Mover and Shaker Meera Gandhi and The Giving Back Foundation Continue to Shine in Charitable Endeavors Worldwide Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
Meera Gandhi
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Meera Gandhi, CEO and Founder of the Giving Back Foundation, has made enormous strides with her global philanthropic organization in the past year since her last Whom You Know interview. Founded in 2010, The Giving Back Foundation’s mission is to empower and uplift young women and children, as well as to assist in their education; and address illness, poverty, and the arts. Its beneficiaries are carefully selected existing charities and individuals from around the world, with special emphasis on women and children in need. The Giving Back Foundation is headquartered in New York City, with satellite operations in London, Mumbai and Hong Kong.
Among the recent global activities of the Giving Back Foundation have been the successful introduction in 20 cities (including at the Museum of Arts and Design in Columbus Circle, New York) of Meera Gandhi’s coffee-table book and documentary film, both entitled Giving Back. The Giving Back humanitarian documentary film was sold out at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York.
Partners and inspirations of the Giving Back Foundation include the Asia Society, which hosted a panel discussion on philanthropy with Meera and the Rockefeller Foundation and was moderated by Alisyn Camerota of Fox News in 2012; St. Michael’s School in New Delhi, India, which the Giving Back Foundation has totally renovated and provided with food, brand new playgrounds, and reconstruction and painting of 100 percent of the school’s facilities; The Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Center, which hosted the launch of the second annual annual Meera Gandhi Giving Back Girls’ Leadership Awards to worthy young ladies at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center in Hyde Park, New York in 2013 (two of the young winners in 2013 have joined together to assist in irrigation/drinking water resolutions in South Asia); The Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, New York, with its annual Giving Back award to the filmmaker, actor orscreenwriter involved with humanitarian topics and good works, (The first two honorees, Mark Ruffalo and Tim Blake Nelson,whose Giving Back Awards resulted in their subsequent donations to worthy causes such as environmental concerns in New York State and to the 52nd Street Project, bringing together youngsters from the age of 9-18 with professionals to create original theater in New York.) Our sponsorship of the American Friends of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry polo event held in Los Angeles in 2012, was to benefit the homeless. The Loomba Widows Foundation sponsorship of their fund-raising event for widows with Lord Loomba and Cherie Blair in 2013; The Women’s Education Project sponsorship of a fashion/charity event with Betsey Johnson in New York helped fund the education of 25 young ladies ; the Brain Trauma Foundation gala sponsorship at the Maharaja’s Palace in Jodhpur, India; the One-To-World Fulbright Awards in New York City, a long-time partner and inspiration of the Giving Back Foundation, which promotes global cooperation; the Tiger Time fund-raising event in London, and many more affiliations and on-the ground work partnerships with worthy organizations that inspire the Giving Back Foundation. They were also pleased to give three grants to students at Baruch University in Manhattan, who used the scholarships to enhance their college lives by studying abroad or interning at business organizations. The Giving Back Foundation was recently honored with the Global Corporate Award given out in April in New York for the Foundation’s worldwide reach and excellence in aiding charitable causes. Hands-on involvement on the part of the Giving Back Foundation has brought added dimensions to each of these humanitarian causes.
Whom You Know is delighted to present our newest interview with Meera and we applaud all her amazing work! Peachy Deegan interviewed Meera Gandhi for Whom You Know.
Peachy Deegan: How do you determine what charities to fund and what criteria is most important to you?
Meera Gandhi:
The Foundation’s mission to uplift and empower young women and children is the key. Most important is the mandate that all of our funding is done in situations where we know that the Foundation will be allowed to become intimately involved with the projects. It is our policy to be hands-on; we never just write checks. I myself or a Foundation executive is always closely involved with whichever charity is on the receiving end of a Giving Back Foundation grant.
How often do you get a chance to personally visit each charity of The Giving Back Foundation?
I visit the charities on the ground quite often and am constantly on e-mail checking the progress of our involvement.
We understand you travel often but will be getting back to New York more soon. What do you hope to accomplish in New York in the next year?
I am now back almost full time in my New York residence after several years of traveling back and forth to New York. In the next year I hope to escalate the level of our New York Giving Back Foundation fund-raising and spend time with our affiliated partners and inspirations, most of whom are headquartered here, or who have offices in New York City.
Please tell our readers about the history of the Global Corporate Award and where it derives from.
The Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. in association with the Indian-New York Chamber, has established these awards to honor people and organization of Indian background who reside in the U.S. The Giving Back Foundation in 2013 won the humanitarian award and it was quite a thrill to receive the recognition, both for the Giving Back Foundation and on behalf of our affiliation partners!
With so much political strife in our world, how do you separate political differences from country to country in your charitable work?
Our humanitarian involvements usually transcend politics, I am happy to note.
Have specific political challenges come up in the course of your charitable endeavors?
No specific challenges, with the exception of trying to be two or three places at one time. I must note here that The Unites States is the most charitable of all of the countries in which we operate!
What are you proudest of and why?
I am proudest of my three children, two are currently in university in New England, one undergraduate and one studying for her MBA, and one who is in boarding school in the UK.
What would you like to do professionally that you have not yet had the opportunity to do? What one word best describes you and why?
I think the words that best describes me are energetic and determined. One thing that I would like to do professionally. and very soon, is to double or triple the amount of help that we are currently able to give to our specific humanitarian projects.
What is your favorite place to be in Manhattan?
My favorite place in Manhattan is my home, that was once the home of Eleanor Roosevelt, who as you know is one of the inspirations of my Foundation. In a subtle way, my family always feels her presence and her inspiration around us in the rooms of our family home!
If you could hire anybody who would it be and why?
I would have to say Cherie Blair or Hillary Clinton!
What is your favorite drink?
Mango Lassi with mint leaves
What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a cocktail party?
It might have been when a new and upcoming U.S. filmmaker named Gandhi mistook his table for the Meera Gandhi table and sat down with all of his guests!
What is your favorite restaurant in Manhattan?
Swifty’s, The Four Seasons and Tamarind.
What is your favorite Manhattan book or favorite character in Manhattan literature?
E.B. White’s Here is New York and Eloise at the Plaza are always favorites
Who would you like to be for a day and why?
I would like to be Mother Teresa just for one day!
What has been your best Manhattan athletic experience?
Early morning runs in Central Park.
What is your favorite thing to do in Manhattan that you can do nowhere else?
Being able to find friends, culture and shopping all in close proximity. This is what makes Manhattan such an easy place for very busy people to live!
If you could have dinner with any person living or passed, who would it be and why?
Mahatma Gandhi because of his humanitarian efforts, his greatness and his calmness in the face of all adversity.
What do you think is most underrated and overrated here?
Many restaurants here are overrated, and many brilliant young people in Manhattan are underrated. The Giving Back Foundation is showcasing many deserving young people and we are quite proud of that.
Other than Movers and Shakers of course, what is your favorite Whom You Know column and what do you like about it?
The tips on new cosmetics are quite helpful in Product Alert.
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
That my life motto, and that of the Giving Back Foundtion is, “We are to the universe only as much as we give back to it.”
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?
Please contact me at www.TheGivingBackFoundation.net
