Pay That It Takes

On 19 October 2021, Bridgespan India and Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) organised a virtual Roundtable Discussion on “Pay That It Takes”  from 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm.  

In early 2021, Bridgespan India published a research report titled “Building Strong, Resilient NGOs in India: Time for New Funding Practices”. The study that involved a survey with 388 NGO representatives of the sector and financial analyses of 40 leading and relatively well-funded NGOs, highlighted a clear pattern of chronic underfunding leading to severe financial stress. 

This new research describes the magnitude of what NGO leaders called “systemic deprivation.” It concludes that Indian funders broadly share practices that inadequately fund NGOs’ true costs, rendering the sector perpetually subscale. For the most part, funders prefer to write checks for programme support, leaving critical non-programme-related expenses underfunded. Those include indirect costs associated with shared administrative or support functions, capacity building expenses associated with organisational growth, and reserves needed to sustain the organisation in times of revenue shortfall or unforeseen shocks. Several stakeholders described the typical funder mindset as anything that goes outside of programme costs does not contribute to impact. 

 The purpose of this virtual Roundtable is to discuss the salient findings from this research study along with experiences of other NGOs, as well as to suggest a few critical steps for building robust evidences and strategizing meaningful communications with Indian philanthropic communities.