outreach via an online platform, social media and live peer engagement opportunities. The campaign was celebrated through a series of online and in-person gatherings held throughout the country, including signature events in Washington, Dallas, and Chicago, and collaborative and collective giving, with $100,000 in matching funds and other incentives to maximize the impact of donations.
“We need a bigger pie. Efforts like India Giving Day help us broaden the pool. If we want lasting impact, we need more resources. Everyone can give, no matter the amount.”
One of the main challenges in Indian American philanthropy is finding trustworthy organizations to support. With so many organizations vying for funding, it can be difficult to identify those that are truly making a difference. This is why events like India Giving Day are so important, as they provide a platform for donors to identify high-impact organizations and make informed decisions about their giving. Sapphira Goradia Shaw, who leads her family’s The Vijay and Marie Goradia Foundation and served as a National Co-chair for the campaign, appreciates any effort to highlight quality effective organizations and provide a platform they otherwise may not have, and one that also gives donors access to incredible work they may not have known about before and the ability to support them: “It’s a win-win all around.”
Indira Saladi, a philanthropist based in the Chicago suburbs, was thrilled to learn about the first-ever India Giving Day, and used the occasion to bring together local new, emerging, and established charitable-minded friends and family to share their interests and ideas, as well as to allow each of them to highlight their giving Saladi believes that philanthropy is personal, and that it should reflect the values and priorities of the donor as aligned with community needs. She says, “It’s not just about one organization. It’s giving in the way most meaningful to each donor and recognizing the multiplier effect.” For her friends and their varied values and priorities, that has meant seeding a small nonprofit, contributing to a temple, sponsoring a food drive, and supporting a family member in their hometown village among numerous other ways that the donors express their passions. “All of us, doing all of these things… amplifying the power and potential of our resources… this is what India Giving [Day] is about. We need all of these initiatives, the big, established as well as the smaller, newer ones to get from where we are to the goal of increasing our community’s giving to $3 billion.” [Note: research has shown that current diasporic giving to India stands around the $1 billion mark and efforts like India Giving Day hope to increase that in the coming years.]
The success of this initiative highlights the potential for Indian American philanthropy to have a significant impact – here and abroad. These efforts to increase collaboration and impact in Indian American philanthropy are helping to drive positive change. By coming together, sharing lessons learned, and leveraging their resources, Indian American philanthropists are building a culture of giving and crafting stronger, more resilient networks ready to respond to community needs.
Funding Education, Health & Well-being as a Path to Social Change
As their parents often emphasized the importance of education as a ticket to success, many Indian American philanthropists place a high value on education and thus, often prioritize educational causes in their giving. Having experienced the benefits of economic security and social mobility via their access to education, many feel it is key to solving many of India's social and economic issues, and they have been actively involved in supporting education-focused organizations.
“Our belief is that if we can equalize the starting line, there is so much that can be accomplished. There are some major issues in the world today from health concerns, inequality in access to opportunities, lack of mentorship and educators, and all of the additional issues that come with poverty. Most of these can be solved in the long run by providing access to the resources and tools needed to create that upward trajectory at the outset,” says Shah.
Goradia Shaw says, “Education is the only way to break the cycle of poverty. The work we fund is not a bandaid, we work to address root causes, to fund those solving the problems – those who are providing access to resources and changing the systems so that the problems won’t exist at all eventually.”
Recognizing the invaluable potential of a plot of land as the biggest asset in rural communities, for more than two decades the Sehgal Foundation has utilized its own resources, scientific expertise and relationship-building to work with farmers at the source on things like safe and clean water access (critical to agriculture, health and well-being), women’s leadership development and community development. They engage with local populations, the experts on the ground to develop and inform their programs, and experience they have from their professional careers in agriculture and science. They rely on this insight to identify needs and adamantly believe a community-driven approach that centers women’s empowerment is what distinguishes their work. Dr. Sehgal and his nephew Jay Sehgal, who helps manage the foundation, reiterate that starting with educating girls and young women makes sense because they are the gateway to health and well-being of entire communities.
By giving back to such causes, Indian Americans are helping to ensure future generations have the same opportunities for success they received.
The Importance of Technology and Innovation to Continued Learning, Scale, and Sustainability
Given the professional career paths many Indian American donors have pursued, they have seen up close how technology and innovation can be optimized to solve problems.
They prioritize efforts that have a sustainable impact on social development and are committed to long-term deep change. Building relationships with the organizations they partner with is important. They often work directly with their partners to unearth new ideas and evaluate programs to ensure that their giving is producing the desired impact. They seek to affect the most lives possible, in the biggest way possible, for the least cost possible.
“Technology allows us to do more with less and to reach more people,” asserts Shah. The Shah Happiness Foundation supports organizations that are able to use their learning to scale. For example, the deployment of thousands of tablets and smartphones to an organization they support allows each student to learn in their own individual way at their own speed, providing tons of data every hour that the team continually reviews to improve the program. Goradia Shaw agrees: “Technology is an enabler. It allows us to measure impact and to see what works and what doesn’t.”
