Of all the ways to cope with India’s defeat against Australia in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final, Venkat N. Krishnan, a Mumbai-based philanthropist and social investor, came up with the most innovative one. Not to mention the most impactful, too. Following India’s loss in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Krishnan chose to donate around Rs 5 lakh to an organisation in Ahmedabad that volunteers to teach children. The sum was equivalent to the donations received by the Delhi-based Indian School of Democracy (ISD), where Krishnan is an investor. This, too, was a direct consequence of the outcome of cricket’s biggest match.
‘The biggest obstacle to donating among Indians is inertia’
Prior to the India-Australia final on Sunday, Krishnan had a simple but important question. “How do you get people in India to donate? Why not use cricket as a hook?” says Krishnan, while speaking to My Kolkata over video call. And so Krishnan followed suit by asking his friends on Facebook and his connections on LinkedIn to participate in an initiative for social good. If India lost the final, they would donate anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 25,000 to ISD. But if India won, then Krishnan would match the total amount pledged by the others (from his personal wealth) and donate it to one or multiple organisations. Krishnan had followed the same routine for the India-Pakistan match earlier on in the World Cup. India’s resounding victory meant that he ended up donating a little more than two lakh rupees to a variety of organisations in the social sector. Following India’s heartbreaking result in the final, ISD found itself receiving Rs 5 lakh in donations from 60-plus individuals. But Krishan was not happy.
“Even though the donations had come in for a good cause, it didn’t feel right to generate this amount through an Indian loss, that too in the final,” says Krishnan. To get rid of his guilt, Krishnan decided to donate himself, even though the stipulation of his initiative meant he did not have to. “I came across this organisation teaching children in Ahmedabad. I don’t have consent to take their name, but I found their work to be really interesting and decided to help out,” adds Krishnan, who felt “much better after giving”. It should come as no surprise for a man who has focused on giving over the past two decades, setting up the likes of GiveIndia, which connects donors with charitable causes; LivingMyPromise, which invites “advantaged people to commit to giving 50 per cent or more of their wealth to philanthropic causes either during their lifetime or in their will”; and Daan Utsav, which takes place every October allowing people to “come together and perform acts of kindness by giving their time, material or money in interesting ways to any cause(s) of their choice”. Krishnan believes that the biggest obstacle to donating among Indians is inertia. “People don’t give because they aren’t asked. Plus, crowdfunding has meant that they often don’t know which cause to donate to,” explains Krishnan.
‘The scope for honest politics is diminishing as politics is becoming more expensive’
The team at ISD, which was set up in 2018 by Prakhar Bhartiya and Hemakshi Meghani Prakhar Bhartiya/Indian School of Democracy
With the latest round of donations thanks to “cricket philanthropy”, ISD intends to continue its work in “redefining public leadership” by nurturing grassroots politicians who can “inspire with moral courage and good, principled politics”. Co-founded by Prakhar Bhartiya and Hemakshi Meghani in 2018, ISD runs multiple programmes aimed at improving the quality of public leadership in India. This includes prorgrammes for young and aspiring politicians as well as local female leaders. “The scope for honest politics is diminishing as politics is becoming more expensive. But we don’t want that to curtail our political imagination as we want political leaders to inspire people,” says Bhartiya, who regards Krishnan to be a personal mentor and a pivotal person in “evangelising the idea of investing in politics”.
