Almost 98pc of households surveyed contribute more than Rs250bn a year to philanthropic activities while corporate Pakistan gives less than 0.7pc of its profits (Rs9bn) back to society.

This has been brought to the fore by the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) in two separate studies — The State of Philanthropy in Pakistan 2016 and Corporate Philanthropy 2015 — released simultaneously a few days back.

“Philanthropy is universal in the country with nearly 98pc of households reporting donations to various social causes. This also provides an opportunity for civil society organisations to tap this practice of charitable giving and volunteering”, reported Zaffar A Khan, PCP chairman, on the basis of a nationwide representative survey of about 10,000 households, focus group discussions and interviews.

The survey was conducted in 2014 and its findings finalised only recently with expert input from universities and think tanks but does not cover special areas administered by the federal government like the tribal region, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and the federal capital territory.

It could, therefore, be hypothesised that the philanthropic universe all across the country should be worth more than Rs300bn by now.

Hypothetically the philanthropic universe all across the country should be worth more than Rs300bn by now

“The findings of the study reveal that the total estimated magnitude of household level giving was Rs239.7bn in 2014 which is more than three times larger than the estimate for 1998”, he said.

Bulk of the total giving comes from monetary donations as Zakat and non-zakat donations account for 13pc and 32pc respectively while the monetary valuation of time-volunteerism accounts for 21pc of total giving.

Province-wise share is as follows: Punjab — Rs113bn, KP — Rs38bn, Balochistan — Rs10bn and Sindh — Rs78bn. Interestingly, individuals prefer extending donations to other individuals over organisations as the help goes directly to the needy, disabled and beggars, especially in case of non-zakat monetary contributions.

In case of organisations, the principal recipients are mosques and madressahs, owing to religious compassion underlying household giving behaviour and close proximity to mosques spread all across the country.

Organisations that are focused on addressing local needs and working transparently also get household support.

The fact that nearly 39pc of Pakistanis live in multidimensional poverty and this proportion is nearly six times higher in rural than urban areas, philanthropy offers enormous opportunities to supplement state-run social programmes to reach out to the poor and the underserved, according to Shazia Maqsood Khan, the PCP’s executive director.

The study also highlighted that individuals suggested they could donate more for greater tax incentives, transparent utilisation by organisations based on local decision making and were unaware of new policy initiatives for philanthropist giving.

The study showed zakat and non-zakat donations account for 11pc (Rs26bn) and 30pc (Rs71bn) respectively. In-kind giving stood at Rs35bn (14pc), usher Rs14bn (6pc), animal hides Rs5bn (2pc) and shrines Rs6.5bn (3pc). About Rs83bn or 34pc was quantified as time volunteerism.

About 16pc households in Punjab reported eligibility to pay zakat as compared to 37pc in KP and 39pc in Balochistan. Correspondingly, out of these eligible households Punjab also has the lowest percentage of zakat payers at 90pc, compared to more than 96pc in KP and Balochistan.

The findings of the Corporate Philanthropy study showed a total of 499 public listed companies (PLCs) donated around Rs7bn in 2015 — 19pc higher than previous year and 30 times higher since 2000.

On the other hand, results of a small sample selected of Public Unlisted Companies (PUCs) and Private Limited Companies (PvLCs) show that about 33pc and 35pc companies donated Rs0.5bn and Rs1.3bn respectively.

Put together, the entire corporate sector (PLCs, PUCs and PvLCs) donated about Rs9bn. Of this, the top five giving companies shared Rs4.5bn or 54pc. Health and education sectors were given 18pc each, disaster related activity 23pc, environment improvement 6pc and all other areas 36pc.

The top 25 PLCs contributed 80pc of total donations. On a whole, PLCs on average spared about 0.7pc of their profit before tax for social causes and their cumulative volume of giving stood at Rs41bn in 15 years — between 2000 and 2015.

The report said there was no legal or regulatory requirement for donations or corporate social responsibility in Pakistan except for some voluntary guidelines issued by the corporate watchdog in 2013 for streamlining reporting requirements for corporate accountability but “given the vast and diverse structure of the business sector in Pakistan, complete compliance remains a tall order”.

Regulators around the world are now increasingly holding the corporate sector responsible for its impact on society, the economy and the environment.

Across the border, India has legislated to make it obligatory for the corporate sector to contribute two per cent of three year average of its profit.

In absolute numbers, OGDCL stood on top with largest amount of donation and was followed by Pakistan Petroleum Limited, HBL, Lucky Cement and Engro Corp in that order among the top five.

Then followed: Fatima Fertiliser, Pak Services, Fauji Fertiliser, PSO, UBL, Bestway Cement, Mari Petroleum, ABL, Jehangir Siddiqui &Co, Indus Motors, Arif Habib Corp, Hubco, Engro Fertiliser, JS Bank, Habib Metro Bank, NBP, Bank Alfalah, Nestle, Sitara Chemical and Faysal Bank.

On the other hand, much smaller company Gatron Industries stood on top with highest (24pc) percentage of profit spent on social welfare and was followed by Tata Textile (17pc), Pak Services and Kohat Textile (15pc). TPL Direct Insurance payed 13pc of profit before tax for public good.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, February 27th, 2017