| The India Giving Day 2026 campaign by India Philanthropy Alliance ended on March 13 with a remarkable result of raising more than $5.6 million for nonprofits across the community.
For Arogya World, it was one of our strongest campaigns yet.
We got to 99% of our goal from 280 donors, stayed on the leaderboard from day one, and finished with multiple recognitions such as being in the top 3 for total number of donors, for most gifts to a peer-to-peer fundraiser, and for the highest number of peer-to-peer fundraisers. We also received substantial support from India Giving Day and its partners, and are grateful to have leveraged matching gifts from Aatmic Philanthropy and Varshney Charitable Foundation.
These are great numbers but they are not the whole story.
The deeper story is about who carried this campaign forward.
Giving is often treated like something that comes later in life, after people have built careers, accumulated wealth, and found stability. Our campaign witnessed a different story.
At The Hill School, high school student Tommy Gill took the initiative to mobilize his entire school behind Arogya World. He did it unprompted and because he believed in the cause. That belief turned into action, and that action turned into results. Tommy and The Hill School raised significant funding by mobilising a large number of donors.
And then there was an 8-year-old girl who gave her savings to Arogya World’s campaign. That alone would have been enough but she did more. She became a peer-to-peer fundraiser and even started a club. At an age when many children are learning what it means to play with each other and share, she was already showing what it means to give.
This spirit showed up elsewhere too. We saw it in college students participating from the Universities of Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, and Alabama, who stepped up while balancing studies, ambitions, and all the uncertainty of young adulthood.
We saw it in our 100% board participation and at our Samosas & Mimosas event in New York City earlier in March, and at the Brown Heart screening in Atlanta where many people young and old, showed up with a sincere desire to build lives of purpose, even if they were still building their futures.
This campaign left us with more than gratitude.
Young people are reminding us that philanthropy is not about age, wealth, or status. It is about caring enough to act. It is about seeing a need and deciding that someone’s life, health, or future is worth showing up for.
And that gives us tremendous hope for the future we envision. |
