A recent study of charitable giving from the Pakistani diaspora in the United States, authored by Professor Adil Najam under the auspices of the Global Equity project at Harvard University, concludes that Pakistani-Americans are a "generous, giving and active community". Using a detailed survey of over 400 individuals across America and a series of focus group sessions, Dr. Najam and his colleagues have assembled a useful research product. While the sample may not be statistically large enough to establish clear causality across the entire diaspora, it is representative of the overall texture of the community and can provide some useful directions for further inquiry.
In addition to lucid graphs and analyses of underlying motivation for philanthropy, the book also provides a rare historical profile of the South Asian community in America, which can be traced back to 1790 when William Bentley recorded an unnamed "Man from Madras" on the streets of Salem, Massachusetts. The rapid influx of Pakistanis in the middle of twentieth century is, however, most consequential for current philanthropic trends. One of the key findings of the study is that 62% of the respondents reported that religious obligation was of "high or "very high" importance in their reason for charity. A slightly higher percentage gave motivational importance to "helping others in need" (79%) and "helping family and friends" (69%).
The report also has some sobering news for the Pakistani government. About half of the respondents stated clearly that their contribution would be higher if they had more trust in institutional support across Pakistan that assured them that their contributions were being put to good use. One of the sponsors of this project, The Pakistan Center for Philanthropy, has undertaken the task of certifying charities through a detailed audit and review process, which can perhaps help in building this trust. However, the actual amount of individual philanthropy versus major gifts by tycoons is not adequately covered in this report.
Unfortunately, the concentration of wealth among the hyper-wealthy elite is a phenomenon that pervades the Pakistani diaspora in the United States just as much as it does the mainstream American population. For example, the upper-middle-class professional organisations such as the Human Development Foundation (which largely comprises doctors of Pakistani origin) raises on the order of two million dollars annually. However, one major gift of two million dollars by a wealthy medical professional to the University of Southern Colorado was enough to establish the Malik and Seeme Hasan School of Business.
By far the most significant individual charity in Pakistan for development is the Aga Khan network of foundations, which have a collective asset base of almost half a billion dollars. Indeed, the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy itself had its genesis with the Aga Khan Foundation. Such centralised sources of wealth deserve greater attention in research and must be applauded for their commitment.
There are, however, far more individual philanthropists out there who need to be recruited and given assurance to invest in Pakistan. Let us consider for a moment the largest single donation to an academic institution ever -- surprisingly to many this was not to the usual suspects in the United States such as Yale or Stanford; nor was the money coming from Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. Rather, the largest single gift to a university of a staggering one-billion dollars is credited to the Indian mining tycoon Anil Agarwal (CEO of Vedanta Resources) who endowed the amount in 2005 to establish Vedanta University in his home state of Orissa, India. While Pakistani expatriates at present may not have the same level of wealth, there are clearly some notable CEOs who are approaching such Olympian heights of prosperity and should be contributing to development in their homeland where it is likely to be of most relevance and impact.
