Companies promise to match Covid-19 donations

India Inc is increasingly embracing the concept of match-funding to maximise fund-raising in support of Covid-19 relief measures. Companies such as Amazon India, Zerodha, Razorpay and PepsiCo India have implemented match-funding in their internal and external fund-raising programmes in tie-up with non-profit organisations.

Match-funding is primarily based on commitments from the corporates to fully or partially match the raised funds with their contributions. Experts say donors feel motivated if they find that their contributions are match-funded.

As Covid-19 pandemic has affected lives and livelihood, companies and NGOs have opted for match-funding to generate maximum value for their contributions.

Amazon India has recently collaborated with NGOs, including Habitat for Humanity India and

Akshaya Patra, to raise Rs

100 crore. As a part of the collaboration, Amazon India makes 100 per cent equal contribution to every donation made by its Prime members. The donations by the nonmembers are being matched by a 10 per cent contribution from the ecommerce giant.

Stock broking firm Zerodha has collaborated with online crowdfunding platform Ketto to help Habitat for Humanity India in the mission to provide daily wage earners with essential goods and hygiene kits. Zerodha has committed to match

100 per cent of each donation. Till date, the NGO has supported more than

2,57,000 individuals across the country.

"The need is immense. Our partnership with Zerodha and Ketto will enable us to provide essential supplies to vulnerable," said Rajan Samuel, MD, Habitat for Humanity India.

Nithin Kamath, CEO and founder, Zerodha feels that everyone should come forward to help those who have been hit by the crisis in this unprecedented time.

Following the matchfunding model, PepsiCo Foundation launched a double matching gifts programme in April. Under this programme, PepsiCo Foundation will match all employee donations by two-fold and offer the gathered fund to its NGO partners that are helping the communities affected by Covid-19.

Payment gateway Razorpay aims to raise Rs10 crore to offer masks and sanitisation items to medical professionals. The company has pledged to match every contribution equally.