Omidyar Network India on Tuesday announced that it has granted ₹13 crore ($1.75 million) each to Give Foundation, India’s trusted online donation platform and United Way Bengaluru, a leading collaborative non-profit platform.
The funds will be used by Give Foundation to help strengthen the capacity of institutions, healthcare staff, volunteers, caregivers to enable a more effective response. This may include development of protocols/ standards etc. Give Foundation will focus on rural areas that have been severely underserved and encourage retail donors to contribute to the Covid relief effort by matching their funding.
United Way Bengaluru, through its partnership with ACT Grants (a movement by India’s start-up community to combat Covid-19) will use the funding for purchase and distribution of oxygen concentrators across India; financing the set up of Pressure Swing Adsorption plants to help with demand for oxygen; combining telemedicine and home healthcare solutions to help decongest hospitals, and helping to support the national vaccination effort.
Omidyar Network India’s Managing Director Roopa Kudva said, “United Way Bengaluru in partnership with ACT Grants and Give Foundation are well placed to create immediate and widespread impact during a situation where time is of the essence. All these platforms together are harnessing the power of collaboration and collective action to respond to the crisis. They have shown great agility in galvanising significant financial resources and high-quality talent as well as strong execution capabilities to deploy funds effectively at a scale required to battle the pandemic. By partnering with them, we hope to help address the urgent and critical issues facing those most vulnerable in the second wave of the pandemic.”
Additionally, Omidyar Network India launched a Rapid Response Funding Initiative (RRFI) as an immediate response to the pandemic in March 2020. RRFI provided funding of an aggregate of ₹10.75 crore to 67 organisations at the forefront of the response to Covid, particularly those working in the area of direct relief. It also provided ‘Solidarity Grants’ for 11 of its grantees amounting to approximately ₹13.6 crore late last year.
As a medium-term response to Covid-19, Omidyar Network India continues with its ReSolve Initiative, for tackling the long-standing issues of supporting migrant workers and empowering MSMEs. So far, it has invested in lighthouse projects like Punjab government’s partnership with GAME to improve Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs and the Jan Sahas Migration Hub.