Editors’ Notes: Shaivya Verma and Divya Chopra outline the findings from two reports on household giving patterns in India, from the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Ashoka University. This post continues HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy.

January was marked by Makar Sankranti celebrations in India, a harvest festival celebrated as a religious occasion as well as a seasonal observance marking the end of the winter season and the advent of a new beginning. The festival is celebrated all over India and the festivities are known by different names in different regions: Pongal, Magh Bihu, Sakraat and Uttarain. What stands out as a common thread throughout these festivities is the practice of donation. People observing this festival donate in the form of grains, sweets, winter clothes, and blankets to the needy. This is just one of the many festivals and occasions on which Indian households across regions and religions typically donate. We see this form of giving and community building in other practices as well; for example, zakat is important according to the Quran for Muslims, langars are an integral part of Sikhism, and dana has been given importance in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain scriptures. The practice of cultivating generosity has long been important to the Indian family ethos and across religions and cultures. The roots of philanthropic giving in India are deep and ancient and have given life to varied traditions of social service, philanthropic engagement, and voluntary work. 

In this post, we reflect on the findings of two path-breaking, recent reports released by the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP), Ashoka University, on household giving patterns in India. The first report “How India Gives” offers national-level estimates of household giving trends, including market size, type of giving, recipient groups, and motivations. The second report, “Motivations and Barriers to Household Giving in India,” explores the drivers and inhibitors behind household donations. 

The nature of giving can range from traditional giving in the form of money to the needy to other forms of giving such as providing time, money and skills to a cause, to organised philanthropic giving by corporate and family foundations. People attach different meanings and emotions to the act of giving. It can be an expression of love, it can be a personal connection to a cause, a belief in certain values, religious practices, or family customs. In other words, giving is a complex mix of preferences, personal principles, and the background of the donation-maker.

Despite a narrative around Indian philanthropic giving steadily rising in the last few years, there remains a lack of clarity about the overall size of the philanthropic giving sector in the country. More importantly, rigorous, holistic, and data-driven approaches to estimating the sector’s size are lacking, especially around individual/household giving. Some studies are based largely on secondary data and do not present detailed data on individual giving, while others represent a smaller sample, predominantly English-speaking and from urban contexts.[1] It is here that the “How India Gives” study fills a critical gap. Drawing from a nationally representative household survey, the study aims to build a holistic map of household-giving patterns across geographies, socio-economic groups, demographics, and forms of giving. The study focuses on a rigorous methodology, capturing data from approximately 81,000 households across India. The “How India Gives” study for the first time provides a comprehensive, national-level picture of the volume, value and composition of household giving in India. 

The study on “Motivations and Barriers to Household Giving in India” lends texture to the complex world of giving practices in India. We chose a sample of 800+ households from the panel study intending to target at least 1 percent of the respondents from the “How India Gives” study. The study focused on two regions (North and South) that exhibited the most variance in giving patterns established by the “How India Gives” survey. The report helps in understanding the differences in giving behaviour between the two regions and across socio-economic groups.

The Common Understanding of Philanthropy—and its Lacunas

Academic literature on philanthropic giving is limited and remains largely focused on European and North American contexts. So far, there have only been estimated statistics of giving in the Indian context, despite the country’s established traditions of giving for centuries. Recently, research on philanthropic giving has progressed rapidly in India, a country where private and other foundations have supported research on the Indian philanthropic landscape. As early as 2001, Mark Sidel wrote that organized charitable giving had become particularly noticeable in India and had seen an upward trend in recent years. He also noted that the diversity of philanthropic communities and the extraordinary scale of the country had previously thwarted efforts to draw up reliable and broader data on the philanthropic sector in the country. Unlike in some other parts of the world, research on philanthropic giving is a new and emerging field in India. 

While estimates on other forms of philanthropy such as foreign funding and retail funding are available through various government and secondary sources, an important piece on household giving was missing. CSIP recognises the practical, conceptual and ethical challenges in establishing neat categories of people and their giving practices. Given the diversity in the country in terms of class, caste, regions, languages, and local cultures, creating categories would dull the differences in varied and particular patterns of giving. At the same time, giving patterns often overlap and relying on existing categories risks conceptual ambiguity. For this reason, the study identified the household as a ‘unit’ that donates while the associated behavior of giving emerged as the finding. 

One of the main elements of India’s varied philanthropic landscape is family philanthropy. According to 2023 report from Bain & Company and Dasra, family philanthropy consists of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNIs – whose net wealth is above INR 1,000 crore), high-net-worth individuals (HNIs – whose net wealth is between INR 200-1000 crore) and affluent givers (whose net wealth is between INR 7–200 crore). Foundations and trusts are mainly established by big business houses such as Tata and Mahindra and tend to make grants across thematic areas and regions. There is another category of foundations and trusts that give grants to a preferred area of interest. In addition to domestic foundations, some international foundations and charities also fund development activities in India, such as the Ford Foundation. On the other end of the spectrum are foundations such as the Action Aid, the Aga Khan Foundation, and Plan International which implement their social impact programs directly. India has recently seen an emergence of donors that both raise and distribute funds locally to address vulnerable populations or specific issues. For example, Child Relief and You (CRY) was set up by a small group of individuals to raise resources to provide support to children in Mumbai but has now grown and supports other smaller on-the-ground non-governmental organizations.

