Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP ) was established in August 2001 under the aegis of Aga Khan Development Network. The purpose of the organization is to promote philanthropy in Pakistan especially the corporate philanthropy. PCP strives for partnerships between the public sector, the development agencies and the corporate sector so that all can chip in their resources for social uplift. Social Bridges conducted an interview with Mr. Eazaz Aslam Dar, Senior Program Manager of PCP, to know more about PCP.

Social Bridges: How would you define CSR?

Eazaz Dar: CSR is a term which encompasses many aspects. PCP is mainly covering the corporate philanthropy part of it. Corporate philanthropy can be defined as the donations in kind which the corporations give out for social causes. Mind you, this social investment is entirely different from charity.

Social Bridges: What’s the role of PCP in enhancing the corporate philanthropy in Pakistan?

Eazaz Dar: PCP basically conducts research work on all forms of philanthropy, including corporate philanthropy. It was established in 2001 under the auspices of Aga Khan Development Network. The purpose of the organization was to streamline the philanthropy efforts in Pakistan. When we started in 2001, hardly 18% of companies have CSR strategies. In 2006, the ratio went up to 54%. A few companies have also established CSR departments which was not the case a decade back or so. As far as PCP is concerned, we have devised ways, means and strategies for bridging the gap between the corporate sector, the NGOs and the government.

Social Bridges: If you can elaborate more on your efforts?

Eazaz Dar: We’re doing a lot of work in the corporate philanthropy sector. When we started our work, there was huge distrust between the NGOs and the corporate sector. Companies were reluctant to donate to the NGOs as they were suspicious of them. Given these conditions, PCP started an NPO Certification Program where we certify that the activities of an NGO are valid and actually helpful in social uplift, among other things. In this way, we were able to bridge the gap between the NGOs and the corporate sector. Secondly, philanthropy is useless if the troika between the public sector, the NGOs and the corporate sector is not developed. To gap this divide, PCP is conducting workshops and seminars thus bringing the stakeholders closer.

PCP, being an essentially research organization, has conducted a lot of surveys where we were able to find the philanthropy trends of Pakistani corporate sector, their views about philanthropy and their priorities for giving.

In 2006, we conducted a survey on the giving trends of Public Listed Companies (PLCs). The survey was based on the date contained in the annual audited reports of 546 public listed companies. We found that now 60% of the PLCs are involved in philanthropy whereas 54% PLCs were into giving in 2005. Contributions jumped from 1.6 billion in 2005 to Rs. 2.3 billion in 2006.

According to the survey, OGDCL ranked top by volume of donations as its giving was around 643 million whereas Sitara Energy Ltd. ranked top in donations as percentage of profit before taxes; 48.60% of total PBT. Other findings reveal that top 25 giving companies contributed 73% to total corporate philanthropy in 2006 as compared to 68% of 2005. 58% companies donated because they wanted recognition. This recognition also comes from the Pakistan Corporate Philanthropy Awards, a new initiative of PCP where we recognize the corporate giving.

Additionally, we have started a new initiative by the name of Going Beyond Business which is destined to become the new platform for intelligent corporate philanthropy. Our aim is to evoke interest and discourse amongst the corporate sector on good giving practices which could serve as a baseline and to document some guiding principles of good corporate giving practices.

Finally, we have developed the Philanthropy Portal which is an excellent place for donors to reach out to the most deserved organizations. Additionally, PCP is a member of many international donor agencies and philanthropists like GlobalGiving, Pearson PLC and Give2Asia, among others. We help these organizations in channelizing their philanthropic efforts in Pakistan.

Social Bridges: Let’s take a turn towards general philanthropy trends. In 1998, AKDN conducted a survey where they found that up to Rs. 70 billion were donated by Pakistanis in cash or volunteering. So do you have plans to conduct a similar survey?

Eazaz Dar: Let me tell you something. PCP was established under the aegis of AKF after that survey. Having said that, now as far as that survey is concerned, we are actually trying to involve the donor agencies to conduct a similar survey but are still unable to get any support. However, a smaller scale survey, under the Punjab government, is being conducted but that’s only limited to Punjab.

Social Bridges: PCP has also researched the factors affecting high net-worth giving. Do you think that Pakistani super rich are as considerate towards social causes as Bill Gates or Warren Buffet?

Eazaz Dar: We had some examples of super philanthropists like those you mentioned in the past but unfortunately we no longer have such super souls. PCP conducted a sample study sometime back where 40-50 people were interviewed but hardly 10 or so were actually interested in philanthropy, in true sense of the word.

Social Bridges: Critics of corporate philanthropy say that companies have found it as an easy way of advertising and PR. What’s your take on this?

Eazaz Dar: We can’t just plainly term the corporate philanthropy efforts as totally advertising and image building gimmicks. Similarly, we can’t also conclude that every corporate player is giving without any intentions. It’s a mixed game but most of the companies are actually interested in social investment. They want to give back to the society they are earning from.

Social Bridges: What future do you see of CSR in the next ten years? Can we expect that more Pakistani companies will come into the foray of corporate philanthropy and that too in a truly professional manner?

Eazaz Dar: CSR is still catching up in Pakistan. We can’t expect a sea change in the corporate philanthropy scene in the next ten years. We at PCP are pretty sure that more and more people and organizations will realize the importance of corporate philanthropy. I am not saying that we’ll lead this revolution as we are basically a research organization but we’ll continue our work and continue encouraging companies to adopt more viable CSR strategies.

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