While the release of NAB’s inaugural Giving Index last week suggested that donations increased 4.8% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2012, recent figures from the Australian Taxation Office tracking donations by the wealthy showed that the tax deductible donations of those earning over $1 million dropped from a collective $511 million down to just $120 million in the 2009-10 tax year (latest available figures).
However, those figures did suggest strong growth in “structured philanthropy”, with the amount held by PAFs climbing 11.2% to just over $2.2 billon. There are around 1,000 PAFs in Australia.
Naturally these come in different shapes and sizes.
John Kinghorn was recently revealed to have pumped an impressive $300 million into his foundation, and with annual distributions of $15 million, it is now one of the biggest donors in the country.
But it’s not just Rich Listers who are emerging as philanthropic leaders. Allan English, the founder of Brisbane-based hospitality sector finance company Silver Chef, has been making a big impression with his English Family Foundation.
English started to take an interest in philanthropy in 2000, when Silver Chef was having trouble raising finance and he stepped away from the business to do some volunteering.
He eventually became involved with Opportunity International, a charity that focuses on micro lending in developing nations. English gave $10,000 to support a program in East Timor.
“A report came back which said that 40,000 people would be moved out of poverty over a five-year period as a result of that project, and that sort of hit home for me,” he says. “I thought ‘imagine if you could do that every year, would that give you a reason to go back to work and overcome these funding issues?’
“I decided it would,” he told Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine. So I hired someone to take over my volunteering stuff and I went back to work.”
English would help build Silver Chef into a business worth $120 million. He moved from CEO to chairman in 2010 and a year later established his foundation with an endowment of $20 million worth of Silver Chef shares.
The foundation, which aims to distribute $800,000 to $1 million a year, splits its focus over three areas – 40% goes to micro funding programs overseas, 40% to groups in South East Queensland and 20% to support social entrepreneurs.
English admits he supports charities in some different and difficult areas. These include Karuna, a hospice in Queensland that helps people and families dealing with the end of a loved one’s life.
“I’m probably not in the sexy space,” he told F&P magazine. “I don’t go for puppy dogs and kids charities – I tend to go for the things that are a bit tougher in our community, which probably sometimes get ignored.”
English also makes no secret of the fact he wants to be seen as a leader in this space – the sort of role model Chris Cuffe says is invaluable.
“I think the only way we can get people who are creating wealth to see philanthropy as a worthwhile enterprise is if we start talking more about it and promote some of the benefits that can be gained from it.”
As Cuffe says, the flywheel is slowly turning.
James Thomson is a former editor of BRW’s Rich 200 and the publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
