ILSS Conversation-6: Harish & Bina Shah on trust-based, long-horizon philanthropy

A Conversation with Harish and Bina Shah

In this reflective and deeply grounded conversation with ILSS, Harish and Bina Shah, founders of the Harish & Bina Shah Foundation (HBSF), share the philosophy and practice that have shaped their giving journey over more than two decades. Established in the early 2000s, HBSF has supported a wide spectrum of work across education, healthcare, livelihoods, legal aid, environmental sustainability, arts and culture, and social empowerment guided by a commitment to advancing equity, opportunity, and dignity across India.

At the heart of their approach lies a belief in patient, trust-based philanthropy and the importance of building institutions that endure beyond individuals. Drawing from their experiences as business leaders and philanthropists, Harish and Bina reflect on the evolution of their giving from instinctive acts of support to a more intentional, partnership driven model that prioritises long-term commitment, leadership development, and organisational strength. This conversation offers a perspective on how trust, humility, and sustained engagement can redefine the relationship between funders and the social sector and, in doing so, enable lasting change.

Q/ You spent nearly four decades building Signet Excipients, during which giving was already an integral part of your approach as a business leader. At a recent event, you shared a striking reflection: ‘If the son of my father’s driver is my driver, it is not something that I am proud of. We need to ask ourselves why that is the case and unpack our role in truly enabling the people around us.’ Could you share more about how you have viewed giving over the years, and how that perspective evolved from your role as a business leader to that of a philanthropist?

A/ Harish: The instinct to give was never separate from the instinct to build. Growing up, I was shaped by two very different influences: my paternal grandfather, a principled government servant who quietly helped those around him, and my maternal grandfather, an entrepreneur involved in social causes. Both, in their own way, modelled the idea that those who have must give back. That value was deeply embedded in me early on.

When Bina and I built Signet, we believed from the outset that a company’s growth must be shared with those who contributed to it. We ensured that employees at every level, including drivers, office assistants, and support staff, grew alongside the business. We paid school fees for their children, supported their housing, and if the company grew by 15%, so did their salaries. This was not philanthropy in the formal sense; it was simply how we believed business ought to be conducted and that one must invest in intergenerational change.

The transition to structured philanthropy came gradually. In 2002, we established the Foundation, initially as a means to respond to need as and when it arose: a patient’s hospital bill, disaster relief. It was ‘giving’ from the heart, without a formal framework. What transformed it into something more intentional was the next generation stepping in, bringing rigour, process, and a longer vision. Today, the Foundation operates with both head and heart, which I believe is the only sustainable way to give.

Q/ You stepped in as executive director to lead the Foundation’s work. What did that transition mean for you personally, and how did you bring your own lens to what the Foundation should stand for?

A/ Bina: My own upbringing was rooted in the values of service. My father participated in India’s freedom struggle and worked in refugee camps. Social responsibility was not an abstract concept in our household; it was a lived experience. When Harish and I built our family and our business, those values naturally carried forward.

Stepping into a more formal leadership role at the Foundation meant translating those values into a structure that could sustain and scale. My lens has always been peoplecentred, whether it was at Signet or with our partners at the Foundation. Change requires patience, trust-based relationship building and time to pursue sustainable outcomes.

One principle I hold firmly is that good philanthropy begins close to home. Before looking outward, look at the people immediately around you. Treat them as you would wish to be treated. That is the first and most authentic sphere of influence. The Foundation’s work is, in many ways, an extension of that belief, applied at a broader scale.

Q/ How would you describe the philosophy that underpins the Foundation’s work? How has that evolved over time?

A/ Harish & Bina: At its core, the Harish & Bina Shah Foundation’s (HBSF) philosophy is rooted in three principles: trust, longevity, and partnership. We have always believed that meaningful change cannot be achieved through short-term, transactional giving. Organisations working on systemic issues, whether in healthcare, education, One principle I hold firmly is that good philanthropy begins close to home. Before looking outward, look at the people immediately around you. livelihoods, or culture, need funders who will stay the course.

