How can HNIs contribute to evidence-based philanthropy in India?

HNIs can play a catalytic role by funding high-impact programs backed by rigorous data, supporting better monitoring and evaluation, and helping shift the culture of giving in India toward one that’s strategic, accountable, and outcomes-focused.

Why is evidence-based philanthropy important for long-term change?

Because doing good isn’t enough—doing what works is what leads to real, lasting progress. By focusing on proven solutions, donors can ensure their support goes further and actually solves problems at scale.

How can I find credible organizations for evidence-based giving?

Start with trusted sources that do the heavy lifting for you—like our recommendations at Impactful Giving, which are grounded in rigorous research, cost-effectiveness analysis, and impact data.

Can technology improve evidence-based philanthropy in India?

Absolutely. From real-time data tracking to transparent reporting platforms, technology can make it easier to measure results, compare programs, and direct funds where they’ll have the most impact.

What are the challenges of evidence-based philanthropy in India?

Some nonprofits lack strong data, and tracking outcomes can be complex. But these aren’t deal-breakers. Donors can start small, fund impact measurement, and treat giving as a learning journey—improving over time with better evidence.

Can donating to lead poisoning prevention programs make a significant impact?

Yes—more than most people realise. Childhood lead poisoning in India is massive in scale, hugely underfunded, and completely preventable. Strategic donations to the right organisations can help shift national regulations, reform supply chains, and protect millions of children—often through one-time, systemic changes. This is an area where a relatively small investment can lead to long-term, large-scale outcomes.

How do I know if my child’s school is lead-safe?

Most schools in India aren’t regularly tested for lead. The biggest risks come from old paint, drinking water systems, and contaminated materials like toys or utensils. You can ask whether the school uses certified lead-free paint, whether the water has been tested, and whether learning materials meet basic safety standards. If the answers aren’t clear, it’s worth pushing for change. In this case, a little awareness goes a long way.

How do local governments help reduce lead poisoning?

Governments play a big role—but they often need a push. Regulations around lead in paint, cookware, toys, and cosmetics already exist in India. The problem is that enforcement is patchy, and there’s very little awareness. This is where your support can help: organisations like i-LEAP work directly with policymakers to strengthen regulations and make sure they’re actually followed. Sometimes, solving a public health crisis isn’t about more rules—it’s about getting the existing ones to work.

What kind of donation efforts directly help children affected by lead poisoning?

The most effective efforts are preventative. Once the damage is done, it’s often permanent—so stopping exposure before it happens is key. That means funding regulation, better supply chains, and public awareness in high-risk areas. If you want every rupee to go as far as possible, focus on stopping the exposure at the source.

Are there specific organisations working on lead poisoning?

Yes. Both are small and highly cost-effective. They aim to fix the system instead of treating the symptoms.i-LEAP (India Lead Elimination Action Partnership) builds the local evidence, pushes for smarter policy, and coordinates Indian efforts.LEEP (Lead Exposure Elimination Project) works globally, helping manufacturers and governments transition to lead-free paint and other safer products.

Can lead poisoning affect a child’s IQ?

Yes. Lead is a neurotoxin. Even low levels of exposure can permanently reduce IQ and affect memory, behaviour, and school performance. These effects aren’t just academic—they translate into lower lifetime earnings and poorer health outcomes. It is a devastating yet invisible risk facing our children.

Can lead poisoning be reversed?

Unfortunately, no. Once lead has entered a child’s body, especially at a young age, the cognitive and neurological damage is irreversible. That’s why prevention is so crucial. The good news is that we can prevent exposure affordably, effectively, and at scale. But only if we act early.

Indian Philanthropy: A Growing Force for Global Change

Chetan Kharbanda
Jul 26
11 min read

Updated: Sep 16

Indian philanthropy is experiencing remarkable growth. Ultra-high-net-worth individuals donating more than Rs 100 crore annually have increased from just two in 2018 to over 18 today. Shiv Nadar alone contributed Rs 2,153 crore in FY24, averaging nearly Rs 6 crore per day. Total donations by ultra-high-net-worth Indians jumped by over 60% in 2023.

This growth represents more than domestic expansion. India's philanthropic landscape has broadened to incorporate giving to recipients a funder may have no connection with and may never meet. This shift toward global causes creates opportunities to address the world's most pressing challenges.

The Scale of Philanthropic Impact

The scale of potential impact is significant. Indian UHNIs currently donate far less as a share of wealth than peers in the US, UK, or China—only about one-tenth as much. Even modest increases toward international norms could unlock billions more for high-impact work. India's position straddling the developed and developing worlds provides unique advantages for funding innovations that work across similar contexts.

