Corporate leaders vouch for power of collaborative giving to bring social change at online seminar
October 7, 2021: The vital role played by organisations during Covid-19 has prompted GiveIndia, the country’s most trusted giving platform, to harness the power of collective philanthropy and launch its Institutional Giving practice.
The Bengaluru-based nonprofit, which catalyzed ₹1,000 crore through CSR and employee giving from 140 corporate partners during the pandemic, brought together India’s top corporate sustainability leaders yesterday, October 6, for a unique industry conference on bringing social change.
Titled ‘Better, Together – Covid-19 & Reimagining Institutional Giving,’ the online seminar discussed how the philanthropy ecosystem can step up and contribute more in the future for the country’s developmental progress.
In his keynote address, S. Ramadorai, former CEO & MD of Tata Consultancy Services, said: “I hope institutional philanthropy will become a powerful force for change and progress. I am also hopeful that GiveIndia will make use of new resources and approaches, innovative technologies and concerted action to address the human and environmental challenges. It’s important to invest in the people who facilitate the change on the ground. There is also a need to equip the people with skill-sets, knowledge systems and technology so that we build a strong network of change makers.”
As part of its ‘Institutional Giving’ practice, GiveIndia will create programmes for Institutional givers to shift focus from monitoring micro-activities and spending to impact-driven, macro results. Enabling direct contributions from institutions, GiveIndia will manage the entire social impact programme life cycle – from strategy to design and mobilisation to programme management and impact assurance.
GiveIndia CEO Atul Satija said: “GiveIndia believes that the energy, creativity, agility and leverage in philanthropic spending displayed by various institutions during the pandemic can be carried forward to achieve a lot more on the ground. We believe that close collaboration with the CSR activities of the companies will ensure that we maximise giving and work better together. We are launching our Institutional Giving practice after conversations with a large number of partners.”
The panel, which included Zee’s Animesh Kumar, KPMG’s Devang Bhandari and Shahin Dastur of Citi India, also discussed how the organisations collaborated with various social organisations during the pandemic and the importance of Institutional Giving in the future for a meaningful impact on the ground.
Others who participated shared perspectives on effective giving, adjusting CSR in the context of a digital economy, investing in NGOs as change agents and how corporates need to realign their CSR allocations for rural India, given the disproportionate urban focus and spending.