In the early years, our giving was responsive and relationship-driven. Over time, it has become more deliberate. We invest in organisations over a few years, provide unrestricted funding where we have sufficient trust in the leadership, and engage as active partners rather than passive donors. We ask questions, visit field sites, and review data, not only to audit, but to understand and support.

What has not changed is our belief that the Foundation’s role is to strengthen institutions and grassroots organisations, not to direct them. We trust the partners we back to know their work. Our role is to provide the resources, stability, and relationships that allow them to do that work well.

Q/ One thing distinctive about HBSF is your choice to remain broad in your work and to support organisations across thematic areas. Could you share more about the factors underlying the choice? What are the threads that connect the organisations you choose to back, if not a shared cause? And what has that breadth of exposure taught you about India’s social sector that might be harder to see if you had focused only on one or two causes?

A/ Harish & Bina: The decision to have some of our work be sector-agnostic was not accidental; it reflected our belief that India’s challenges are deeply interconnected. Poverty is not only about income; it is about access to healthcare, quality education, legal rights, cultural identity, and environmental sustainability. To address any one of these in isolation is to miss the full picture.

The thread that connects the organisations we support is not a common cause, but a common standard: leadership integrity, clarity of purpose, goal-oriented approaches, and the capacity to grow responsibly. Whether it is the SEARCH Institute working in remote geographies, the Ashoka University building liberal education, or the Deccan Heritage Foundation restoring India’s architectural legacy, each reflects these qualities.

The breadth of our work has given us a panoramic view of the social sector. We understand the pressures facing grassroots organisations as well as large institutions. We have seen how policy, culture, and community intersect. That perspective makes us better, more empathetic funders and helps us connect organisations across sectors in ways that create long-term value.

Q/ Across the organisations you support, you are highly valued for interactions that come from a place of trust and purpose. What shapes the stance you take in your giving journey, and what could other funders learn from that?

A/ Harish & Bina: We have always approached our partners as collaborators, not grantees. That distinction matters. When a funder treats a nonprofit as a vendor delivering outputs, the relationship becomes transactional and often unrealistic in the goals to be achieved. The nonprofit learns to manage the funder’s expectations rather than focus on work.

We try to extend the kind of trust we would want if positions were reversed. That means providing multi-year funding, offering unrestricted grants, never separating the organisation’s needs from program delivery needs, and being interested in the challenges an organisation faces. It also means being willing to make a commitment early, when we believe in a leader and a vision, rather than waiting for exhaustive proof.

If there is one thing that we would like to share with other funders, it is this: the return on trust is disproportionate. When an organisation knows its funder is a genuine partner, it starts sharing real conversations, invests in its own systems, and builds for the long term. That is ultimately what creates lasting impact.

Q/ From your work with diverse organisations in the sector, what do you think social sector leaders should be asking more of their funders?

 A/ Harish & Bina: We would encourage social sector leaders to ask for what they need, not what they believe a funder wants to hear. Too often, organisations tailor their proposals to match funder priorities rather than articulate their true requirements. Funders get put into slots such as ‘Family Foundation’, ‘CSR Donor’, ‘HNI Donor’, and the result is fragmented pitches, proposals and organisations. Misaligned funding is not a win-win for anyone.

We would want more leaders to ask for undifferentiated support, that which does not make the organisational or back-end needs isolated from the program or the front-end needs, for commitments which may start, where needed, with a pilot or short-term period, and are then built upon for longer-term commitments, and for the freedom to invest in their own institutional capacity: leadership development, systems, and staff. These are not overhead costs; they are the foundation of sustainability. 

More broadly, we wish more organisations would ask their funders to invest in common returns, to visit, to listen, to open up networks, and to use their influence in service of the mission. Funding is necessary but rarely sufficient. The relationships that surround it can be equally transformative.

Q/ You have consistently placed your bets on institutions through your giving: Ashoka University, Plaksha, ILSS, and others. Where does that instinct to fund institutions come from? What are the markers you see in organisations that go on to become institutions of significance over time?

 A/ Harish & Bina: Our instinct to fund institutions comes from a fundamental conviction: individuals drive change, but institutions sustain it. A single brilliant leader can transform a community, but a well-built institution carries that transformation forward across generations, regardless of who leads it at any given moment.

