Clampdown on foreign funding makes local donations crucial for Indian NGOs

Outside Mumbai’s Vashi railway station on most days, groups of young women and men stop passersby and ask rather urgently, “Do you have one minute to talk about the environment?” These members of Greenpeace India often have their invitations turned down politely or irritably but, at times, some respond with equal earnestness. Shilpi Yadav, a corporate communications professional, was already passionate about green causes and approved of the advocacy group’s daredevil style — its activists all over the world have been known to climb tall structures and unfurl large banners to shame corporations or governments. So Yadav “did not need much convincing” when she was approached in 2014 to sign up as a regular donor.

“Giving funds is one thing and climbing up a building is another. They are willing to take risks,” she says four years later, having contributed a total of Rs 24,000 to the organisation through monthly donations. “Their reasons may seem wrong to the government but not for the people.”

The government has indeed come down heavily on a number of politically vocal NGOs in India, ever since an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report from June 2014 stated that such groups were funded by donors based abroad to “take down Indian development projects”. The IB had assessed that their agitations, including against mega industrial projects like POSCO and Vedanta in Odisha, would hurt GDP growth by 2-3 per cent per annum.

The major thrust of Greenpeace India’s campaigns has been to promote clean energy in the country to tackle air pollution and fight climate change. In 2015, its licence to receive foreign donations was suspended, and its bank accounts — which held both international funds and donations from 77,786 Indians — were frozen for two months. In October this year again, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze the non-profit’s bank accounts for allegedly flouting norms and receiving foreign funding. It was only after a Bangalore High Court order last week that the NGO’s employees received their salaries for two months.

The organisation says that monthly donations from individual citizens, ranging between Rs 350 and Rs 500, have mainly kept it going through the recent crises. “Now 100 per cent of our donations are from Indians,” maintains Nandikesh Sivalingam, campaign manager, climate and energy, Greenpeace India, referring to the period since the organisation’s foreign funding licence was revoked. To avoid conflicts of interest, they do not accept financial assistance from corporations or government.

Yet, the repeated allegations appear to have hurt individual donations: while local donors contributed over Rs 170 million in 2014-2015, the organisation raised just a little over half that amount (Rs 94.6 million) from individuals in 2016. But Sivalingam seems encouraged by cases of support from unexpected quarters, such as when a farmer from rural Karnataka visited the Bengaluru office after hearing about the crackdown in 2015. He wanted to contribute Rs 500 to fight climate change and pollution. “We had to tell him we don’t accept cash donations,” says Sivalingam. The non-profit currently receives monthly donations from about 55,000 Indians.

The reliance on individual donors is observed in Amnesty International India, too, whose Bengaluru office was raided by the ED in October this year for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). Its bank accounts were frozen until the Bangalore High Court partially lifted the freeze on November 22 — it can now access some of its accounts, but not all. “There are more people we can’t take money from than those we can take it from,” says Aakar Patel, executive director, Amnesty International India (also a columnist with this newspaper). “While rules like this do make my job slightly more difficult, it’s also the reason why Amnesty doesn’t compromise, has won the Nobel Peace prize (1977) and survived for six decades.”

The organisation, which campaigns for human rights, went from seeking one-time donations to a membership model three-and-a half years ago, whereby 14,000 people from across the country now contribute an average of Rs 500 every month. Between fixed monthly contributions and one-time donations, it raises about Rs 6 million a month.

“Gone are the days of Indian charities’ heavy dependence on foreign donation,” says Manoj Kumar, CEO of Hyderabad-based Naandi Foundation, which feeds a million children daily and has thousands of individual donors. More Indians, especially from the middle class, seem willing to give. Having recognised this potential, several NGOs are sharpening their outreach and engagement activities.

Last year, Greenpeace India partnered with Bengaluru-based Direct Dialogue Initiatives, which helps with enrolling and retaining donors. At Amnesty International India, some 1,000 people are added to the database every month, and the organisation hopes to grow to 75,000 members in the near future. Oxfam India, which relies more on middle-income Indians than high net-worth individuals, plans to create a large pool of aware citizens who can contribute their money, time and voice. Indian NGOs such as Child Rights and You (CRY) and the Akshaya Patra Foundation are also reaching more people using crowdfunding services and social media.

The history of giving has for long been associated with faith, like Church tithes. “You’ve got temple trusts and donations to Aga Khan’s charities to build hospitals, but formal, systematic middle-class giving is relatively new because the middle class itself is new,” says Patel. “A conscious, non-faith approach of fixed giving is still a new concept around the world.”

