In the last post, I discussed the religious giving trends of Pakistan. Religious giving represents a major chunk of philanthropy in Pakistan - roughly around 70-80% of the total donations. Charity for social causes or natural and man made disasters comes second. Social philanthropy is not a very developed concept in Pakistan, both in the masses as well as the corporate sector. Let me remind you that the masses can’t give much as Pakistan already has abnormally high rate of those living below and just at the peripheries of poverty line.

Corporate sector, on the other hand, has the resources to help. Donations for organizations working in the field of education, health and general uplift have seen a steady increase in recent years. While many NGOs are dependent on foreign funding for their operations, some are also receiving significant corporate donations. However, many corporate entities are still reluctant to open their coffers for social causes.

I see two reasons for this. Firstly they are afraid of spending too much on these organizations which, according to their point of view, might hurt their earnings. Second reason for this apparent lackluster giving pattern is the lack of confidence on the NPOs. This lack of confidence stems from the credibility issues faced by many in the social sector. There had been instances in the past where some NPOs were found out to be filling their own bank accounts instead of doing good for the humanity. However, with more monitoring and awareness created by media, such entities have died their natural death.

As for the disaster related philanthropy, Pakistanis have never faltered. The tragic earthquake of 2005 is a living testimony of that. While no concrete survey has been done yet on the total donations of Pakistanis (both by individuals and the corporate sector) but they are estimated to be over $1 billion. Millions of Pakistanis volunteered in the relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Imran Khan, a former Cricketer, was able to collect millions of dollars when he aspired to built a cancer hospital for the poor some 16 years ago. He was worshiped like a god at that time and hence was able to get donations from all and sundry. The Lahore-based hospital is now running successfully with public donations and is also planning expansion into other cities.

This success story with roots in celebrity worship mentality also prompted other people, mainly sportsmen and showbiz personnels, to start their social ventures and all of them got a huge response from the public. Of late, these stars have started running live Telethons on local TV channels where people can talk to them and the call is charged for donations.

Proper channelization and more importantly regulation of donations still remains an issue as during the 2005 earthquake millions of dollars were donated to Jihadi organizations as they were advertising that they are doing the relief work in the affected areas. We don’t know if that amount was actually spent on rehabilitation or on some dirty work. Similarly, we saw a growth of NPOs during that time which promoted themselves as champions of humanity but ran away with people’s hard earned money. Common Pakistanis, despite all their sufferings, are a giving nation. What we need is a little training and regulation and this giving tendency can do wonders.

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