October 28, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Alex Counts
Executive Director, India Philanthropy Alliance
mobile: 202-257-8739
email: alex@indiaphilanthropyalliance.org

Leaders in American Philanthropy to India Celebrate Progress & Issue Bold Call to Action

Nearly 200 leaders Gathered in San Francisco on October 2 at the Indian Consulate

Washington, DC, USA, October 28 – At the Philanthropy Summit organized by Indiaspora and the India Philanthropy Alliance, more than 170 leaders reviewed and celebrated new data showing significant growth in Indian-American philanthropy and strategized how to build on this progress and accelerate the scaling up of proven solutions to human development and ecological stewardship in India. On behalf the participants, IPA and Indiaspora issued the following communiqué.

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Indiaspora-IPA Philanthropy Summit Communiqué

San Francisco, California

October 28, 2025

We, more than 170 leaders in the vibrant U.S.-India philanthropy corridor who gathered on October 2, joyfully celebrated Gandhi Jayanti and the impressive growth, remarkable maturation, and still untapped potential of American philanthropy to India and of Indian-American giving in general. We reflected on how appropriate it was to be focused on service on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, given how his inspirational life has shaped the values of the participating leaders.

The Summit—organized by Indiaspora and the India Philanthropy Alliance (IPA)—used some formats that were new and exciting as a symbol of the innovative nature of civil society organizations in India and the United States, especially those represented in this historic convening. Indeed, this communiqué was written collaboratively by those in attendance.

We were graciously welcomed by the Honorable Dr. K. Srikar Reddy, the Indian Consul General, who reminded everyone in his remarks that philanthropy has a crucial role to play in the future of both India and the United States, and he emphasized the growing capacity the embassy and consulates have to serve Indians in America and also Americans seeking to engage with India.   

We had a spirited and respectful debate about the meaningfulness of using overhead (administrative costs) as a way of comparing nonprofit organizations. In the end, we concluded that it is important to give not just with your heart but your mind, and that efficiency is not the same as effectiveness. In addition, we reaffirmed our commitment to openly debating critical issues in our field as part of our collective emphasis on continuous improvement for the benefit of our clients and accelerating progress towards a poverty-free India living in harmony with its rich ecological heritage and providing leadership to other nations around the world.

We were encouraged by the findings in the newly released IPA-Indiaspora report conducted by Dalberg about the impressive growth of Indian American Diaspora (IAD) philanthropy since a similar study was released in 2018. We celebrated that the diaspora has continued to set the pace for volunteerism in the United States while remarkably closing the giving gap—defined as the difference between what the IAD actually gives and what it would donate if it did so at the rate of all Americans, adjusted for income approximately $2.5 billion and now is 2024-2025 is down to $1 billion in just six years (the survey respondents reported on their giving patterns in 2024). The study also showed that Indian Americans have essentially tripled their giving in just 6 years to $4-5 billion, and that the richest in the diaspora are now giving at higher rates than average Americans. This achievement represents the fulfillment of a bold vision articulated in 2018 at the first of this Summit series by noted philanthropist Sunil Wadhwani.   

We acknowledged the important role of initiatives such as India Giving Day and GivingPi in achieving this progress, as well as prior research in setting the agenda for growth. We committed ourselves to closing the giving gap entirely and setting a new standard for generosity in the years ahead for both the quantity and quality of giving. We agreed that accountability exercises such as this follow-up study are an integral part of Indian American philanthropy and should become even more common. 

We were also given a preview of the Using Data and Research to Advance Everyday Giving in India (UDARTA-EG) collaborative study from GivingTuesday India. This action research provides practical insights on how nonprofits in India can engage everyday givers in fundraising and volunteering and build stronger, more sustainable relationships with the communities they serve. The UDARTA-EG research underlines the immense potential of engaging everyday givers, but also the need to support nonprofits in India to do so effectively – a meaningful opportunity for philanthropy and funders to strengthen India’s social sector. 

We heard from philanthropy leaders as they interacted with the audience of other leaders. They shared their views about topics such as centering the lived experiences of local communities and the importance of patient capital.

We recommitted ourselves to engaging youthful and next generation (NextGen) donors philanthropists, inspired by the presence, words, and ideas of Aneesh Gupta  from Carmel, Indiana and Eesha Kondapalli from Cary, North Carolina—the winners of IPA's sixth annual Youth Essay Competition, which generated nearly 200 submitted essays this year, the most ever. We celebrated these decisions of these youth to direct $1,000 donations to CRY America and the Stray Animal Foundation of India, respectively. 

We explored how Silicon Valley's business culture can be positively incorporated into the work of leading nonprofits, and conversely how philanthropic culture can influence Silicon Valley. We concluded that the philanthropy sector has much to learn from Silicon Valley but that philanthropy leaders must make it clear that  technology has in-built biases that can be corrected by involving marginalized populations. Technologists often assume that problems are based on information asymmetries but they are often, in reality, power asymmetries. 

We had a panel focused on reaching breadth versus  depth of impact which  was selected from among a few  alternatives by the participants. This session, proposed and chaired by Neha Gupta of Teach for India-U.S., gave those attending the Summit added inspiration and motivation to focus on depth of impact first, and also on replicability and scale. . Furthermore, we emphasized that partnership is the new leadership, and open source public goods open up profound opportunities for collaboration.    

We heard from Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who shared his vision for philanthropy in his capacity as a national leader of Indian origin. He emphasized that Indian Americans have “arrived” in that they are the fastest growing and best educated ethnic group in the United States. He urged everyone, regardless of party affiliation, to vote and to run for office.

Desh Deshpande, the closing keynote speaker, channeled the life and wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi to both applaud the participants while exhorting them to embody Gandhi-ji’s core principles of truth, non-violence, trusteeship and service. He said that were Gandhi to be alive today, he would be both amazed and concerned. He would want the very best aspects of business and nonprofit cultures to be combined for community benefit.

We were excited to incorporate the use of the Slido app to facilitate audience engagement, especially given how many prominent leaders were in attendance but were unable to speak from the stage.  One of the hallmarks of the entire summit was how engaged the audience was and how interactive every session was.  

In closing, leaders of IPA and Indiaspora thanked all of those who made the Summit possible, especially Amita Siddiqui and Nirmala Garimella (who served as masters of ceremony at the Summit), the Sehgal Foundation, and the Summit Planning Committee led by Nalini Saligram, founder of Arogya World, and including Alex Counts of IPA, Neha Dewan of Indiaspora, Neha Gupta of Teach for India-U.S., Meenakshi Mahajan of IPA, Preeti Nandanar of Aarti for Girls USA, Ushree Roy of Vicente Ferrer Foundation USA, Shoba Viswanathan of Indiaspora. 

The essential leadership of Deepak Raj, the chairman of IPA, and MR Rangaswami and Sanjeev Joshipura, the founder and Executive Director of Indiaspora respectively, was also acknowledged. Finally, we expressed gratitude to the Sehgal Foundation and the Indiaspora member network for supporting the Summit financially, and to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Jain Family Foundation, and Avestar Capital for their essential support of India Giving Day.

Those attending the Summit were reminded that the fourth India Giving Day campaign was launched during the Summit, with applications for participating nonprofits due by October 31and the annual day of giving to be held March 13, 2026, and the Forum For Good organized by Indiaspora will take place in Bangalore March 22-25. The participants committed to using the IGD campaign and the Forum, among other initiatives and events, to make American giving to India more prolific, higher impact, and more joyful.

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