Education gets more funds than others

When it comes to donating money for a cause, Indians prefer education to other things, claims the report released by GiveIndia, an online donation platform. Around 35% donation comes for education, 23% for children, 12% for disabled and 11% for health.

GiveIndia is a not for profit organization in India. According to the organisation's annual report (2013-14), people choose education over health, elderly, women, environment, etc. The report observed a rise in funds from Rs11.8 crore (2012-2013) to Rs13.3 crore (2013-2014), with additional 20,461 donors. There are 120 corporate organisations and over 50,000 employees on the payroll giving programme.

The percentage of payroll giving members supporting the cause of education is almost 45. Percentage of High Net Worth Individual (HNI) donors supporting education are 27 out of 40. It is a big number, however, education is further broken down into, mid-day meal programmes, improving the quality of education in municipal schools, scholarship, teachers' training, etc. Meanwhile, online 34% comes for education.

Shivi Verma, manager, marketing, GiveIndia, said, "Most of the donors are self-made people and know the meaning of struggle. They want to donate in education because it enhances skills and helps towards a better future. Donors support not just primary, secondary or higher education, but also donate towards mid-day meal programmes. Education has always been a high giving cause and there has been an increase over the years but that is because the overall giving has also increased."