The total amount of donations Pakistanis make each year is estimated to run in billions of rupees. While gauging the exact figure is difficult given the undocumented nature of the country’s economic activities, educated guesses are available that are supported by experts.
Islamabad-based NGO Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) assumes that private donations amounted to around Rs200 billion to Rs300bn last year. Actually, these figures have been obtained by extrapolating from a report of the National Survey of Individual Giving undertaken by the Aga Khan Development Network in 1998-99.
Back then, the survey found that the aggregate individual giving in cash, kind and volunteer time totalled Rs70.5bn in 1998. Now, the number may have swelled to somewhere around Rs300bn, the PCP believes.
