Women donors will overtake ‘rich, old white guys’ in philanthropy

‘Self-made’ women will dominate Australian philanthropy during the next two decades, says entrepreneur Deanne Weir.

Company director, film producer and philanthropist Deanne Weir. Picture: Jane Dempster

Women are expected to drive philanthropy in the next 20 years, but too many Australians still think it’s all about “rich, old white guys”, says entrepreneur Deanne Weir, who is part of a campaign to boost the visibility of female donors.

The investor in the technology and film sectors says philanthropy is already “incredibly dominated by women who are out there doing the work and also doing some really good strategic investing and donating”.

The She Gives campaign, launched on Wednesday, is designed to build awareness of the decision-making power of women on the basis that they will inherit more than two thirds of the $3.4 trillion to be transferred in intergenerational wealth in the next 20 years.

The group has high-profile supporters, including Carol Schwartz, who is a member of the Besen family of Melbourne businesspeople and philanthropists.

Ms Schwartz, who donates through her private ancillary fund, the Trawalla Foundation, says philanthropy can help us avoid the massive inequalities of countries like the US.

According to a She Gives report, the bias towards men is seen in media coverage; of the 100 most-read articles on philanthropy in the past 12 months, 54 focused on men, 32 on organisations or foundations and only 14 on women.

Yet as women like Ms Weir grow their personal wealth and women disproportionately inherit through intergenerational wealth transfer, female philanthropy will have a bigger effect.

While it’s hard to quantify women’s contribution, the report says a greater proportion of Australian women – 29.39 per cent – claim a tax deduction for giving than do men (26.08 per cent).

Ms Weir, who has given away about $6m in the past 12 years through her Weir Anderson Foundation, is an example of the emerging “self-made” woman philanthropist.

Businesswoman and entrepreneur Carol Schwartz. Picture: David Geraghty

“I was a girl from Horsham with a lovely, wonderful family, no real money but a big sense of supporting the community,” she says.

A corporate lawyer, she built her capital base as a senior executive at pay-TV company Austar, which was sold to Foxtel for $2bn in 2012. She then set up the Weir Anderson investment group with her husband, and the foundation as its philanthropic arm.

Ms Weir says it feels “weird” to talk about her philanthropy but does so because She Gives is designed to make giving more transparent.

“I’m not in the league of some other donors … and I actually like to talk about everyday philanthropy. Australians are incredibly generous, but I’d like to see us develop more of a culture of everyday giving,” she says.

People should make their own decisions about where to give “but for me, applying a gender lens is incredibly important because quite often, people might think they’re giving in a gender neutral way (but) I always encourage them to think about where the money is going to end up”.

Ms Schwartz’s parents, Eva and Marc Besen, set up their foundation more than three decades ago and Ms Schwartz continues as a trustee.

“I was brought up in a family where philanthropy was just a natural part of what we did,” Ms Schwartz says. “It was the example set by my grandparents, by my parents.”

She and husband Alan run the Trawalla Foundation, a private ancillary fund which focuses on climate change and gender equity.

But Ms Schwartz stresses She Gives is not only about giving to women. “It’s about encouraging women to contribute philanthropically in whatever way they can,” she says.

“It’s a learning experience: hey, you’re now capable of participating in this really important social activity, start at whatever level you like, but you will feel so empowered by being able to contribute in these ways.”

She says philanthropy can head off inequality and a lack of social cohesion. At an investment conference in Santa Monica in the US recently she was shocked by the homelessness.

“I had not been there since Covid,” she says. “And there was a marked difference in the amount of homelessness, people sleeping on park benches every night, homeless camps and tent cities all over the place. It’s not good and we don’t want that here.”

The She Gives report says because women outlive men, and eldest daughters are 50 per cent more likely to control family inheritances than the eldest son, women will come into “unprecedented levels of education, agency and wealth” in decades to come.

Yet too often women’s contributions “remain in the shadows”.

“Based on our consultation with over 60 philanthropic leaders, many feel women’s giving does not receive the same level of visibility and recognition as our male counterparts,” Ms Schwartz says.

“(Yet) We see a significant number of women in leadership positions in the sector and anecdotally we know women have significant levels of influence in giving, from regular monthly donations to mega gifts.”