Insaan is an Arabic word also used in Hindi and Persian for “human” or “human being”.

Insaan Group is a philanthropy fund registered as a tax exempt, 501(c)(3) public charity under United States law.

Legally based in New York, Insaan operates out of Dubai and focuses on the broader Indian Ocean region. Ancient trade routes revived by a new wealth generation are transforming the philanthropic map in this area, which Robert D. Kaplan among others defines as “the monsoon region”.

Within this regional paradigm, Insaan connects private wealth to innovative ventures in developing countries, both through funding charitable projects and allocating a variant of equity, to increase the overall impact of philanthropic giving.

Insaan believes that the nature of ventures “invested” in for maximizing “philanthropic return on investment” should go beyond traditional charities to include nascent private companies, public entities and indigenous non profits, as often seeds of innovation, sustainability and macro-level impact lie across this organizational spectrum.

In the case of for-profit entities where a financial return on investment may be generated from an equity stake, the returns will be re-invested into the fund.