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Giving Australia 2016: Philanthropy & philanthropists

Anna Sharbek, Martin Myer, Christopher Baker, Sarah Davies and Ian Darling at the 2017 Philanthropy Australia Awards.

Release of Giving Australia 2016: Philanthropy and philanthropists report, Community Business Partnership, 5 April 2017

The Hon Christian Porter MP, Minister for Social Services, today released Giving Australia 2016 Philanthropy and philanthropists report and announced the opening of a grants funding round to celebrate grassroots partnerships between business, philanthropists and community organisations during Community and Philanthropy Partnerships Week.

The Philanthropy and philanthropists report focuses on the giving patterns of high-net-worth (HNW) and institutional givers. Findings from this report will be of particular interest to philanthropists and grant-makers, financial intermediaries including advisors and planners, and nonprofit organisations.

Selected highlights include:

  • HNW individuals have nearly doubled from 146,000 in 2005 to 234,000 in 2015. As giving tends to increase with income, this provides a greater pool of people with the capacity to give significant amounts to charity.
  • Evaluation of effectiveness and social impact is of growing significance for institutional grant-makers.
  • One in five survey respondents included impact investments in their fund’s portfolio but it remains on the fringes of the investment strategies.
  • More than a third of the 105 respondents to the Philanthropy and philanthropists survey (38.5 per cent) participated in collective giving. This was on top of giving individually or through foundations.
  • The report also found a trend in life-long giving, with younger philanthropists wanting to give what they can while building their wealth.

Member of the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnership and Chairman of Perpetual Limited, Peter Scott, hosted a lunch with philanthropists and representatives of the nonprofit sector in Sydney to discuss the findings of the report and how partnerships can foster a culture of giving and volunteering in Australia. Peter Scott also provides a comprehensive overview of the Giving Australia 2016 series in this YouTube presentation.

The launch of this report also featured at 2017 Philanthropy Awards hosted by Philanthropy Australia in Melbourne.

The Philanthropy and philanthropists report and fact sheets on Structured giving vehicles and philanthropy and Charitable bequests are available at the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnership research projects.

Further Giving Australia 2016 reports will be released progressively in 2017:

  • Business Giving and Volunteering
  • Giving and volunteering: the nonprofit perspective
  • Individual giving and volunteering, and
  • Giving Australia 2016 – summary report.