Australia’s List of Million Dollar Donors Grows to 250
4 August 2015 at 12:10 pm
The number of Australians who have donated $1 million or more to causes has grown to over 250 and now includes 10 donors who have given more than $100 million and 57 who have given more than $10 million.
Research organisation, Fundraising Research & Consulting (FR&C), has put together the Australian Philanthropy Top 250 list, made up of individuals and families, which has built on the Top 100 list they started in 2011.
The largest donors include Andrew and Nicola Forrest, who joined the Giving Pledge in 2013, becoming the first Australians to pledge in the billions, and the late Paul Ramsay who bequeathed the bulk of his $3.3 billion fortune to his foundation.
John Kinghorn, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Talbot, Fairfax, Lowy, Myer and Packer families are also among the 10 philanthropists who have donated more than $100 million.
The list includes non-Australian donors who have given to Australian causes, including Chuck Feeney who has given $500 million to Australia through Atlantic Philanthropies.
The Gates Foundation made the over $50 million category. This year the Foundation gave $18 million to World Vision Australia to fight tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea, the largest ever cash grant the charity has received.
Many of the Top 250 donors are among Australia’s 226,000 High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI), those with US$1 million or more in investable assets excluding the primary residence, identified in the 2015 Capgemini World Wealth Report.
According to the report, the number of millionaires in Australia is growing more than three times as fast as the population, rising from 219,000 in 2013 to 226,000 in 2014. For the second year in a row Australia has the world’s ninth largest contingent of HNWI.
The most interesting feature of the Wealth Report, the FR&C said, is the increasing attention given to social impact and philanthropy. In this year’s edition, Capgemini highlights advice on social impact as one the key things investors, especially young investors, are seeking from their wealth managers.