By harnessing the power of technology and innovation, Indian American philanthropists can create change on a larger scale and with greater efficiency.
Community engagement and leadership development by working with or alongside the community drives the Sehgal’s approach to sustainability. They empower local community leaders to start taking ownership of the project while it is being built and manage the programs and schools they help modernize. Thinking upfront about impact and sustainability makes exit easy as the community is well prepared to assume responsibility for the project and continue to be leaders in their own communities. As Dr, Sehgal states, “To truly attain sustainability, you must empower the people who are beneficiaries. True partnership and collaboration mean that when they take on the responsibility and have accountability, they can be sustainable. This model is not only what works, but also what the community wants and will thrive with.”
Goradia Shaw’s background in public health helps her deliver on her family’s philanthropic goals to create scale and sustainability. They focus on local leadership and partnerships that apply a trust-based approach which honors the expertise of those closest to the work, and exclusively provide multi-year general operating support, which has been shown to be invaluable to organizations with the most promise for success.
Amin says, “As business leaders and entrepreneurs, the number one metric we often look for is long-term return on investment. This is true in business and philanthropy. We choose which organizations to fund based on where our limited resources will be effectively utilized. Our ability to visit and experience the work first-hand helps us to make sound investments. It’s important that the nonprofits have sustaining impact that will lead to overall social development. Empowering the next generation is our guiding principle to ensure that.”
Engaging the Next Generation & Honoring Legacy
While first generation Indian Americans tend to focus on giving to their home country of origin, one of the challenges remains how to involve the next generation in the family’s diasporic philanthropy. Many families start slowly to introduce them to causes, share information about organizations, and have them join on trips abroad. What seems to work well for many families is early engagement and learning with more responsibility and leadership over time.
Mena and Sarika Amin are carrying on their family’s legacy by focusing on social justice and equity. Young donors are looking for ways to support organizations that are working to address systemic issues and create lasting change. This focus on social justice is often driven by personal experiences and a desire to create a more equitable society. “Just the mere act of dad asking questions and the storytelling about what moves him has inspired our giving. Having his support and learning from him provide us with the motivation and insight we need at this stage.” Amin family conversations around the dinner table and on vacations taught the sisters to identify what they care about, conduct due diligence, select organizations, share their findings and make the case for support. The open conversations and trust they’ve established is core to their family giving.
Goradia Shaw notes that it’s important to “teach children the value of giving and the reasons behind a family’s philanthropy.” By involving them in philanthropic activities early on, Indian American families can instill a sense of responsibility and a passion for giving back. In her case, she works closely with her parents to choose the organizations they support and partner with, and they meet regularly with the organizations they support to review their plans. While she brings her own perspective to her giving, it’s important that her parents’ values continue to be reflected in the foundation’s priorities.
Dr. Sehgal has seen that providing leeway to learn with a bit of guidance, especially recognizing the significant role that parents have in helping to pass along values, has worked best. He is thrilled that the youth in his family have taken the independence they’ve been allowed to explore and learn on their own, bringing the needs of the community to the leadership for discussion. He’s especially touched that taking into consideration their grandparents’ journey as refugees, they have brought organizations addressing this dire need in the world. A book they’ve published about their lives and work provides additional inspiration to future generations.
Mehta is optimistic about next generation leadership, but it’s going to take a focus on education and engagement now to see the shifts he thinks are needed to truly engender the tradition of giving among future generations of the diaspora.
By inspiring young people with the philanthropic pursuits of their family members and encouraging them to use their strengths and talents to give back in a meaningful way, Indian American philanthropists hope to create a culture of giving that will continue for generations.
Conclusion
The tradition of giving in Indian American communities, with donors supporting a range of causes and using a variety of approaches, is a testament to the power of philanthropy to create meaningful change and inspire future generations to give back as well. The first-ever India Giving Day has been an important step in promoting philanthropy among Indian Americans and highlighting the value of working together and leveraging collective resources. It is clear as the Indian American community continues to grow and thrive, philanthropy will undoubtedly play an important role in shaping the future of this community and making a positive impact in the sector.
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Sharmila Rao Thakkar, MPH, MPA, CAP® is a nonprofit and philanthropic consultant based in NYC. Sharmila’s passion is helping leaders assess how and where to best deploy their resources. Recognizing the immense power and potential in giving back, she finds great joy in helping people align their time, talent, treasure, ties and testimony to their motivations, interests and values. She advises and coaches donors, families, and organizations on operations, strategy, governance, multigenerational engagement, equity and inclusion, grantmaking and community outreach. Recent engagements include serving as Senior Advisor for the India Philanthropy Alliance/India Giving Day, facilitating board training cohorts, leading grantmaking and governance planning with several foundations, and serving as ED of a nonprofit capacity building organization and a family foundation where she provided technical assistance, support and training for numerous nonprofits.
Sharmila holds an MPH from the Columbia University School of Public Health, an MPA from the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs, and a BA in International Relations from Brown University.