Oxfam India has mobilized USD2 million from 70,000 individual donors in the country. This figure represents 10 percent of the non-governmental organization’s budget to be spent on local initiatives.
Secular, charitable giving is relatively new but rapidly growing in India. The trend now creates a culture of corporate altruism where businesses take up causes such as urban poverty, Business Standard reports.
“Raising local funds allows global charities to engage directly with high-level government officials, something unimaginable till a few years ago, when foreign charities were viewed by the official machinery as agents of western governments,” the article adds.
Oxfam India’s CEO Nisha Agrawal said that, as the charity loses its identity as a foreign entity, it gains the ability to lobby the government.