Family philanthropists and family foundations form a significant element of the philanthropic community: Deval Sanghavi, Co-Founder, Dasra

By Rusen Kumar

Deval Sanghavi, Co-Founder and Partner, Dasra speaks to Rusen Kumar, Editor, India CSR on the need for mainstreaming strategic philanthropy, building shock-proof and resilient NGOs, and on family philanthropies’ power to narrow inequities. He said, “The biggest role philanthropy can play is understanding that the rebuild measures we mount have to be long-lasting to match the crisis. These measures could be anything from long-term grants to flexible funding, as they help in building the financial resilience of an NGO, preparing them for any crisis to come.” Excerpts of an interview:

What does Dasra do?  

Dasra, which means enlightened giving in Sanskrit, has actively shaped the Indian philanthropic sector for the past 22 years. With a team of a 100+ individuals, we play catalyst in India’s vibrant philanthropic sector by driving collaborative action to accelerate social change. Dasra has driven large scale impact in the areas of transforming institutions, empowering adolescents, building urban sanitation, spotlighting informal workers, and enabling strategic giving. We have worked with a large group of funders including corporates and corporate foundations, whose philanthropic journeys we have helped shape and transform over the last 2 decades; we have guided them on developing a strong portfolio of high-impact organizations, deepening their understanding of sectors of enriching their giving practices.

Challenges faced by NGOs during the pandemic and Dasra’s role in helping build operational capacity?

During all COVID waves, grassroots NGOs worked – and continue to work – tirelessly at the frontline of the crisis to support marginalized and vulnerable communities through both urgent relief interventions and existing programs. But the pandemic was an especially challenging time for most NGOs not only because staff and leadership were affected by the virus and non-profits had to deliver crisis response on such a massive scale for the first time, but also because financial health of a lot of NGOs was extremely weak. In a survey of 38 NGOs, we conducted in collaboration with one of our funding partners, over 50% of them showed high exposure to restricted funding, i.e., grants awarded only for specific utilization and no other, and hence could not use these funds for COVID relief. Similar to the for-profit sector where SMEs and MSMEs bore the worst brunt of the pandemic, even among NGOs, small and medium sized non-profits were more hampered than the large ones given the former’s limited exposure to funder networks, and most large donors doubling down on support to existing grantee partners.

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Many of these challenges could have been minimized if NGOs had access to flexible funding and general operating grants, which is what Dasra is set to work on over the next 3-5 years. Through our 5-year resilience fund as well as its work in other focus areas including adolescents, sanitation and informal workers, we are encouraging philanthropists to embrace giving principles of flexible funding, long-term grant making, and trust-based giving. We are also encouraging NGOs to pay attention to their own financial and structural resilience, and will support them with resilience testing tools, compliance & advisory support. The end objective is to create platforms of knowledge sharing and cross-learning with the aim that all these efforts will help build a truly resilient civil society in India.

What role can strategic philanthropy play in rebuilding India with resilience and preparing for the next pandemic? 

Unlike natural disasters – many of which we have unfortunately seen in the past 2 years as well – the COVID-19 crisis is a long-lasting one. The event itself has lasted 2 years, and its impact will be felt for a while. The biggest role philanthropy can play is understanding that the rebuild measures we mount also have to be long-lasting to match the crisis. And these long-lasting measures could be anything from long-term grants to flexible funding, to institutional grants, as they help in building the financial resilience of an NGO, preparing them for any crisis to come.

Secondly, funders – especially corporates and successful business professionals – can also extend non-financial support in the form of guidance, expertise and capacity building support to NGO leaders and their staff. Even with enough flexible funding, NGOs – especially the smaller ones that have had limited exposure to capacity building – could find it challenging to use funds efficiently. If a funder steps in as an expert, the recommendations are more likely to be well-received by the NGO.

Thirdly, scouting and supporting smaller, lesser-known NGOs is an important step in rebuilding communities because these are the NGOs that work with some of the most marginalized groups in some of the most hard-to-reach geographies. Funders can use their networks to expand the reach these lesser-known NGOs have in the funder ecosystem, helping strengthen them in the long term.

Tell us about the #BackTheFrontline campaign and its impact? How do you see philanthropy helping in COVID recovery? 

Realizing the intensity of the second wave of COVID and its undeniable implications for communities, Dasra launched its #BacktheFrontline (BTF) relief campaign in end April 2021 to galvanize a movement to support local, grassroots non-profits that are on the frontlines, often risking their own well-being to save and support lives across vulnerable communities in India. BTF has been able to make available timely, flexible grants of over USD 10 M to 150 NGOs across 31 states & union territories in India. Most importantly, it has supported extremely small, lesser-known grassroots NGOs from neglected regions like the North-East, Jammu-Kashmir & Ladakh. It has received support from ~500 funders, with some of its largest donors being corporates and corporate foundations.

