

Philanthropy – my commitment and an obligation

Note: Half-baked article, 20 minute read (probably more, with citations)

Ever since the evolution of man-kind, it has been a traditional virtue and part of almost all of the cultures/ religious traditions to practice Altruism.

Efficacy of act’s of philanthropy has been a subject of my keen interest for a long time now. So digging little deep, in this blogpost

  1. What I have done?

    Well, nothing! All of what is below is negligible and trail/error. But, taking note

    1. In my capacity, while I have tried my hand with philanthropy doing many small things, one notable experiment was to attempt Skill Development. I’ve participated and assisted initiatives in areas of Skill Development, Rural employment and continue to explore ways, opportunities to bring-about a sustainable & holistic change for the better.Our current area of focus is yoga, which directly impacts health and wellbeing of a community.  In enabling quality yoga instructors among the underprivileged communities (through teacher training),  train in the rural clutch (schools, communities) healthful ways of living & yoga with zero religious footprint. As I reach out to the masses, I need your help/participation in brain-storming and shaping these initiatives up. Please support!
  2. Efficacy & need

    1. While concern & welfare of man-kind has been a subject debated heavily, it is time we look at the essential need of the hour, and approach philanthropy in a way that would make livelihoods sustainable.
    2. In my view – Efficacy of most acts of giving, has always been like an open-tap, flowing all the time from where the water is, to where it isn’t.  What we spend on Enabling  vs. What we spend on offering – is a debatable question.
  3. Access to Opportunity vs. Grant/Freebie Scheme

    1. There’s a lot of rant on why there should be no freebies. The problem is, the rant comes from those who are provided well with things they need. I asked a few of them who are benificiaries of the free-supply/subsidized schemes and they feel, it’s their lifeline. So freebies are okay. Who gets it? What is given (is key)? 
    2. Make people great, and not grateful. A perceptional change has to occur, followed by social reality in order for self-sustainability to occur.
    3. No wonder, they said


  4. Our perception vs. Birds eye

    1. What we think as the problem vs. what is the real problem? Refer Effective Altruism
    2. Okay, think next level. The fallacy in effective altruism is it assumes the situation as the problem instead of looking at Cause & Effect quite deeper.
    3. The reason for the real problem if addressed, the problem at large will be addressed.
    4. Let’s say, hunger.
      1. Solution A: Supplying free food/ration
      2. Cause: If the mother earth can provide for the human and has in herself everything essential to yield – it’s a matter of effective redirection/management of natural resources like Water for example, planting trees to prevent erosion that impact the same.
      3. Solution B: Enabling the latter, so you put an end to the problem
    5. Education
      1. Problem: Not enough doctors, not enough teachers
      2. Fix A: Keep funding the free-education, free health-care (run into corruption on instructor recruitment, shortage, and many others. )
      3. Fix B: Leveraging technology and framework to reach the masses, setup challenge driven grading structures accordingly.
      4. Finest article, I read on schooling, 
  5. Human Need

    1. Hierarchy of needs in the recent era has not been compiled in a better way than Maslow [1]
    2. While what’s considered physiological is the only essential need of the human, the social construct of material reality caused the need of “n” number of needs, that are largely grouped into the mentioned sections.
      1. We made up the whole list not based on the inherent nature of our existence, but present nature of existence studied on exemplary samples (smartest, wealthiest individuals).
  6. Rudimentary views

    1. Rural solutions to rural problems.
      1. On a high- level, everything that’s essential for our livelihood is a product of mother-earth. Be it food, shelter, water, or whatever.
      2. Post adoption of capitalistic market economy, balancing rural wellbeing looked upon from the angle of urban thought process has always been, and will always be an epic fail. Inspiration, an views
        3. Model Village, Quora Answer
    2. Capital, capital efficacy – to be written
  7. Conclusion

    1. Perception of the underprivileged, if that could be impacted – there is no essential need for philanthropy.
    2. It’s an obligation and a commitment

From, wiki [1]

The Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. As of 2017, the pledge has 158 signatories, either individuals or couples; some of the 158 have since died. Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, and their pledges total over $365 billion. It does not actually dictate that the money is spent in any certain way or towards any particular charity or cause, and there is no legal obligation to actually donate any money


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