The business sector has also made its contribution and supported a range of issues over the years in India. Corporations undertake philanthropic work mostly through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and social investment. As per the 2013 Companies Act, it is mandatory for companies covered under section 135 of the act, to spend a minimum of 2% of their net profit over the preceding three years towards social welfare activities. In fact, India is the first country to have legally mandated CSR spending. Given the nature of this mandatory spending and the nature of programmes chosen under CSR, there is a debate in the philanthropic giving sector on whether to consider CSR as philanthropic giving, corporate philanthropy or family philanthropy. (We have included CSR as philanthropic giving in our reports).

Another important component of philanthropic giving in India is individual or household giving. Although there are some estimates on other forms of giving, there is a lack of data and holistic analysis of giving by households. The few studies conducted on giving patterns in India have focused on rural or urban areas, particularly on urban English-speaking Indians. Such studies are confined to certain parts of India or represent certain socio-economic groups only. For instance, CAF India’s “India Giving 2021” report reached out to approximately 2,000 urban respondents through an online survey. Sattva’s “Everyday Giving in India Report: 2019” was the first in-depth study to map giving in India; however, it estimated giving in rural India through secondary research.

Insights from the “How India Gives” and “Motivations and Barriers” Studies

In CSIP’s initial sector mapping exercise, we observed that a big piece of the estimates of household giving in India was missing. To fill this gap, the national-level longitudinal “How India Gives” study was proposed through which we are trying to produce estimates on everyday giving by Indian households.

The “How India Gives” Phase III study estimated the total quantum of donations made by Indian households during 2021–22 to be INR 27 thousand crores, an increase of 14% from INR 23.7 thousand crores in 2020–21. Nationally, 98% of donations were made in cash and 11% in-kind. Both formal and informal giving happens in many ways; the “How India Gives” study captured donations made to “religious organisations,” “non-religious organisations,” “household staff,” “extended family and friends,” “persons engaged in beggary” and lending a voice through “supporting a cause or petition.” These categories were developed after a round of consultation with sector experts. 

It did not come as a surprise that the proportion of households giving to “religious organisations” is the highest in the country and that “religious organisations” captured the highest market size. We saw an increase in this category’s market size from 70% to 75% between 2020-21 to 2021-2022, which was driven by both the increased value of such donations and the increase in the number of donor households. This is in line with the Indian household tradition of giving on festivals and religious occasions.  

Personally, we were intrigued to note that gender appeared to be a significant influencing factor in deciding whom to donate to. For example, women were more likely to make decisions regarding giving to “persons engaged in beggary,” “non-religious organisations” and “household staff” and men to “family and friends” and “religious organisations,” and “supporting a cause or petition.”

An interesting and unique giving pattern in the country is giving towards “persons engaged in beggary” as this category emerged as the second highest recipient of household giving in India, both in terms of proportion of households donating and the market size among all the recipient groups. Despite a high proportion of households donating to “persons engaged in beggary,” this group received the lowest value of cash donations (under INR 100). A preference to give “in-kind” was also observed for this recipient group as more than half of those donating to this group donated “in-kind.” This is starkly different from the patterns of donation observed for other recipient groups.

The results from the “Motivations and Barriers” report show that “religious customs,” “religious beliefs,” “family traditions,” and “mental satisfaction” were the most reported motivations for households giving to both “religious organisations” and “non-religious organisations.” However, of all these factors, households cited “religious beliefs” as the most important motivation for donation, followed by “religious customs” and “self-motivation.”

An interesting set of findings from the “Motivations and Barriers” study is that “self-motivation” emerged as a key driver for giving by households in the South region, in higher socio-economic households and large towns. For households in small towns, “family traditions” played an especially important role, while in rural areas, “social customs” emerged as a more important motivator. To our surprise, tax exemption benefits did not emerge as a primary motivation for household donation; in fact, donors’ awareness of tax exemptions remains rather limited. 

As witnessed during the recent festival of Makar Sakranti, the report also points out that Indian households typically donate during religious festivals/events and on visits to religious places.

Concluding Remarks

We at the CSIP are trying to expand the knowledge around the diverse avatars of philanthropic giving in India. The field of philanthropic giving is incomplete without an understanding of everyday household giving. Indeed, we recognise the critical need to understand giving behaviours across all people and cultures that make up India. 

Studies like “How India Gives” expand our understanding of philanthropic giving beyond giving by the ultra-rich and wealthy, as we observed that households give in myriad ways. The study aims to enable a variety of stakeholders in their respective endeavors; for example, the insights from these studies present actionable points for organisations working in the social impact space and more specifically for fundraising individuals to understand that the category of ‘Indian household giver’ is not a homogeneous one, as the patterns of giving and motivations vary across regions and socio-economic groups. Researchers and academics may find the insights of relevance in understanding different facets of Indian society, for example, understanding the role of gender in decision making on household giving, preferences of giving among various socio-economic classes, and the value of beliefs and customs in society.

-Shaivya Verma and Divya Chopra

Shaivya Verma and Divya Chopra are Senior Research Managers at the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy (CSIP), Ashoka University.

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[1] The notable exception is H. Daniel Heist, et. al., “The Philanthropic Poor: Prosocial Behavior in Rural India,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 51:6 (2022), 1349-1376.