The case for global giving extends beyond altruism. Air pollution causes 1.8 million deaths annually in India, making it simultaneously a domestic priority and a global health concern requiring systemic solutions. Similarly, India's position as the world's fourth-largest user of antimicrobials in animal feed demonstrates how local practices affect global biosecurity and pandemic preparedness.

Evaluating Global Causes: A Framework for Impact

Effective philanthropists use systematic frameworks to evaluate where donations can achieve the greatest return on investment. Organisations like Open Philanthropy and research from 80,000 Hours apply three core criteria:

Scale (Importance)

How big is the problem? How many people are affected, and how deeply? High-scale issues cause thousands of deaths or affect millions of lives. The larger and more severe the problem, the more important it becomes to address.

Solvability (Tractability)

Are there clear, feasible ways to make progress? A cause is tractable when evidence-based interventions exist such that additional funding translates into measurable results. Tractability means seeing a clear path to impact through proven technologies, policies, or programs.

Neglectedness

Is the cause underfunded relative to its importance? When relatively few resources target a problem, additional donations make bigger differences. Mass childhood immunisation receives major government and foundation funding, so new philanthropists might find more "room for impact" in less crowded areas.

Cost-Effectiveness

This ties the above criteria together, asking how much good each ₹1 crore accomplishes. High-impact causes typically offer cost-effective interventions where donations save lives or achieve significant outcomes at relatively low costs. Cost-effectiveness tends to be high when causes combine large scale, neglectedness, and tractability.

Top Global Causes for 2025

Preventable Diseases and Global Health

Global health represents one of the highest-impact cause areas. Approximately 10 million people in low-income countries die annually from easily preventable or treatable diseases. These include malaria, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, and neonatal infections. Proven solutions exist: vaccinations, micronutrient supplementation, mosquito nets, basic sanitation, and primary care could avert millions of deaths at relatively low cost.

"Infectious diseases, shown on the left, were most common, killing an estimated 2.17 million children annually. This includes respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, malaria, and meningitis. These figures are astonishing because many of these causes are preventable. With vaccination, basic medication, rehydration treatment, nutrition supplementation, and neonatal healthcare, a large share of child deaths could be prevented."

GiveWell evaluations show that funding programs for vaccination, deworming, newborn health, maternal health, and nutrition can save lives for between 1500-5000 USD. Health improvements create cascading benefits as children who survive and stay healthy attend school and become economically productive adults, though these effects involve more uncertainty.

For Indian philanthropists, supporting disease control, immunisation, or health policy through high-impact charities advances both global welfare and India's development goals. The combination of proven interventions and clear metrics makes this an area where additional funding translates directly into lives saved.

Climate, Air Pollution, and Clean Energy

Climate change affects India disproportionately while requiring global solutions. Carbon emissions continue rising, with projections of millions of avoidable deaths and vast disruption in the coming decades. India experiences 2 million premature deaths annually from air pollution, making this both a domestic priority and a global concern. Globally, air pollution is the second largest risk factor for mortality.

Emissions are rising rapidly in India. With 3.02 billion metric tons of CO2 emitted in 2022, it was ranked the third largest emitter globally, accounting for 8.10% of global emissions. If things continue without intervention, projected emissions are expected to reach 7.4 billion tons yearly in the next 25 years. Most of these emissions come from the energy and heat production sector, which contributes to over 50% of total CO2 emitted.

Air pollution represents a severely neglected cause despite its massive impact. Between 2015 and 2021, only about 1% of international development funding and 0.1% of foundation philanthropy targeted air pollution, despite causing 7-8 million deaths annually. This imbalance means philanthropic dollars achieve exceptional leverage through air quality monitors, policy advocacy, and pollution control solutions.

Our research partners Open Philanthropy and Giving Green identify India as an important country on the global climate landscape due to its high emissions and techno-policy research potential. Indian philanthropists can support research and policy engagement that accelerates clean energy adoption globally while using expertise relevant to India's transition.

Systems change climate initiatives offer exceptional returns. Conservative estimates suggest donations to policy research and technology development can be at least 10 times more effective than direct interventions. Solar cost declines from over $100 per watt to under $0.50 demonstrate how philanthropic investment in research and demonstration creates market transformations affecting billions. Energy production is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, followed by agriculture and manufacturing. Innovation and research in these industries will take us closer to international climate goals.

