While a lot of philanthropists donate a significant amount of their wealth to charity work, Living My Promise is a social initiative which inspires people with above Rs1 crore of wealth to donate 50% of their wealth for various charity works. More than 200 people from across the country have become promissors as a part of this initiative.
LivingMyPromise is a community of like-minded Indians who believe in giving back to society. The initiative helps and invites advantaged people, with a net worth of above Rs1 crore, to commit to giving 50% or more of their wealth to philanthropic causes either during their lifetime or in their will.
The initiative is based on the charitable campaign The Giving Pledge, founded by Bills Gates and Warren Buffet, to encourage wealthy people to donate majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. While only five Indians have promised their wealth under The Giving Pledge, LivingMyPromise started in 2018 with six people and has already become a community of over 200 people, who have promised half of their wealth towards charity.
LivingMyPromise is a diverse community of promisors which include retired government professionals, corporate professionals as well as social sector professionals whose net worth ranges from Rs4 crores to several hundred crores. These people have promised at least half of their wealth to charity and some of them have even promised 80% of their wealth.
Gunjan Thaney, the founder of LivingMyPromise, was earlier a professional associated with the wealth management industry to provide ideas to people to increase their wealth. “My career as a wealth management professional used to be about how my client can make more money. From helping people make more money to helping them give more, my life has come full circle. I believe that if billionaires can promise half of their wealth for charity, people from the middle class and upper middle class, who feel that they have made enough, can also do it,” she said.
The highlight of this community is that the causes, organisations or activities the promises support are entirely upon their choice and the community acts only as an inspiration to the promisors. While majority of these people have promised to support education and healthcare, others have promised for varied causes like animal welfare, promoting volunteerism, rejuvenation of water bodies and others.
The promisors can donate the money in parts or all at once during their lifetime or also as a form of will. One of the many examples is a young salaried professional, who donates half of his wealth for the education of tribal students. Promisors also get into organic collaboration like the constitution of a Freedom Fund by a few promisors, who provide monthly grants to non-government organisations (NGOs).
Govind Iyer, board member at Social Venture Partners, said, “I believe that all I have got in my life is because of the goodness of others which includes my parents, teachers, wife and friends who were there for me. After providing financially for my family to lead a reasonable life, I would like to do what I can to make the world a better place, and hence have signed up for LivingMyPromise. I decided to make the promise because it is the best way to focus and commit my efforts towards helping the country and the cause of philanthropy.”
“From being born in the right enlightened homes, to getting the best education to getting the right breaks in career or even in personal life, I believe that some of it was earned but much of it was just pure luck and not everyone else has been as lucky as us. The one way of repaying the debt of the universe is giving back to make a lot of those who did not get the same share of good luck and happiness as we did. Hopefully, what I leave will contribute in a very small way in making the world more equitable, a world where no child is vulnerable, hungry or unhappy and a world where all humans look forward to the future with hope,” said Usha Thakar, a homemaker, who has promised half of her wealth.
