Our Mission Statement

The need for a smart of giving culture

Underlying everything Given does is the belief that equity or "equal opportunity" is the cornerstone to civilization. Every human being must have roughly the same opportunity to succeed in life, irrespective of where or how s/he is born.

Unfortunately, this tends to not be true. The last two decades have witnessed a widening of the gap between the rich and poor in India. While the poor in India don't get a fair chance to succeed in life (lack of access to decent education, healthcare and livelihood opportunities), the well-off continue to enjoy benefits from a globalizing economy- greater incomes, reducing taxes, 100% inheritance, etc. The net result is a ticking time-bomb of growing social unrest

Smart of Giving believes that a caring and sensitive well-to-do section can change this without waiting for the situation to explode. To quote Prof William Sandstorms, "?although the pursuit of distributive justice is often thought to require a political or collective response, we should not allow this to let us off the hook when it comes to personal morality. Each of us could probably afford to give much more to private, charitable efforts to alleviate poverty and suffering. Indeed, given the failure of our political leaders to provide anywhere near an adequate response, private action has become indispensable."