Causes of Concern and Care to Which Second and Third Generation South Asians Give Philanthropically
From combating climate concerns and saving democratic rights to initiatives that promote emotional and mental health and immigrant rights-the issues of attention for philanthropy and work for the second and third generation Indian Americans are varied and vast in scope and scale.
Another common theme in subjects of interest where the second and third generation Indian American professionals like to devote themselves altruistically are not just concerns with vast societal reach but also the issues that affect them or move them at a personal level. They like to direct their work towards these causes and their philanthropic dollars towards organizations affiliated to working on new, viable and/or scalable solutions to these issues.
Angeli Patel, Berkeley Center For Law and Business
Challenges That The World Faces
“I work on a lot of economic issues like sustainable capitalism and that is what my work has focused on at our academic center,” says Angeli Patel, Executive Director at Berkeley Center for Law and Business.
“The world is facing a number of challenges, including climate change, social injustices, and a changing workforce. These challenges are complex and interconnected, and they will require a concerted effort from all sectors of society to address them. Business has a unique role to play in meeting these challenges. With at-scale resources and talent, a focused business community can make a real difference. The Berkeley Center for Law and Business is committed to providing direction and dialogue to leverage the power of business to create a more sustainable and equitable world,” says Angeli.
“Philanthropically I have supported organizations helping the refugee crisis from Afghanistan and Gaza. I have helped initiatives like Wikipedia and some local political campaigns.” adds Angeli.
Gen Z and Millennials and Giving
“There is certainly an inclination and increased awareness among the Gen Z group to give more strategically, purposefully and thoughtfully. They want to align their businesses, professional fields and their passion areas to create social value and human centric impact,” opines Preena Soni, Lead-Community and Partnerships at RoundGlass Foundation.
Preena Soni, RoundGlass Foundation
She reiterates that Gen Z thinks more collaboratively, bringing their business acumen, social capital, and philanthropic capital together to create and sustain impact.
“The idea of impact, data-driven approaches and innovative solutions speak to them. They want to integrate the growing field of AI/ML and data science for social good. This generation also believes in the power of diversification of sources/approaches to give back and contribute - impact investment/ stocks/crypto and other forms of capital and increased investments in the issue areas such as climate, environment, health tech, edtech and democracy/citizen advocacy projects and following an intersectional approach,” says Soni.
In the spirit of directing his personal experiences on the need for emotional resiliency, Tarun Galagali has started a company named Mandala to help build resilient leaders. He worked at Google for five years before plunging into entrepreneurship. Tarun is currently bootstrapping his maiden venture.
Tarun Galagali, Entrepreneur and Founder
“If you're healthy mentally, you're way more resilient as an organization. We work directly with companies and help support their learning, development and talent management teams. We also work with universities. Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley is going to be offering a pilot program for their students.
For me the mission is very much tied to who I am,” says Tarun, a Harvard Business School graduate who grew up in the Bay Area and went to the east coast for higher education.
Besides his work venture tied to the mission of resilient leadership, Tarun supports Maitri- the Bay Area based domestic violence nonprofit offering culturally relevant support to victims of domestic violence from south Asian backgrounds and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for its work towards the rights of the undocumented immigrants and the protests against the Muslim ban.
Tarun has also donated to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation after his mom was diagnosed with multiple myeloma about six years ago.
His parents are a source of inspiration and motivation for understanding the importance of philanthropy early in life. One major difference is that while Tarun’s philanthropic dollars go to organizations based in the US, his parents support nonprofits based out of India.
Passion for a Purpose
“I think our generation, far more than any generation in the past, has been exposed to the world's problems via the influx of social media. Due to the 24-hour news cycle, the coverage around topics has accelerated. I think I heard somewhere that the amount of news that happened in the year 1995 compared to the news that happened in two days of 2023 was equivalent. And to me that suggests that we're getting a lot of information from the world,” tells Tarun.
“Also, a growing disenchantment with a formula around life that seemed like it worked for previous generations, is compelling us to move in a more of a mission driven sense for our generation and there's some existentialism that exists in all people of our generation, where we see the absurdity of the universe and in life itself. We feel like the only thing we can do in this context to make meaning is to give back,” says Tarun.
Alex Counts, Non-Profit Founder and Independent Consultant to Nonprofit Organizations
“Young people generally, and second and third generation Indian Americans particularly, tend to have a strong orientation towards the issues of social justice and stewardship of the planet, especially climate change. They use technology creatively to get others involved, influence policy, raise money, and increase awareness. Unlike their elders, who are often astonished by the progress that Indian society has achieved since the 1980s, second and third generation Indian Americans compare the conditions they see when they visit India to their own life circumstances, rather than to some distant past in India,” says Alex Counts, Founder, Grameen Foundation and an Independent Consultant to Nonprofit Organizations.
He goes on to opine that the second and third generation South Asians in the US are shocked and disturbed by the poverty, gender discrimination, communal tensions, eldercare, and environmental stresses of South Asian nations. “Many members of the India Philanthropy Alliance have become adept at channeling the concerns that the young people express when they visit India into tangible steps that they can take to help,” adds Alex.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report titled “Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey” based on a survey of Indian-descent Americans born and raised in the United States (US) showed that second and third generation Indian-descent Americans have different sensibilities with respect to politics in India and politics closer to home. This demographic is also less engaged with India and more US-focused in their philanthropy than their parents’ generation.
Nisha Chaudry, a second generation Indian American from Foster City in California has worked with philanthropies like Resurge International- a global health non-profit with operations in India. But emphasizes her legacy philanthropic commitments towards organizations in the US via the adage “Charity has to begin at home.”
Shalini Kathuria Narang is a software professional and a freelance journalist. She has reported for national and international newspapers, magazines and news sites. She is also a poet and her poems have been published in several anthologies including Starry Nights: Poetry of Diaspora in Silicon Valley and Pixie Dust and All Things Magical. She is a monthly contributor to Masticadores USA and has been published on Spillwords Press and San Antonio Press. She is originally from New Delhi and currently resides in the Bay Area, California.
