Philanthropy Must Build Capacity, Not Just Run Programmes: Priti Adani
For millions of women, Dr Adani said, independence is not an abstract idea. It is "the freedom of choice, the freedom of opportunity and the freedom of upward mobility."
· NDTVNew Delhi:
Philanthropy should stop treating communities as beneficiaries of short-term schemes and start treating them as partners who can carry change forward on their own, Adani Foundation Chairperson Dr Priti Adani said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a welcome dinner for the AVPN Global Conference 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, she named the shift "Capital for Capacity", calling for putting money into institutions, skills and systems rather than one-off projects that fade when the funding cycle ends.
"Philanthropy is not about changing people's lives. It is about giving them the leverage to change their own," she said.
India does not lack money for social work, she argued. Domestic giving and social capital are at record levels. The real problem is how that money is used.
Funders, she said, need to back institution-building, behavioural change, skills, climate action, innovation and social networks. Those investments, she added, are what allow good programmes to last and grow.
The three-day AVPN conference, running from August 25 to 27, has drawn funders, investors, policymakers and development leaders from across Asia. Organised by the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, it is built around the theme "A Blueprint for Action in Asia." AVPN, founded in 2011, now links more than 700 organisations in 43 markets.
Dr Adani also pointed to a quieter change on the ground. Entrepreneurship is no longer confined to big cities.
"From metros to mandis, from campuses to small towns, India is now innovating everywhere," she said.
Young people, women and local entrepreneurs are already working on healthcare, drinking water, agriculture, waste and climate, she said.
What they need, she suggested, is not another short programme but the capacity to keep going.
She used the Adani Foundation's own work as an example of that longer view. Set up in 1996, the Foundation works on education, health and nutrition, livelihoods, climate and community development. It now operates in 7,247 villages and urban wards across 22 states and says it has reached more than 13.3 million people.
One of those stories, she said, is Kiran Harinkhede from Maharashtra. After joining the Foundation's livestock programme, better cattle breeds and animal healthcare raised her milk output. She later joined a women-run dairy enterprise. Household income rose. So did her options.
For millions of women, Dr Adani said, independence is not an abstract idea. It is "the freedom of choice, the freedom of opportunity and the freedom of upward mobility."
She closed with a line that tied the evening's theme to the larger national conversation.
"Viksit Bharat will not be built by larger budgets alone - it will be built by stronger institutions. India has the ambition. Our communities have the ideas. Our young people have the energy. Our nonprofits have the trust and the reach. Philanthropy must now provide the capacity."
(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.)
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