The job of philanthropy is to strengthen civil society so that the market and the state do not crowd out the spaces where ordinary people live their lives.
Open-source infrastructure for public goods may be the highest return on philanthropic capital we can achieve. When the government adopts what you build, your investment multiplies a thousandfold.
Wealth is a temporary custodianship. We are stewards, not owners. The Giving Pledge is simply an acknowledgment of that fact.
Arghyam's work on water is ultimately about dignity — the dignity of not having to walk four kilometers for drinking water, the dignity of a girl who can stay in school because her school has a toilet.
We fund institutions, not programs. Programs end. Institutions endure. If we are serious about systems change, we must be willing to build the organizations that will outlast us.
India's biggest risk is not poverty. It is the weakening of the intermediary institutions — the NGOs, the journalists, the universities — that stand between the citizen and raw state and market power.