Govind Iyer is an Independent Director at Infosys, Member Board of Directors of Social Venture Partners International and Member Board of Trustees, The Rockefeller Foundation, with a distinguished career spanning multiple corporate leadership roles. He actively contributes to philanthropic initiatives through organizations like GIVE India and Karmayogi Bharat. Govind is an early LivingMyPromise Promisor having committed 50% of his wealth to philanthropic causes.
When I left the boardrooms of global corporations, I didn’t walk away from ambition — I redefined it.
It was a journey that led me to discover the diversity and inequality in India, to forgotten schools in rural India, and to the quiet courage of non-profit leaders fighting every day to change lives with far too little support. I realised that true wealth lies not in what you accumulate, but in what you enable for others. That’s the philosophy behind my philanthropy today — to be intentional, to be strategic, and to build institutions that outlast individual donors and to GIVE FORWARD.
That’s when I joined LivingMyPromise — a collective of Indians who have committed to give away at least 50% of their wealth during their lifetime. This isn’t charity. It’s accountability. It’s my way of giving forward.
But philanthropy, if it is to be truly transformational, must go beyond writing cheques. It must build both capacity and capability in the social sector — two very different and equally critical things.
Over the last few decades, I’ve had the privilege of working with both businesses and non-profits across the globe. The social sector in India, in particular, holds a unique place in my heart — it is where purpose, people, and possibility intersect most meaningfully. But for all its promise, the sector also struggles with a critical gap that continues to go under-addressed: the difference between capacity and capability.
Capacity is what gets you to the starting line. Capability is what gets you across the finish.
Capacity is the people, the systems, the funding that make an organisation run. Capability is the ability to use those tools well — to design, lead, measure, adapt, and scale. Too often, we expect Indian non-profits to have both without investing in either. We reward them for keeping overheads low, for doing more with less. But ask any entrepreneur — you can’t build something that lasts without investing in the foundation. In the corporate world, these two go hand in hand. But in the non-profit space, we still expect organisations to deliver impact while operating on razor-thin budgets and with little to no investment in their own institutional growth.
This is a mindset we must change.
Take the example of a grant we evaluated for an education nonprofit a few years ago. The organisation had a strong model and solid leadership. When asked what was holding them back from scale, the answer wasn’t funding — it was trained people. The solution was simple but powerful: we supported a “train the trainers” program by simply enabling them to hire two trainers, which allowed them to rapidly build the internal capability needed to scale. That intervention changed their trajectory.
This is exactly why I support initiatives like the India Partner Network (IPN) — a powerful platform by Sattva that provides shared services to non-profits. Whether it’s helping them figure out how to send an offer letter, set up sound financial governance, or design scalable HR policies, IPN is building the scaffolding these organisations need. Think of it as a startup incubator, but for NGOs — equipping them not only with resources but with the capacity to make those resources work smarter.
It’s also worth mentioning the Pay What It Takes India initiative, led by The Bridgespan Group, which challenges the traditional and often damaging notion that non-profits must operate on shoestring overheads. It reframes the question from “How much do you spend on yourself?” to “What does it take to succeed?” Because the truth is, success in the social sector isn’t just about program costs. It’s about leadership development, good governance, data systems, communications, and community trust.
In the private sector, we don’t bat an eye when startups invest in tech, training, or talent. In the non-profit sector, we question every rupee spent on organisational growth. This double standard must go. If we want our social impact institutions to thrive, we must fund them like we believe in their potential.
Philanthropy has a crucial role to play here — and it’s not just about writing cheques. It’s about backing people and processes, not just projects. At a recent SVP Kolkata fundraiser, I personally committed to supporting four NGOs. But my involvement wasn’t about funding — I worked to get them to the fundraiser, and I’m investing in their leadership so they can build the capability to grow. That equipped them for a much longer and sustainable run. In fact, that is a guiding principle for me in everything I do in the social sector. BE A MULTIPLIER, fund programs that can help the NGOs be self-sufficient.
Joining LMP was a personal commitment — a way of holding myself accountable to that philosophy. It’s about building the India we all want to live in. One where every citizen has the opportunity to thrive, and where the organisations working to make that happen are equipped with both the capacity and the capability to succeed.
In the end, I believe our role — as funders, allies, or volunteers — is to enable the social sector to become stronger, more resilient, and truly self-sustaining. Not by rescuing it, but by resourcing it. Not by directing, but by empowering.