Giving Compass' Take:

• Ashish Shah discusses Indiaspora's new campaign, ChaloGive, and its efforts to empower the Indian diaspora in the U.S. to engage in philanthropy.

• Shah mentions that many people participate in "informal giving" to friends and family. How can you better plan your giving to support grassroots organizations?

• Read more from Indiaspora about giving.

The Indian diaspora in the US  is roughly 1 percent of the US population. The opportunity from these Indian-American givers is tremendous. These factors of age and population, disposable income and an emotional connect, arguably make the Indian diaspora uniquely predisposed to giving to Indian causes.

However, the 2018 Indiaspora-Dalberg study showed that while the diaspora are great at giving their time and volunteering, they lag behind in philanthropic giving even though they remain passionate about the cause. The primary reasons for this passion-donation gap can be categorized as follows:

  • Lack of sufficient information that provides reliable insight and perspective on beneficiary organizations
  • Skepticism towards recipient organizations that results in significant trust deficit in the donor community
  • Cultural attitudes that favor “informal giving” to friends and families over charitable organizations
  • Poor community self-perception of underperformance in philanthropic giving damages morale and creates a negative feedback cycle that impedes higher levels of giving

Indiaspora is launching its ChaloGive online giving campaign this year from Oct 2 to Oct 8 to encourage and facilitate giving by the Indian diaspora. The ChaloGive campaign is an effort to address the obstacles identified above and aims to make online giving simple and strategic.

Read the full article about ChaloGive by Ashish Shah at Indiaspora.