The markers we look for are both tangible and intuitive. On the tangible side: clarity of vision, quality of leadership, soundness of governance, and a realistic understanding of what it will take to reach scale. Scale through volume where appropriate, scale through value where appropriate, scale through convergence where appropriate. On the intuitive side, we look for founders and leaders who are driven by action, and who are honest about what they do not know.

The commitment to Ashoka University is a fitting example. What struck us was not only the ambition of the project but the integrity of its founders and the rigour of its academic vision. When we are convinced of those elements, we are prepared to make a significant, early commitment, because that is precisely when institutional support matters most.

Q/ There is sometimes a reluctance among funders to invest in institutional costs such as salaries and leadership development. How do you see this investment in terms of long-term leverage for building institutions?

 A/ Harish & Bina: This reluctance is, in our view, one of the most counterproductive tendencies in philanthropy. The idea that ‘real’ funding goes to programs while leadership and management costs are somehow less legitimate reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how organisations work. It is also contrary to the way investments are made in nonprofit investees. Would you get any ROI in the absence of investing in systems, processes and the people behind it at all?

You cannot build a school without principals. You cannot run a hospital without administrators. You cannot scale an organisation without investing in the people who lead it. Leadership is not overhead; it is infrastructure.

When we fund institutions, we fund them whole. That means we are willing to cover salaries for exceptional talent, support leadership development programs, and invest in the systems that allow an organisation to manage complexity. The leverage on that investment is enormous. A well-led institution multiplies the impact of every program rupee spent within it.

Q/ When you look ahead fifty years from now, what is the footprint you hope the Harish & Bina Shah Foundation will have left on India’s development?

A/ Harish: Fifty years from now, I hope the footprint of the Foundation will be visible not in only in plaques but in the strength of the institutions we supported and the lives they have shaped.

I hope that Ashoka University’s School of Humanities will have produced generations of thinkers who approach India’s challenges with rigour, empathy, and creativity. I hope that the organisations we supported in health, livelihoods, and the arts will have grown into pillars of their respective sectors. And I hope that the model of giving we have tried to practice, patient, trusting, and partnershipdriven, will have influenced how other families in India approach philanthropy.

More than any specific legacy, I hope we will have demonstrated that consistent, long-term giving, done with integrity, can be among the most powerful forces for change.

Q/ The book ‘Live to Give’ captures the movement of intentional giving that is happening in India today. As a co-founder of Accelerate India Philanthropy (AIP), what has this journey of giving done to you, not just as a philanthropist, but as a person?

A/ Bina: This journey has deepened me in ways I did not anticipate. Giving, when done with intention, not only changes those who receive; it changes those who give.

Meeting the leaders of organisations we support, witnessing their resilience, their commitment, and the conditions in which they work, has continuously recalibrated my own sense of what matters. It has made me more patient, grounded, and more aware of how much remains to be done.

Being part of Accelerate India Philanthropy (AIP) and the broader movement of intentional giving in India has also reinforced my belief that philanthropy is not just charity; it is responsibility. We are fortunate. That fortune carries an obligation, not merely to give, but to give well: thoughtfully, consistently, and in service of those we seek to support.

Q/ If you could say one thing to every social sector leader reading this, someone in the middle of difficult, unglamorous, and essential work, what would it be?

A/ Harish & Bina: Your work matters more than the world currently acknowledges, and more than the metrics can fully capture.

We have sat across from leaders who work in conditions of enormous constraint, without adequate resources, recognition, or rest. And yet they persist, because they understand that the work is necessary. That persistence, quiet, determined, and uncelebrated, is among the most important forces at work in India today.

Do not shrink your vision to fit the timelines or priorities of your funders. Hold your purpose firmly. Seek partners who understand the long arc of change, and do not be afraid to ask them for what you genuinely need. The right funders will respect you more for it.

And know this: there are those of us on the funder side who are watching, learning, and drawing inspiration from your work every day. The relationship, at its best, is one of mutual gratitude.

The interview is edited by Archana Ramachandran and Tapoja Mukherji