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The social impact community has spent the last few months grappling with a fast-approaching and generational influx of giving, which Nan Ransohoff termed the Third Wave of American Philanthropy. In her brilliant May essay, she maps out how the wealth created by just two leading AI labs, OpenAI and Anthropic, could unlock $40 to100 billion of new philanthropic giving each year. For context, that’s 5-10 times the total grantmaking of the Gates Foundation, which gave out over $8 billion in 2025. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, since it does not include the unprecedented levels of wealth being created by countless other AI startups that seem to mint a new billionaire with each passing week.
So, what does this mean for Indian American nonprofits? The Third Wave of Philanthropy could unlock up to $5 billion in giving each year, based on Indian Americans’ share of total US taxes paid today. This would more than double current levels of Indian American giving, which Dalberg, Indiaspora, and the India Philanthropy Alliance estimated at $4-5 billion annually in their study From Closing the Gap to Setting the Standard: The State of Philanthropic Giving in the Indian American Diaspora. And this may be a conservative estimate, since we know Indians and Indian Americans hold a disproportionate share of tech, and specifically AI research, jobs at US companies.
But what has sparked the most debate is not the possibility of increased Third Wave giving, but rather the perils of an existing philanthropic ecosystem that is not prepared to make the most of this generational opportunity. This holds equally true for Indian American nonprofits, who are already struggling to reach and engage younger, NextGen, and newly wealthy Indian Americans who have very different giving priorities and behaviors. For example, the Dalberg study referenced earlier found that only 40% of these donors give to causes in India, and that nearly a quarter of them had never even been asked to donate.
To address this challenge, the India Philanthropy Alliance has convened a group of NextGen leaders from across the Indian philanthropic ecosystem. In its first few meetings, this NextGen Task Force has surfaced three learnings for intermediaries and nonprofits seeking to better understand, engage, and appeal to NextGen and Third Wave donors.
We don’t need more cooks in the kitchen – we need a brand new Third Wave recipe
Third Wave donors are not simply younger versions of the philanthropists who came before them. Many built their wealth early and fast, through technologies that are themselves reshaping the world. They think about systems rather than charities, about outcomes rather than activities, and in decade-long bets rather than annual appeals. They expect rapid feedback, transparent data, and the freedom to change course when something isn’t working. A gala invitation and a tax receipt will not hold their attention for long.
Ransohoff’s answer is to bring in new talent and launch new organizations modeled after tech startups to better appeal to Third Wave donors. For Indian American philanthropy, we would suggest a different path. Our community already has many organizations and social entrepreneurs doing extraordinary work across India, backed by strong evidence that demonstrates effectiveness, efficiency, and progress towards broader systems change. What is missing is not more cooks. It is a new recipe: a way of designing, presenting and reporting on existing work that speaks to the tastes of Third Wave donors, and brings in the capital existing organizations need to scale the work they are already doing so well.
That is the work the India Philanthropy Alliance’s NextGen Task Force has taken on. Over the coming years, we will work to add five missing ingredients to the Indian American philanthropic ecosystem: Pipelines that proactively bring younger Indian Americans into philanthropy, practices that help nonprofits meet NextGen donors where they are, platforms that make it easier for Third Wave donors to learn and give, pilots that test bold new giving models, and progress tracking that holds us all accountable. As a first step, we will be codifying what IPA member organizations have already learned about engaging NextGen donors, and publishing an updated recipe that other organizations can study and hopefully follow.
Don’t ask busy Third Wave donors for money – ask them for advice
One thing we already know is that no one understands what Third Wave donors want better than these donors themselves. Yet their voices are conspicuously absent from the boards, advisory councils, and leadership teams of most Indian American nonprofits. We are designing appeals for a generation we rarely invite into the room, and then wondering why many of them have never been asked to give at all.
The Dalberg study referenced earlier found that two of the most significant barriers stopping NextGen donors from giving are lack of time and lack of trust. Young, newly wealthy givers are wary of causes they cannot vet, especially ones half a world away. Given their limited time, don’t have the bandwidth to research new organizations or topics. Trust is not built through a pitch. It is built by listening. So, rather than asking for a check, ask these successful entrepreneurs and young professionals for advice on a topic they are excited to intellectually grapple with. Examples could include: New opportunities AI could unlock for your organization and how to better understand and reach their peers. If done genuinely, this can unlock a very different kind of conversation, and create space for Third Wave donors to get to know your organization as collaborators, rather than prospective donors. And once trust is built, giving often follows.
This is a lesson Milaan Foundation has lived. Its Girl Icon Program rests on a simple premise: The people closest to a problem must help lead its solution. By investing in adolescent girls as leaders rather than beneficiaries, the program has helped more than 100,000 girls stay in school, prevent child marriage and drive social action in their communities. IPA has encouraged its member organizations to bring NextGen voices onto their boards in the same spirit, and this approach must now be extended deliberately to Third Wave donors, not as a fundraising tactic, but as a governance strategy.
This is a rare opportunity to innovate – to think even bigger and more systemically
Third Wave donors are not buying the starfish story, the old fundraising parable of a child saving stranded starfish one at a time because “it made a difference to that one” even though it doesn’t address the underlying cause of the problem. They prefer startup-style ambitions that tackle global challenges at scale: end a disease within a decade or close a learning gap for an entire state. Many bring an effective altruism mindset that asks hard questions about cost per outcome and the return on every dollar.
It would be easy for nonprofits to see this as a threat to work that is patient, relational and hard to quantify. We see it as an invitation. India’s social sector is mature and vibrant, and private funding can do what government and CSR funding rarely can: Helping NGOs serve as R&D hubs that pave the way for larger-scale government investment. That is exactly the kind of leverage Third Wave donors are looking for. So ask what it would take to achieve your organization’s mission in the next ten years, not to grow incrementally, but to finish the job. Then bring that vision to donors: a bold plan for how they can be the ones to finally solve the problem, backed by evidence that it is a sound investment.
Young Indian American nonprofit leaders are already leading this way. This month, the India Philanthropy Alliance named Neha Gupta, Executive Director of Teach For India U.S., the winner of the inaugural Deepak Raj Rising Star Award, with Nikhil Jayawickrama and Karishma Navani recognized as finalists. Teach For India’s model is itself a systems bet: rather than fixing one classroom at a time, it develops leaders who go on to transform education across India. Recognition like this matters. When young donors see peers leading with ambition, it tells them philanthropy is a space where they belong, where they can think big, and where they create real impact at scale.
At a moment when we have seen a dramatic fall in foreign philanthropy supporting organizations doing critical, life-changing work in India, the Third Wave of Philanthropy could more than close the gap. But only if we act now to meet the moment with a new recipe for giving, a new way of engaging younger donors, and a new vision for delivering impact at scale.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article/column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of South Asian Herald.
