Never Underestimate The Philanthropic Power of Kids

Krishna Pendyala, chief operating officer and coach of Waldron Wealth Management in Pittsburgh, and his wife Sangeetha have two children: a son, Nyan (which means “sight” in Sanskrit) and a daughter, Lehka (whose name means “writing”). About six years ago, Pendyala told me, he was sitting with Nyan on his lap while looking over a report from Orbis, a nonprofit humanitarian organization committed to saving sight worldwide, to which he and his wife contributed.

When Nyan, then 4, asked about the caption on a picture of Ronald McDonald, Krishna explained that the clown was opening a pediatric eye hospital in India. Blindness in India is considered a near-fatal disease, reducing the average life span to only a few years. The tragedy is that simple eye drops applied at the right time can sometimes make the difference between shadowy darkness or a life of full-color clarity.