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Social Enterprise
by ehsan on April 30, 2009
A totally logical person might ask: Why do they do it? After all these are the people coming from for-profit world; Is philanthro-capitalism another way of leveraging stock?
No, according to an article from Times of India, which has invested in the micro-health insurance programme, Arogya Raksha. "Many of us have spontaneously engaged in philanthropic activity largely because we are first-generation entrepreneurs who have built our businesses from modest resources and feel motivated to give back to society. We want more people to partake in the opportunities that made us successful."
Significant corporate donations in India began more than a century ago, when major industrial houses, notably the Tatas, Birlas and some other wealthy individuals endowed educational institutions, hospitals and student scholarships. Over the years, India Inc has donated generously to the performing arts and religious activities. Mehta says straightforward philanthropy was well established in India from the 1920s, but the 50s saw it fall into disuse because the government's stifling licence-raj policy made it hard even to give to charity. All this while, the US was giving tax incentives to those who contribute to social welfare, which is one reason it can count so many large-hearted philanthropists - John D Rockfeller III, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and Howard Hughes. But all of them could be seen as philanthro-capitalists too.
Many agree that publicity helps, if for no other reason than to rope in more do-gooders. the authors believe that the rich have to do much more. But the trickle cannot become a flood, as Athreya of the Indian Centre for Philanthropy says, unless "we build more worthy recipient NGOs, and make the process of giving easier."
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/150404
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