Doing it for themselves...philanthropy with purpose

So the richest man in Australia is now a woman. Gina Rinehart, Chairman of Hancock Prospecting, is worth $9bn and tops Forbes list of Richest Australians. The reference to her as Australia’s richest “man” is purely tongue in cheek - not 5 years ago, to have a woman topping the list would have been pretty much unthinkable.

One wonders how many millions or billions one would have to amass before feeling inclined to make a sizable financial contribution to society? Not commenting on Rinehart, for all I know she has dispensed generously to community projects close to her heart, but I am a firm subscriber to the “with wealth comes social responsibility” belief.

But what does that mean nowadays, particularly for wealthy women? How and why do women give? Traditionally, women who have inherited their means regard themselves merely as custodians of their parent/spouse’s interests, with boys’ private schools, museums and galleries being happy recipients of their benevolence. Actually women’s causes don’t get much of a look-in overall, with statistics showing they have attracted less than 10% of charitable grants globally.

Luckily this is changing with the financial empowerment of women, and the increase in those who are self-made. A growing trend is to combine donating with doing. Take the provision of micro finance to mothers (shown to be a direct route to enfranchise the poor) – it is something our generation of “kitchen tycoons” can relate to.

The acceleration of social change focused on the advancement of women and girls is a driving force behind much of the female philanthropic dollar today. Although the financial returns may be lower than conventional investment opportunities, the social returns make it more than worthwhile. And giving in this way makes good business sense too – raising a woman from poverty, homelessness or unemployment, will generally see her children and other family members emerge too.

How rewarding to be able to fund those causes that lie really close to one’s heart, those that feed one’s passions and underpin one’s values? Helping sisters do it for themselves.