Listening to the needs of the communities we seek to serve is one of the most important foundations to rebuilding a resilient India. While we cannot deny the emotional connection that sustains one’s giving over time, for the Indian philanthropic community to usher in a movement of positive social change and build back better, funders need to make philanthropic decisions based on an objective analysis and deep understanding of the needs and realities on the ground.

However, chronic problems pertaining to data in philanthropy plague the sector. These include lack of a single data hub that consolidates accurate, updated, and comprehensive data around the philanthropy landscape. Other issues such as fractured data infrastructure and a dearth of reliable and accurate base data on key development indicators further add to the problems. In case data is available, it is largely unstructured, unformatted, and undigitised, often unaccompanied with any effective representation, visualisation, or insights for actionable intelligence. This reduces the ability to access and use the data to make evidence-based decisions when supporting, planning, implementing, and monitoring development programs.

  1. State of listening practice among funders
  2. Enabling high-quality listening in the philanthropic space
  3. Fostering listening as a core value
  4. Building a deep understanding of on-ground issues
  5. Balancing the power dynamics with communities and partner NGOs
  6. Ensure consistency of communication
  7. Enabling a ‘robust’ listening environment 

Read the full article about listening to funder needs by Neera Nundy at Forbes India Magazine.