Living My Promise
(or why hundreds of people are bent on giving away their wealth)
125+ people in India have promised to give away fifty percent of their lifetime wealth away to charity. And more and more people are doing this. What’s happening?
The other day I was part of a remarkable meet put together by SVP India, which featured ordinary folks, who had decided that they had earned enough in life, and were now wanting to help beyond the narrow confines of their family.
They were all a part of a movement-cum-commitment called Living My Promise (#LMP). And all these promisors are people who have committed to give 50% of their lifetime wealth away to social causes.
Promisors Fiona Dias and Luis Miranda say “Mahatma Gandhi said that we hold our monies in trust for others. The fact that there is extreme poverty around us is morally objectionable and we cannot sit around doing nothing about that. We don’t have the means to solve all the world’s problems, but we can definitely do our small bit to help reduce some of them.”
Meenakshi Ramesh and Ramesh Mangaleswaran say “We have received so much more than we had ever dreamed of, and so much more than we need. Hearts filled with gratitude, we commit to giving back to India and her citizens.”
Urvi Gupta, daughter of Anshu (Founding Director of Goonj) and Meenakshi Gupta, says “I am proud to be a daughter of parents who are selfless enough to give away so much of their wealth for causes dear to them.”
When Parag Aggarwal and his entire family decided to commit to #LMP, they said “Today is the happiest day of our lives. On Buddha’s Birth anniversary (May 7th, 2020), and with the blessings of our parents, our family has decided to share 50% of our net worth with society. This will be used to help the most vulnerable – this is a very broad definition, and we have decided to help children, and the voiceless animals (whose suffering is closely linked to the health of our planet).”
What is #LivingMyPromise?
#LivingMyPromise is an effort to help address society’s most pressing problems by inviting India’s well-to-do individuals and families to commit to giving equal to or more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes either during their lifetime or in their will.
The initiative invites people who have a minimum net worth of Rs one crore to participate. While #LivingMyPromise is about ordinary people, one of the goals is to ensure that those promising are committing a significant amount of money to charity.
The promise is entirely moral and has no formal mechanism to verify it.
The normal question which arises now is why the donation is fixed at 50% of one’s wealth and not, say 25% or 75%?
The #LMP website gives an insight to the question:
“People are inspired when they see others doing something extraordinary. We are more inspired by people who take a 50-90% cut in pay to switch to the social sector, than those who take a 10-25% cut in pay. Similarly, we are more inspired by people who donate 90% of their earnings than those who give away 10% of it. #LivingMyPromise is aimed at middle and upper middle class Indians and we have picked 50% of wealth as the benchmark to push middle class Indians to aspire towards. Any middle/ upper middle class Indian giving away 50% of their wealth is effectively accepting a standard of living for themselves much lower than they could if they chose not to give. Giving 10-25% may not involve a change in standard of living and is far less inspiring for others- this forms the basis of our choice of 50% as the benchmark. The percentage is more important than the total amount of money, since someone with a net worth of Rs 1 cr giving 50 lacs is as valuable as someone with a net worth of Rs 100 cr giving Rs 50 cr, whereas someone with a networth of Rs 100 cr giving Rs1cr in their lifetime doesn’t belong to the same group at all.”The segment who are most affected when a couple gives their wealth away are the children. What do they have to say?
Khashiff Miranda says “That wealth is my parent’s, and it’s their decision to do what they want to do with it. They have educated me - what else can I want?”
Urvi Gupta says “I am proud of what it says about my parents. And now I am talking to parents of my friends to make them aware of #LivingMyPromise!”
None of the children blinked an eye when their parents took that decision.
#LivingMyPromise does take its inspiration from Giving Pledge, launched by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. While the Giving Pledge invited the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back, the Indian adaptation is more broad-based. #LMP hopes to create a culture of giving and a community of “givers” that is not restricted to a few billionaires.
Sensing that many are scared of committing because of the uncertainties in future needs, #LMP offers a spreadsheet to help people calculate how much they will need to meet their personal expenses for the rest of their life. You can get the spreadsheet here.
Former CEO of Genpact Pramod Bhasin, who signed up in July 2020, said in The Economic Times: “I am under no illusion that my success is only because of my hard work; there are so many other factors — luck, timing, upbringing, privileges. So how can I hoard the wealth for myself. The sheer possession of wealth is meaningless; it doesn’t help the economy or the society. There is a flaw in our thinking when we put people who have accumulated wealth on a pedestal and not appreciate people for their ability to give.”
Those who take the pledge make a commitment publicly and share a statement explaining their decision. The promise is to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes either during their lifetime or in their will. It is not legally binding but there is moral commitment.
Then. At Home.
After the session, I broached the topic on the dining table that night. And what ensued was a lively discussion.
My parents were filled with consternation.My wife had numerous queries.
“ What if you fall sick and the treatment is expensive?” (Ma, it can be willed, so the money is not disappearing”)
“What if your son is not able to fend for himself? Won’t he require support?” (Dad, the balance 50% can be willed to him after the #LMP pledge.”)
“But I would like to give support to our household help and their children. How will that be covered? (Love, that’s help to a cause too, isn’t it? That will count).
I could sense that giving is a journey, where a commitment like #LMP is a station some would be willing to include in their itinerary. But it could start with small pledges, like the one we take in SVP. But it’s a journey which each one of us, who have been blessed with good fortune and decent wealth, must take. It’s the only way to make a difference of substance. The only way we can celebrate our good fate.
Meenakshi & Anshu Gupta wrote this poem, about the social sector and what it means. I thought it would be lovely to end with this.
अगर नींद से प्यारा है सपना,
और ज़िद के साथ ले सकते हो जोख़िम
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर शुरू कर सकते हो अकेले,
और बढ़ने के लिए नहीं ढूंढोगे सहारा
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर भरोसा है खुद पर,
और अविश्वास नहीं है जग पर
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर चल सकते हो अनथक,
और छाव का इंतज़ार नहीं है
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर भूख लगे और याद आए भूखा,
और प्यास पर, तालाब एक सूखा
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर आँख नहीं है पर दृष्टि है,
तन का एक भाग नहीं है, पर मस्ती है
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर नहीं चाहते आग लगाना,
और चिंगारी है एक मकसद
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है …
अगर नींद से प्यारा है सपना,
और ज़िद के साथ ले सकते हो जोख़िम
तो यह जगह तुम्हारी है…
(taken from the #LMP website)
Interested? Intrigued?
The Living My Promise website is here.
The financial calculator is here.
If you wish to contact someone personally to know more, do write in to Gunjan Thaney at Gunjant.iwt@gmail.com
Informative and inspiring, Sunil. Thanks for this!