How do philanthropists choose their causes?
Following our bridging philanthropy and development forum, one of the participants, B.S.Nagesh of TRRAIN, explains how he decided which cause to support:
Stepping out of the post of Managing Director of a successful publicly listed company at the young age of 50 was purely my personal decision. Setting up TRRAIN and TRRAIN Foundation was part of my personal philosophy of Learn, Earn & Return. Since two thirds of my career has been spent in retail, I was keen to start my returning phase by contributing to the same industry. People have been my passion and in an emerging industry in an emerging country the role of personnel is very critical. Therefore working for the betterment of people working in retail became a very natural choice for my cause.
It is also important that I am able to network and influence the key people in the industry as the vision of TRRAIN is to “Empower people in Retail” and the mission statement is:
“We are committed to upgrading lives of people in retail both at work and home. We are the catalysts who create sustainable platforms through thought leadership backed by a not-for-profit objective.”
Therefore the choice of the purpose was based on my ability to impact the cause either directly or indirectly by being a philanthropist in the early stage of development and a development agency as the trust gains momentum and stability.
I am not sure whether any of the goals or objectives set up by UN agencies or the MDGs had anything to do with my decision. In fact, I did not even think of understanding or looking at these directions because I was targeting a very niche cause and the large agencies seem to be working on a worldwide basis for global causes.
Yes, one day if my cause creates a great impact on the retail industry or the retail associate, we may come into the radar of the worldwide organisations. Let’s hope so!
