13 reflections on wealth and philanthropy

Here are 13 final reflections about wealth after 23 years working in the Australian philanthropy sector*:

1. Most high net worth (HNW) families don’t do the calculation of ‘how much is enough?’, and keep creating wealth for the sake of it, without asking why?
2. More thought needs to be given to ‘how much do the kids need?’ Leaving material wealth to the kids often results in poor outcomes. Kids need to learn to work. Warren Buffett: “Leave enough to your kids to do anything in life, but not enough to do nothing.”
3. Our giving culture amongst HNW families remains poor. Nearly 25 years since the introduction of private ancillary funds (PAFs) and we still only have 2,200 PAFs (should be 15,000+). You can establish a sub-fund with $10,000 yet we only have around 3,500 (should be 100,000+). I regularly hear the expression, often from sector leaders, that Australians are generous. Until we look at the giving stats and have a frank discussion about our current generosity levels, and plan where we would like to be, little will change.
4. We celebrate our Rich List a lot more than our Top 50 Givers List. Why is that? The philanthropic sector deserves more respect. Perhaps it hasn’t earned it? Let’s add a column to the Rich List: “% of wealth given away”.
5. HNW families are surrounded by conflicted advisors, most of whom benefit from HNW families continually growing their wealth. Creating wealth for generations; for what purpose? With humanity’s current trajectory, and the rapidly growing inequality, there may not be much left in 100 years…
6. We need to better tell the story of how a family foundation can be an extraordinary educational tool for the next generation. A foundation is a microcosm of a business. The kids can learn about governance, managing money, setting a mission, developing and implementing a strategy, measuring impact and the responsibility of wealth. Plus, the satisfaction of meeting amazing social entrepreneurs and backing them.
7. Several wealth advisors have established a ‘philanthropic services’ team. Most know that some of these are not seriously trying to grow the philanthropic sector but simply trying to grow FUM from charities.
8. $5 trillion is to be gifted to the next generation in Australia over the next two decades. Imagine if just 10% was gifted to charitable trusts i.e. $500 billion. This would result in around $25 billion being distributed to the community each year. Now imagine the positive community impact if this was done effectively.
9. An Australian Giving Pledge, where influential HNW families publicly commit to giving away a minimum of 20% of their wealth in their lifetime or upon death, is the best idea I have seen to materially change the culture of giving amongst HNW families in Australia. (I rarely hear any ideas, let alone better ones.) We are influenced by our peers. We need to set the standard for giving in Australia.
10. Let’s empower social entrepreneurs with the resources to develop plans to take a systems approach to tackling the biggest issues in Australia. And let’s pay them appropriately. There is no reason why we can’t action this.
11. If you wish to maximise your impact, seek advice from skilled philanthropic advisors. Of course I’m biased, but good advisors are very under-rated.
12. We have the wealth and intelligence to solve all issues on the planet, if we can be inspired to do so. I live in hope that the next generation will give more consideration to the constructive use of wealth. And that the next wave of philanthropic leaders will be less interested in their little fiefdom and will want to debate the above issues and push much harder for a much bigger and much better philanthropic sector.
13. Don’t be satisfied with doing good; do great!

It’s time for a frank discussion on philanthropy in Australia. Given the wealth created in Australia in recent decades, philanthropy leaders should be targeting a much bigger and much better philanthropic sector. I’m not seeing it. The status quo isn’t working, other than some magic in a few areas.

“It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit”. Harry Truman

Peter Winneke is a philanthropy adviser and consultant, and author of “Give While You Live: A practical guide to more & better giving in Australia”.

*This is an edited version of Peter’s 31.10.25 LinkedIn post, “23 reflections about wealth after 23 years in the philanthropy sector”.