On Giving...What's wrong with it or how it can be made better

Vinod Khosla (a prominent Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists) pledges half his fortune to charity ...ran the news. A few days back it was Shiv Nadar of HCL, a few more days (or rather months) back it was Azim Premji and even before that it was Narayanmurthy. And long time before they all thought about pledging a part of their life long earnings there was Warren Buffet. Then along came Bill Gates. Great. I am happy that the list is increasing. For likes of these businessmen and others alike life definitely has come a full circle and how. The philanthropy efforts of these individual do require a special mention. For it is very difficult to part with your own hard earned money and that to towards a cause which might have little or no direct relation to you.

But I have got some reservations. No, not about the intentions of these people. Though at times there are questions that have raised about the real intentions of these people by various bodies. I not going to speak about that either. For who am I to question the intentions that ultimately may end up benefiting the people in real need of help. By now all said and done you may be wondering what I am trying to get at or what my reservations are.

My reservations are if this help really reaches the people intentioned for. These gentlemen obviously might be monitoring the money spent but once it is out of their kitty, it is out of their control as well. If we look at the cumulative wealth of their pledges it quite an enormous figure. For individual who is least bothered about there contributions and intentions a fraction is also a significant amount. Multiply these with a few hundreds (not even thousands)and you will understand I mean. It is hard to deny that officials all across the world, especially in the developing or emerging economies where the money actually going are not interested in their share of the pie.

Hence, it is of utmost importance to create a mechanism that reduces or better still eliminates the loss in transit. Pledging money is important, but what I would really like to see from these extraordinary gentlemen, and women too, given their vast experience, expertise and achievements is contribution in creating and strengthening such a mechanism. The benefits of such a initiative would be manifold and far reaching.

Another aspect which I would like to highlight is a majority of them route it through their own trusts and foundations (possibly because of better control which they can exercise) which they set up for philanthropy. Nothing wrong with it. But why not identify the really good institutions committed to social cause that selflessly and seamlessly built such a mechanism and are delivering. Imagine the impact in such scenario for these institutes already have built credibility, experience and expertise to capitalize on. I think it would be exemplary. A win-win-win.

A god man named Sathya Sai baba passed away recently in India and his trust is said to be worth above Rs. 40,000 crore. Imagine what he could have been able to achieve with such a huge sum if he had such a mechanism to take the wealth at his disposal towards fructification. Today the wealth is likely to become a disputed property. The same may be the case with others too at later stage. Hence the need for mechanism that not only monitors, but also ensures, evaluates and raises the quality of such initiatives even higher.

If there is such a mechanism in place then it should be brought to the front with sole purpose of ensuring the wealth pledged achieves what it was pledged for.

And before I close, I would like to end with Chinese poverb...."Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Its high time that this lies at the core (or heart) supported by other initiatives of all the philanthropic efforts or else it may prove to be a futile battle. To those initiatives that already have their heart in the right place I salute and to all others, I request, let not your efforts go waste. For the value you are creating through such efforts is not worth loosing even in bits and pieces.

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