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Non-profit organisation Giving platform GiveIndia launched ‘India Covid Response Fund’ (ICRF) with initial donations of ₹75 crore to support the on-ground Covid-19 relief efforts being carried out by its network of verified non-profits.
The fund will use a data-backed approach to identify the most critical areas of intervention pan India. GiveIndia has appealed to individuals and companies to come forward and support the ICRF in order to enable creation of a larger corpus that can support up to 10 million people nationally.
Govind Iyer, Director, GiveIndia and Advisor, ICRF said, “Since we started fundraising for Covid-19 relief work on March 22, we have received donations from more than two lakh people globally, raised ₹75 crore, partnered with over 40 organisations, onboarded 100+ nonprofits, and these initial efforts will impact 1 million people.”
He said, “However, the on-ground requirement is much larger and our fund is an open platform for all of us to come together and support the most critical need of the hour.”
Some of the early donors to the fund include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google.org, HSBC India, Omidyar Network India, UBS Optimus Foundation, Marico, Uber India (through Uber Care driver fund), Binny Bansal and ATE Chandra Foundation. Other partners in the collective are CSIP from Ashoka University, Bridgespan, Indiaspora, Sattva, Dasra and IIFL Wealth. GiveIndia has also launched a fundraiser on Facebook and invited Indians from all walks of life to come forward and join the initiative.
An expert ddvisory group has been set up to guide fundraise and allocations, including Devi Shetty, (Chairman, Narayana Health), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Chairman, Biocon), Sanjiv Mehta (Chairman, HUL), Surendra Rosha (CEO, HSBC India), Binny Bansal (co-founder, Flipkart), Manoj Kohli (Country Head, Softbank), Amitabh Chaudhry (CEO, Axis Bank), Shilpa Kumar (Investment Partner, Omidyar Network India), Ingrid Srinath (Director, CSIP, Ashoka University), Arun Seth (former Chairman-BT), Amita Chauhan (Chairperson, SVP Mumbai), Shailesh Haribhakti (CA), Haigreve Khaitan (Managing Partner, Khaitan & Co), V Vaidyanathan (MD and CEO, IDFC First Bank), Neeraj Aggarwal (Head APAC, BCG) and Karan Bhagat (MD & CEO, IIFL Wealth).
ICRF will focus on preventing the spread of the coronavirus, providing humanitarian aid, supporting our health workers and enabling the Covid-hit families to rebuild their livelihoods. GiveIndia will be working with and supporting non-profits across health, disaster relief, rural livelihoods, etc including Akshaya Patra, Goonj, HelpAge India, ActionAid, Oxfam, CRY, and Srijan through this fund.
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