CSR spending in India rose to over ₹1.22 lakh crore by FY2024, while the share of companies using CSR implementing agencies such as NGO partners fell from 78% in FY2020 to 28% in FY2024. The shift towards corporate foundations and in-house CSR implementation raises concerns about NGO capacity, funding opportunities, and community impact.
The number
In FY2020, 1,082 qualifying listed companies, or 78%, used implementing agencies such as NGOs for their CSR. By FY2024, the figure was 566 companies, or 28%. Crisil Foundation published the comparison in the 10th edition of its CSR Yearbook on 26 March 2026 (Crisil Foundation, 2026).
The same yearbook says qualifying listed companies spent more than ₹1.22 lakh crore on CSR over the decade to FY2024. About 63% of it, ₹77,000 crore, was spent between FY2020 and FY2024 (India CSR, 2026). The move away from NGO partners, therefore, happened while CSR spending was rising.
What the number counts
The statistic counts companies, not rupees. It cannot show how much money NGOs now handle. The summaries reviewed also do not state whether a foundation established by the company itself constitutes direct implementation. That detail matters. Sattva Consulting reported in October 2025 that corporate foundations have become the default route for large spenders (IndiaSpend, 2025).
Explanations on offer
Crisil said that companies are increasingly building internal capabilities. Meanwhile, the Foundation’s COO said that organisations are moving away from simply making financial contributions and adopting formalised programme management with greater monitoring and board oversight (The Wire, 2026).
Crisil also points to a supply problem. It says that finding quality NGOs on the ground, especially in rural areas, is hard. Apart from a few notable exceptions, it says that implementing agencies lack the capacity to design, run, and measure high-impact projects (India CSR, 2026). Sattva reached a similar view. It said that the rise of corporate foundations reflects the limits on how much traditional NGOs can absorb in large, high-value programmes (IndiaSpend, 2025). India CSR’s coverage describes the shift as a call for NGOs to build stronger systems for governance, financial management and technology (India CSR, 2026).
These are consultants’ views, describing NGOs from the company’s perspective. Neither report includes NGO leaders on funding terms such as grant length, reporting load or freedom to change a project during the year.
Other factors
The rules could have played a role. Implementation agencies have been mandated to file Registration with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs through Form CSR-1 (GKToday, 2026). However, neither report finds that this requirement affected the business’s choice of in-house delivery. It is one of the many factors that may have influenced the choice.
The law is also in motion. The government has introduced the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026 in the Lok Sabha. Crisil proposes raising the net profit threshold for CSR from ₹5 crore to ₹10 crore. It would also extend the time to move unspent CSR money to a separate account from 30 to 90 days (Crisil Foundation, 2026). Sattva also found that 380 companies with no CSR obligation still spent ₹809 crore on CSR (IndiaSpend, 2025). The report does not say who implements those projects. Whether small voluntary spenders rely on local NGOs is an open question.
What to watch
For NGOs, a smaller percentage of companies with partners could mean more or fewer grants, or larger grants to fewer partners. The figure does not definitively clarify which one it is. A more thorough analysis would examine three factors: the number of rupees disbursed to NGOs, the average duration of grants, and the share of project budgets allocated to NGOs’ operating costs.
The drop-in count is large. Falling from 1,082 to 566 means 516 fewer companies using partners. By my own arithmetic from Crisil’s percentages, the sample of qualifying companies grew over the same years, from about 1,390 to 2,020. So, the decline is not the result of a shrinking sample.
Until those are published, one question stays open. Of every rupee of CSR, how much now reaches a community through an organisation rooted in it, and who is measuring that?
Clear Cut CSR Desk
New Delhi, UPDATED: October 15, 2026 17:10 IST
Written By: Tanmay J. Urs