Grants accelerating India's clean energy transition, de-risking renewable projects, supporting decarbonisation of industries, promoting electric vehicles, or managing crop residue to prevent stubble burning would lower carbon emissions while immediately improving air quality. Many climate solutions double as clean air solutions. Reducing fossil fuel use cuts greenhouse gases while curbing health-damaging pollution.

Despite all these opportunities, ClimateWorks notes that climate mitigation remains underfunded, receiving under 2% of global philanthropic giving. This underscores opportunities for donors to step into a critical gap.

Impactful Giving has partnered with Vasudha Foundation and CSTEP to help advance technologies for climate transition.

Vasudha Foundation is running the numbers on a straightforward switch: feed cement kilns and fertiliser reactors with clean-burning hydrogen instead of coal or gas. Their techno-economic models track how falling renewable-power and electrolyser prices could make this zero-carbon fuel stack up against today’s fossil heat. If the sums work, factories keep churning while the smokestacks stay clear. Government incentives, changing competitiveness to fossil fuels, and plant-level efficiencies can close that gap fast enough for early projects to make sense.

Another promising technology is agrophotovoltaics, which involves putting solar panels on tall frames over fields, allowing farmers to grow crops and generate electricity on the same land. Because plants stop using extra-bright noon light, the shade keeps them cooler and cuts water loss without hurting yields. CSTEP is testing panel spacing to ensure yields are optimised and costs are evaluated to see if the added power income can boost farmers’ profits.

Factory Farming and Animal Welfare

Animal welfare affects trillions of animals annually in factory farming systems while remaining severely neglected. India's position as the world's third-largest egg producer, with 460 million hens in largely factory-farmed conditions, makes this both a domestic and global priority. Each crore directed to animal welfare might spare tens of thousands of animals from suffering or help catalyse food system changes, eventually affecting trillions of animal lives. This represents exceptional cost-effectiveness given the vast numbers affected per rupee spent.

Farmed animal welfare, wild animal welfare, and marine animal welfare are significantly overlooked sectors within the animal welfare domain. Certain interventions in these areas offer public health, biosecurity, and climate co-benefits, potentially making them highly cost-effective causes.

High-impact opportunities include:

Ending worst farming practices: Funding advocacy to ban battery cages for hens or gestation crates for pigs can improve millions of animals' lives. Corporate campaigns have secured commitments from major food companies to go cage-free, efforts that philanthropists worldwide have supported. These policy changes are tractable and cost-effective, given the huge numbers affected per rupee spent.
Alternative proteins & dairy alternatives: Supporting plant-based and cultivated meat development can eventually replace factory farming. This involves grant funding for open-access R&D on lab-grown meat or scaling plant-based protein startups. India's tech and entrepreneurial talent can contribute, with philanthropy seeding innovations that markets might initially underinvest in. This cause has a massive upside on climate change as well.

India is the largest beef producer with an annual production of 4.47 million metric tons of beef. Every kilogram of beef leads to 99.48 kg of emissions. With overall emissions from beef production at 444.676 million metric tons, this is more than half of India's agricultural emissions and just about 100 million shy of India's entire manufacturing and construction sector.

India is also the largest dairy consumer and producer, with an annual production of milk at 121 million tonnes. This means 370 million tonnes CO₂ is the greenhouse gas footprint. For scale, 0.37 Giga tonne CO₂ is about 13% of India’s 2023 energy sector CO₂ emissions (2.8 Giga tonne).

Organisational capacity: Boosting effective animal charity budgets has high leverage. Organisations working on fish welfare, chicken vaccination programs, and legal animal protection in India operate on minimal funds. Scaling these efforts could greatly reduce animal suffering. Donors in the Farmed Animal Funders network account for most funding in this space, indicating how additional donors can have an outsized influence.

The connection between factory farming and global health risks makes this particularly relevant for Indian donors concerned about pandemic preparedness. Intensive animal agriculture contributes to antibiotic resistance and creates conditions for zoonotic disease emergence.

Emerging Risks: Biosecurity and AI Safety

Some of humanity's gravest threats are low-probability but high-consequence risks that could destabilise the world. In 2025, two areas stand out: global biosecurity and risks from advanced artificial intelligence.

Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness

COVID-19 killed an estimated 15-20 million people worldwide and caused trillions in economic damage. Future pandemics could be worse, especially with advancing bioengineering capabilities. As 80,000 Hours notes, pandemics rank among history's deadliest events, and biotechnology developments may lower barriers to creating devastating pathogens.

