Pay-What-It-Takes India Initiative

To address the chronic underfunding of NGOs in India, The Bridgespan Group has joined with leading philanthropies—A.T.E. Chandra Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, EdelGive Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Forbes Marshall—on the Pay-What-It-Takes India Initiative.

Research Publications & Toolkits

Funder Practices that Strengthen Nonprofit Resilience: Lessons from India

A set of Pay-What-It-Takes principles all funders can adopt to support strong, resilient nonprofit partners in India.

Building Strong, Resilient NGOs in India: Time for New Funding Practices

According to research, Indian funders broadly share practices that inadequately fund NGOs’ true costs, rendering the sector perpetually subscale. This report shares new practices that can change this.

How to Build an Organisational Development Plan Toolkit

This toolkit, designed by the Bridgespan Pay-What-It-Takes India initiative and its anchor partners, helps funders and NGOs address the challenges they face in assessing organisational development needs.

Bridging the Gap on Funding the True Costs of NGOs in India

A gap exists between funders’ perspectives on how much they support indirect costs and organisational development, and NGOs' perspectives on how much funders are willing to support it. This research can help bridge that divide.

Four steps funders should take to invest in organisational well-being

Naghma Mulla of EdelGive Foundation explains in India Development Review why it's time for the funding community to look inward and redesign their approach to grantmaking.

How to Overhaul Grantmaking in India

In Stanford Social Innovation Review, we describe how strenghtening relationships between funders and nonprofits, and investing in capacity, will create more resilient organisations and drive more impact.

Grantmaking must become more inclusive

Traditional funding structures often overlook the unique needs and challenges of smaller nonprofits serving historically marginalised communities. As we argue in India Development Review, this needs to change.

Four Practices to Build Stronger and More Resilient NGOs in India

Through our research, we've identified four path-changing practices for funders and NGOs that can help them deliver greater social impact. Learn more in our article for AVPN.

The evolving role of CSR in funding NGOs

Beyond signing cheques, corporates are recognising that what’s good for society is good for business, as we explain in The Hindu (subscription required).

Pitching your true-cost needs to funders

Nonprofits and funders don't always align on the importance of funding organisational development. Understanding funder motivations can help bridge this gap, as we write in India Development Review.

It’s time for funders to pay-what-it-takes

In this article for India Development Review, we explain why the chronic underfunding of administrative costs undermines the impact both funders and nonprofits strive for.

How to create enduring social impact

India's NGOs would benefit enormously from reserves and endowments that could translate to financial resilience. We make the case in Forbes India.

Enabling philanthropy to achieve its potential, effect social change

Is Indian philanthropy ready to turn a critical lens on itself? Bridgespan's Pritha Venkatachalam and Ingrid Srinath of the Centre for Social Impact & Philanthropy make the case for philanthropy to act now in The Hindustan Times.

Reflections: Philanthropy in India during COVID-19

Vidya Shah, Executive Chairperson of EdelGive Foundation, describes in India Development Review what funders did and didn’t get right during COVID-19, and what the way forward should be.

NGOs grow faster when they invest in organisational development

Organisational development means investing in areas critical to growth, such as strategic planning, leadership, talent development, and fundraising.

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Pay-What-It-Takes to Maximize Impact

NGOs can’t effectively scale impact without true cost support. Here are five principles that grant-makers can adopt to unlock NGOs’ full potential.

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Video Presentations

Pay What It Takes Philanthropy: Building Stronger and More Resilient NGOs

Introducing our initial research at Dasra Philanthropy Week 2021, Bridgespan described the magnitude of the indirect cost funding gap and how it impedes rural nonprofits and Dalit, Bahujan, or Adivasi-led organisations more than others.

Pay What It Takes for Impact: From Insights to Action

At Dasra Philanthropy Week 2022, Bridgespan presented the initiative's latest insights, including the three funder archtypes identified by our research and implications for each as they strive for greater impact.

Transforming Grant Making: Investing in a Stronger and More Resilient NGO Sector

This session at Dasra Philanthropy Week 2023 shared practical approaches adopted by select funders to redefine their grantmaking practices and make these more inclusive, fair, and supportive for their partner NGOs.

Omidyar Network India co-sponsored the initiative in 2020.