His team of fundraisers is often on the lookout for lanyard-wearers — corporate employees who have the potential to contribute steady amounts every month. Armed with tablets that showcase the organisation’s work, like advocacy for those affected by the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, teams representing Amnesty International India make their way to busy street corners, corporate offices and tech parks. The fact that they conduct workshops on violence against women and sexual harassment at the workplace helps them get a foot in the door. “About 32 per cent of our donors are women, and the women tend to stay on longer than the men, so it is in our interest to sign up more women,” says Patel.

Likewise, roughly 40 fundraisers at Oxfam India interact with employed and self-employed individuals through digital campaigns, or face to face in malls and workplaces, or over the telephone.

Binu Jacob started Direct Dialogue Initiatives in 2017 to help such NGOs obtain individual donations. Besides Greenpeace India, he caters to Plan India and The Association of People with Disability. “Most charities tend to focus on the affluent folk, but we are finding that when the middle class is approached, it is ready to give.” After enquiring about things, such as if the NGO has an auditor and how long it has worked, people are willing to make small but regular contributions, says Jacob.

Philanthropy by private individuals in India rose six times from Rs 60 billion in 2011 to Rs 360 billion in 2016, according to the India Philanthropy Report 2017 by Bain & Company, a consultancy, and Dasra, a philanthropy advisor. The propensity to give does not vary much between individuals from humble and well-heeled backgrounds, says Atul Satija, CEO of GiveIndia. As many people with low-end smartphones seem to be giving as those with the latest iPhones. His platform vouches for its partner NGOs after background checks, and users can donate monthly to specific organisations or one-time for specific causes.

Some donors also identify NGOs on their own, and others tend to give impulsively or during disasters. Employing technology and engagement will be vital for people to start giving strategically and for NGOs to gain visibility. “On the one hand, there is an unprecedented boom in personal philanthropy. On the other, there are many more takers and cause campaigners for this share of the donor’s wallet than there previously were,” says Vatsala Mamgain, director for resource development at CRY. “So it is more challenging to meet funding goals.”

NGO aggregation and background checks, such as those provided by strategic philanthropy advisors Dasra and GiveIndia, are appealing to donors like management consultant Nishant Katoch. He uses GiveIndia’s website to give between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 every month for philanthropy. Details of how his funds were used are emailed to him routinely, and he is able to pick both big and small NGOs as well as diverse causes — helping the elderly, children and the underprivileged in his home state of Himachal Pradesh. “It is like a supermarket for philanthropy,” he says. A number of crowdfunding sites for social causes, such as Donatekart.com and Gocrowdera.com, have also sprung up to help less visible NGOs working in remote districts.

The government’s policy changes and critical observation of certain NGOs has changed the ecosystem tangibly. While 29,700 NGOs had registered under the FCRA in 2010, since 2014 the registration of 14,938 NGOs has been cancelled. As the licences of big NGOs were cancelled, overall foreign funding of NGOs dropped from about Rs 177 billion in 2015-16 to Rs 65 billion in 2016-17, according to a statement by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in Parliament in December 2017.

Individual giving may not yet be able to make up for the gap. The funding coming from within India is not picking up at the same rate as foreign funds are going down, says Deval Sanghavi, co-founder of Dasra, which helps high net-worth individuals and family funds give strategically. He also senses a loss in knowledge capital because in many organisations, while funding came from abroad, the expertise was groomed over decades in India — newer givers will need more time to form such relationships.

People will need to work much harder to identify and support people around them who are doing good work, observes Amit Chandra, managing director of Bain Capital private equity. “If we can save with targets, why not donate with targets?”

Back in 2015, some campaigns of Greenpeace India came to a grinding halt, like the one to get the Maharashtra government to prioritise water supply to agricultural areas rather than industrial areas. The non-profit has also lost 30-40 per cent of its staff, including the fundraising team, three years ago. Similarly, given the freezing of funds this year, Amnesty International India had to let go of 75 people from a team of 240.

In another policy change, the tax exemption given to salaried donors under Section 35 AC was reduced from 100 per cent to 50 per cent starting March 31, 2017. Thereafter, the Akshaya Patra Foundation says it had a 70 per cent drop in payroll giving, that is, in contributions that employees in certain workplaces made directly from their wages. To attract new supporters, the organisation has launched an option on Paytm to donate from as little as Rs 5.

Amnesty International India has run campaigns against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts in Jammu & Kashmir and in the coal belt since the Congress era, says Patel. However, under this government, he notes, a new category of violence has come in, like the beef lynchings. “We have a rapid response team for these cases but because our funds have been cut off, we might even have to shut down some of our campaigns.”

That might be a blow. However, even if the contributions of Indians from middle-income groups might be relatively modest, they are highly valuable for the independence of NGOs.