Giving Compass' Take:

• Philanthropy In Focus highlights a new report from India Development Review that aims to shine a spotlight on the ways in which Indians can contribute to the country’s social development and attempts to quantify everyday giving in India.

• How can donors use this information and research towards supporting India's philanthropy? 

• To learn more about India's social sector, click here. 

India has the greatest number of people volunteering and donating money in the world, ahead of both the USA and China. At INR 34,242 crore in 2017, everyday giving in India is at least twice the size of everyday giving in China, and over 30 percent more than Indian ultra/high net worth individual (U/HNWI) giving.

These figures come from the first-ever effort towards quantifying the everyday giving market in India. Sattva Consulting, with the support of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, has conducted an in-depth market analysis over the past six months, reviewing existing literature, and collating primary data through interviews with more than 85 experts, and surveys with more than 700 people and 100 nonprofits. The findings, featured in the report ‘Everyday Giving in India: Harnessing the potential of a billion givers for social impact’ delves into the data, solutions, innovations, challenges, and opportunities for everyday giving.

Because a significant portion of everyday giving occurs through informal channels, and data reporting within formal channels is inconsistent, the study has tried to fortify its market calculations by triangulating data2from different sources: (1) government reports on foregone revenue from charitable donations and FCRA reporting on foreign contributions received by nonprofits, (2) nonprofit annual reports on donations received from individuals, and (3) funds raised by crowdfunding platforms, marathon fundraisers and others (derived from secondary research and qualitative interviews with experts). Given the inherent challenges around scale and paucity of data, the study admits that most of the research reflects the landscape of metropolitan areas, thereby carrying a language bias.

Read the full article about the largest study on India's giving market by IDR at Philanthropy In Focus.