Strategic Fundraising, Donor Engagement & Resource Mobilisation

Explore strategic approaches to fundraising, its challenges and solutions, effective donor engagement, and innovative resource mobilisation, while uncovering sustainable solutions to ensure organisational resilience.

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Framework / Toolkit / App
  • 1 April 2025

Kanak AI: Formalising gig economy

“Kanak AI is a smart tool designed for gig economy workers that predicts a person’s potential income based on their background, skills, and location. It helps job seekers, career advisors, and HR professionals get realistic salary expectations. It fills a gap in personalised, data-based career guidance. By using AI, it bridges the divide between job seekers and employers. It’s currently a web app, with future plans for API integration across platforms and expansion into career counselling and job-matching services.”
Paper / Report
  • 1 February 2025

Driving Social Impact through Innovative Finance Approaches

Examines innovative finance mechanisms to scale social impact, exploring themes such as impact investing, blended finance, venture philanthropy, assessment frameworks, and policy/regulatory frameworks in the Indian context. Draws on fellowship research commissioned by ISDM’s CIFSI to highlight drivers and challenges for sustainable social finance.
Case Study
  • 1 June 2024

Becoming educated

Documents scholarship initiatives at Farook College funded through alumni, faculty, and peer contributions to support underprivileged students, particularly girls, in accessing higher education. Shows self-sustaining mechanisms enabling competitive exam prep centers and placement support, fostering broader regional replication in Malabar.
Paper / Report
  • 1 September 2023

Unleashing the Power of Philanthropy

This working paper provides valuable insights and knowledge to reshape philanthropy for justice, equality, and inclusive development. These insights and perspectives are based on interviews conducted with diverse stakeholders from within the philanthropic ecosystem revealing key findings, motivations, unmet needs, forces driving actions, common methods, and obstacles within the development sector.
Paper / Report
  • 1 February 2024

Bridging perspectives: Innovative Finance Insights from India

This study advocates for a comprehensive understanding on innovative finance by delving into the perspectives of both donors and recipients, contributing significantly to the emerging discourse on innovative finance. It also simplifies information on innovative finance instruments. The study elucidates the various innovative financing structures, processes, stakeholders, applicability, for organisations.
Paper / Report
  • 3 June 2024

Navigating Outcomes-based Financing in India: Perceptions of the Not-for-Profits

This ISDM/CIFSI report surveys 71 Indian non‑profits to understand their perspectives on outcomes‑based financing (OBF)—models where funding is tied to measurable results. It outlines how OBF promises greater accountability, efficiency, and outcome orientation, while also revealing nonprofits’ concerns around financial risks, readiness, and misaligned expectations between funders and implementers. The findings highlight the need for improved dialogue, capacity, and tools to support nonprofits in navigating OBF effectively, ensuring sustainable adoption and reducing friction between funding providers and recipients
Blog
  • 1 July 2022

Reinventing the role of Philanthropy for Social Justice in India

Philanthropy in Asia is maturing from a culture where giving has been historically grounded in religious and political beliefs towards a more systemic and responsive approach. Consistent efforts by civil society, the private sector and citizens along with increased government recognition towards inequities through appropriate policies have been making visible developmental and social changes. However, the fact remains that the progress is uneven with evidences of varying degrees of development in different regions, different societies and communities.
Blog
  • 1 December 2022

Moving beyond charity towards philanthropy for social justice: Role of local leadership in philanthropy

This blog is based on an episode of the ISDM-CPSJ 2022 Philanthropy and Social Justice Conversation Series that features conversations with thought leaders and action leaders on the need to reshape and tap the potential of philanthropy for social justice in India. As we continue to grapple with how best philanthropy can enable solving the many pressing issues of our times, it is crucial to consider the potential of local and community-driven leadership. We need to reflect on and evaluate how philanthropy
Blog
  • 1 December 2022

Partnering for systemic change: Big Indian philanthropy and its relationship with rights and advocacy

Three current trends within the Indian landscape today—growing inequality , increasing constraints on foreign funding for civil society organisations , and the promising potential for growth in Indian social sector funding , underline the moment of reckoning for big Indian philanthropy. If philanthropists in India can boldly address the deepest fractures in our society today, such as the systemic barriers and violations in right to housing, livelihoods, children and youth rights, climate justice and governance challenges, we will be able to envision a brighter future for all.
Media Article
  • 3 March 2022

From charitable giving to social justice: Reimagining the role of philanthropy in India

India’s social sector is witnessing unprecedented growth as well as disruption. The robust civil society in India continues to work tirelessly towards accomplishing transformational change in socioeconomic structures to bring prosperity for all; where the benefits of growth and opportunities are more fairly distributed across communities and regions. Simultaneously, there has been rapid growth of the philanthropic community both in terms of increase in the amount of private sector funding (which totalled about Rs 64,000 crore in 2020) 1 , and in terms of diversification in the approaches and practices of philanthropy.
Media Article
  • 3 July 2023

Why students need to be educated about philanthropy

This opinion piece published in the education section of The Hindu emphasises the importance of integrating philanthropic education into student curricula. Introducing students to philanthropy fosters empathy, social responsibility, and community engagement. By understanding the impact of giving and volunteering, students develop leadership skills and a sense of purpose. Educating youth about philanthropy encourages them to address societal challenges proactively, cultivating a generation committed to positive social change and the betterment of society.
Media Article
  • 3 February 2025

Unlocking the transformative potential of Indian philanthropy through trust

Published in ET Governance, this article discusses how adopting trust-based approaches in philanthropy can empower nonprofits and strengthen communities. By fostering trust, Indian philanthropy can drive innovation, enhance collaboration, and promote a more inclusive and equitable society. ​It highlights the Six Point Framework for philanthropic practices towards inclusive development.

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