A late monsoon rain had coaxed some children outside to play when Alex Masi took this photo of Poonam, 7, near her family’s home in Bhopal, India.

He ruined his camera in the rain. But this week, his enterprise is paying off — for Poonam. She and her family are to receive $5,000, through Mr. Masi, from the Photographers Giving Back Photo Award.

While Mr. Masi took only second place in the Feature Picture of the Year category (Thomas Lekfeldt was first), Jonas Lemberg, the managing director of the contest, said the money would have the most impact if given to Poonam’s family.

“We really want to make a change for people,” Mr. Lemberg said by telephone from Sweden. “Our wish is that the family and the girl can have a long-term benefit.”

Mr. Lemberg started the organization to honor the journalist Martin Adler, who was killed in Somalia in 2006. Last year, Walter Astrada received the first grant, about $4,000. The money went to a women’s shelter in Congo, where the women have since started a small farm.

Mr. Masi, 30, was born in Italy. His work is focused on the issues of development, child labor, water pollution and access to water. As the 25th anniversary of the Union Carbide disaster approached in 2009, he decided to explore water contamination in the region of Bhopal. He plans to return to Bhopal soon. Some of the grant money will go toward Poonam’s education. Some will go toward fixing the family’s home and buying a cart on which to sell vegetables.

Does passing cash to a subject bring him too close? Not in his view.

“When I do a story about injustice like this, I don’t think there are too many sides to it,” Mr. Masi said. “There’s a problem that needs attention and somebody on the international scale should be interested in doing something.”