We realize that given the far-reaching impact of the pandemic, just a year-long relief campaign will not be enough to turn things around despite the success of the campaign. In fact, as we gear up to return to normalcy, there is an urgent need to create resilient, shock-proof NGOs who can serve their communities effectively in the wake of the pandemic. To achieve this effectively, the philanthropic community needs to support them with longer-term, flexible funding that can cover the real costs required for an NGO to pivot, pilot and innovate new programs which meet the communities’ ever-changing needs due to COVID.

How do we address trust deficit in funders and ensure they see value in giving to proximate, community-based NGOs for greater impact? 

Trust deficit often comes into play when funders aren’t privy to all details pertinent to the running of an organization. With larger international NGOs in the foray, it’s easier to fund those with more media coverage and recognition as compared to smaller, grassroots organization. A small start is a great start on this front, funders should spend more time in learning about such NGOs, accessing virtual webinars, speaking to trusted philanthropy partners who are connected to such NGOs and even visit and experience an NGO’s reality. Before COVID, we would encourage our funder base to visit these NGOs in person and spend 2-3 days understanding their programs and the communities they serve. This is not only beneficial to funders but NGOs too. Additionally, understanding that impact happens gradually and not all smaller NGOs may have the means to report in a format the funders are expecting. 

What role do family philanthropists play in alleviating issues at the grassroots? Structurally, what is required to increase giving? 

Global and domestic Family philanthropists and family foundations form a significant element of the philanthropic community, especially because they have the intrinsic ability to be more flexible, and can also offer long-term, invested involvement through newer generations of funders within the family. 

Fortunately, Family Philanthropy in India has already been increasing at a phenomenal rate, tripling in corpus from 2019 to 2020. But that being said, Indian families still donate a smaller portion of their wealth relative to those in countries like the US (0.5% vs 3.4%). This gap, if bridged, can unlock enormous amount of investable capital, up to INR 100,000 crore. Incentivizing family giving by offering tax advantages in the context of estate and inheritance taxes could drive more funding. 

How can corporates support vulnerable communities and what is needed to get greater participation in underrepresented, under-funded sectors? 

Corporates can look at going beyond the 2% earmarked for CSR and this could significantly push up CSR contributions. But for these contributions to be meaningful, be it the ones that fall under the 2% or above that, corporates should actively look to fund local solutions for local problems, support NGOs that are led by leaders who themselves belong to vulnerable communities since they have lived experiences of the needs and challenges of the communities they serve.  

Corporates can continue to make significant impact even outside of CSR contributions by impacting lives through their business practices. This is at the heart of Dasra’s Social Compact, which calls upon corporates to ensure dignity & equity for their informal workers by introducing and reinforcing business practices that can give these workers a safe working environment, easier access to good health cover, adequate social security, gender equal opportunities among others. Participating in initiatives like these allows corporates to create sustainable and far-reaching impact outside the gamut of CSR, and directly onto the marginalized community members. In collaboration with FICCI & CII, Dasra is hoping to reach as many corporates as possible through Social Compact.

Besides financial support, NGOs are also always looking for human resource support in form of volunteers. Collaborating with an NGO and encouraging employee participation in a volunteering program can also serve NGOs well, especially in crisis situations.

Despite the limitations that the CSR amendments have brought about, if corporates can dedicate a portion of their portfolio to smaller, lesser-known NGOs, it can make a significant difference because besides funding support, corporate donations also bring legitimacy to many less established NGOs, helping them raise funds from other types of donors.

Irrespective of the size of organizations a corporate supports, it’s important to have an open channel of communication with all its grantees, as well as to be part of sector-level conversations. These are the most authentic ways of staying informed of areas that need attention and funding, and that is the first step in increasing participation in these sectors.

Assessing the impact of the pandemic- How is India faring two years after the pandemic? 

The last 1.5 – 2 years have not been easy on anyone, and especially not the already marginalized groups.  At least 230 million Indians fell below the poverty line, and almost 50% formal workers moved to informal work. With rural families being pushed into unemployment, the ripple effect was felt probably the hardest by adolescent girls – as of August 2020 alone, India had seen an 88% increase in child marriages across the country. Domestic violence against women skyrocketed, with compliant cases increasing by a whopping 94%. 

Disruption in education was and remains a major concern with 1.5 million schools having closed down, which affected 286 million children’s education across the country. While children in cities had access to technology and infrastructure that made online classes possible, only 8% rural children had the facilities for online studies. The overburdened health system, the every-burning funeral pyres and families of migrant workers walking with kids in their arms and their lives tied up in a cloth overhead are images that have unfortunately been burned into all our memories. But as we hope to return to normalcy, the civil society as a whole can make ammunition of these memories and commit to rebuilding a decade’s worth of developmental gains that were lost to the pandemic. 

(About the Author: Rusen Kumar is the editor at India CSR)

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