Despite COVID-19's wake-up call, philanthropic support for biosecurity remains relatively small. Governments bear primary responsibility for public health but face political constraints and move slowly. Philanthropy can play a critical complementary role in funding cutting-edge disease surveillance, rapid vaccine platform development, better protective equipment technology, and stronger global biosecurity frameworks.

Open Philanthropy has committed over $250 million to biosecurity since 2015, supporting virus early-detection networks and governance around risky research. Indian donors could join such efforts or back local initiatives leveraging India's large scientific community in vaccine R&D and genomic surveillance.

The convergence of AI and biotechnology creates both opportunities and risks. AI-enabled protein design could accelerate medical countermeasure development against future pandemics, while the same tools could potentially be misused for biological weapons. Supporting responsible development requires international coordination that Indian donors could help facilitate.

Advanced AI Risks

AI technology progresses rapidly—we might see AI systems in the next 10-20 years that outperform humans in nearly all intellectual tasks. This could bring tremendous benefits through scientific breakthroughs and economic growth, but leading experts warn of severe risks if AI behaves in unintended or malicious ways.

Scenarios range from AI empowering authoritarian surveillance or autonomous weapons to "misaligned" AI causing catastrophic accidents or escaping human control. These possibilities have led researchers to rank AI among the top existential risks. Organisations like Anthropic and OpenAI acknowledge AI's potential for both tremendous benefit and catastrophic risk.

Because this is an emerging issue, funding for AI safety and governance has been limited primarily to tech companies and specialised funders. Targeted philanthropy can have an outsized impact by supporting technical AI safety research, funding think tanks developing AI governance strategies, and building talent pipelines in AI ethics and policy.

Recent large grants have launched institutes for AI policy and safety, such as Open Philanthropy's $55 million grant to Georgetown's Centre for Security and Emerging Technology. Yet the field remains nascent compared to AI transformation. Indian philanthropists, many with a tech background, might contribute by endowing research chairs at Indian universities for AI ethics, funding global conferences bridging East-West perspectives on AI governance, or investing in AI for good applications.

Emerging global risks score extremely high on the scale (runaway AI or engineered pathogens could affect everyone) and neglectedness (few actors funding preventive work proportional to risk). Tractability is more debatable. We cannot eliminate these risks, but clear sub-goals exist, like better tech safety measures, stronger international norms, and early detection systems.

Strategic Approaches for Indian Donors

Effective global giving requires moving beyond traditional charitable approaches toward strategic, evidence-based philanthropy. Successful donors adopt portfolio thinking, balancing high-confidence interventions with higher-risk, higher-reward opportunities.

Start with Effective Giving Platforms

Organisations like GiveWell, Open Philanthropy, and Founders Pledge provide extensively researched recommendations. GiveWell has directed over $518 million to top charities, while Founders Pledge members have pledged $10.3 billion, with $1.4 billion already donated. Our partnerships with these evaluators offer Indian donors access to world-class research without requiring individual organisation vetting.

Leverage Tax Benefits Strategically

Section 80G of India's Income Tax Act provides deductions up to 50% or 100% of donated amounts to eligible organisations. Strategic donors structure contributions to maximise both tax benefits and impact by supporting Indian organisations working on global causes or international organisations with Indian partnerships.

Consider Co-Funding Opportunities

Major foundations increasingly seek co-funders for large initiatives. The US-India Clean Energy Finance facility demonstrates how Indian and international philanthropists can collaborate on shared priorities. Such partnerships provide learning opportunities while increasing total impact.

Embrace Hits-Based Giving

Like venture capital, effective philanthropy recognises that most interventions will have modest returns while a few achieve extraordinary impact. This approach allows donors to support both proven interventions and promising innovations.

Support Movement Building

Organisations like India Climate Collaborative and the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy build local capacity while addressing global challenges. Supporting such institutions creates multiplier effects by developing expertise that addresses multiple causes over time.

The key is starting with one cause area and deepening expertise over time. Whether focusing on global health, climate, animal welfare, or emerging risks, sustained engagement allows donors to maximise learning and impact while building networks that amplify individual contributions.

Conclusion

India's growing philanthropic community has an unprecedented opportunity to address global challenges. By applying rigorous evaluation criteria, leveraging Indian expertise, and thinking systemically about global problems, Indian donors can create impact far beyond their resources.

The highest-impact global causes combine massive scale, significant neglectedness, and clear pathways for progress. These represent areas where Indian philanthropy can make a genuine global difference while building expertise relevant to India's own development challenges. The framework exists. The opportunities are clear. The next step is choosing your cause, conducting research, and beginning to give strategically.