July 25, 2018

Indian-Americans are among the ethnic groups with highest per capita income.

Indian-Americans donate around $1 billion per year, far less than their potential of $3 billion philanthropy in the US, as per the results of a first-of-its-kind survey.

They're among the ethnic groups with the highest per capita income.

This survey, which assessed the giving habits of Indian-Americans, concluded that the community donates in the range of 1.5% of their income each year, compared to the average American donation rate of 4% per year.

With a strong 4.1 million members, Indian-Americans have one of the highest median household incomes of any ethnic community in the US & it's recognized as being well educated & socially aware.

Released during the Indiaspora Philanthropy Summit at Georgetown University here yesterday, the Indiaspora-Dalberg Community Engagement Survey found that Indian-Americans volunteer at nearly double the national average but give substantially less financially, ultimately leaving significant social impact on the table.

"Today, we're discussing what lies next for Indiaspora in our role as a philanthropic catalyst, which's one of the core pillars of our mission. We're in the early stages of strategically planning what we should do to move the needle - which is to say, increase the amount of Indian-American philanthropic giving in America & to India, and make it more effective," said M R Rangaswami, Indiaspora founder.

At more than $3 billion dollars annually, the giving potential of Indian-Americans is huge said Joe Dougherty, Dalberg Advisors' regional director for the Americas.

To put it into context, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation distributes $4-5 billion across the entire globe every year.

"Imagine the kind of impact the diaspora could create if they met their giving potential. We hope that the results of this study help galvanize philanthropic efforts among this important & influential community," Dougherty said.

The survey also found that Indian-Americans are passionate about social impact, has a diversity of interests, are careful screeners & prolific volunteers.

An Indian-American donor typically volunteers 220 hours each year, far exceeding the US national average of 130 hours annually.

"However, the community must not get complacent - the Indian Diaspora has a long way to go before we can call ourselves good givers," the survey notes.

"We find there exists a large 'giving gap' in the realm of at least $2-3 billion. Further, we find a 'passion-donation gap', which means that the community doesn't necessarily give to those causes which it collectively claims to be most passionate about," it said.

The survey also found that women & men don't always rank the same causes in the same order of importance.

For example, 59% of women listed gender equality as an area they're passionate about (tied with education as their top passion area) whereas only 26% of men said the same (only 6th on their list of passion areas).

Finally, the community tends to view its business & investment activities as being almost entirely independent of their philanthropic engagements, it said.

Source TOI

Picture Source :