Success and giving back: a guide to Australia’s most significant philanthropists

They give hundreds of millions to causes as broad as children’s nutrition, Olympic sports and Japanese art.

Jeff Chapman. Picture: David Geraghty

They give hundreds of millions to causes as broad as children’s nutrition, Olympic sports and Japanese art. These are some of Australia’s most significant philanthropists.

 

Jeff Chapman

Chapman’s philanthropic ventures combine traditional grant giving with a for-profit twist. The Melbourne entrepreneur’s Bennelong Foundation receives profits from his Bennelong Funds Management business, which are then distributed to various social and educational causes. Chapman eventually wants to bequeath his entire wealth to the foundation, to which the Bennelong fund managers also contribute in financial terms and via pro-bono work. The foundation has already donated more than $11 million to causes, mostly to grassroots programs supporting recently arrived migrants.

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Andrew Forrest

 

Andrew Forrest. Picture: Supplied

The billionaire miner’s philanthropic interests are every bit as ambitious as was his successful dream for building Fortescue Metals Group into the third force in iron ore. His Minderoo Foundation, to which he contributes hundreds of millions, backs causes ranging from efforts to end modern slavery, closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, eliminating cancer and helping clean up the world’s oceans. Forrest also supports early learning education programs, medical research and even a pan-Asian rugby union competition set up after the demise of Super Rugby’s Western Force franchise.

 

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Peter Scanlon

 

Millionaire businessman Peter Scanlon.

 

The transport and logistics magnate grew up in Melbourne’s multicultural suburb of Coburg, which he cites as a major influence on his philanthropic pursuits. His Scanlon Foundation backs grassroots projects that focus on cultural diversity and funds studies on population and immigration. The foundation also supports the annual Taste of Harmony event that encourages businesses to celebrate cultural diversity in the workplace. Scanlon was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015 for fostering social cohesion and promoting multiculturalism.

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Graham Tuckwell

 

Graham Tuckwell. Picture: John Feder

 

Few Australians are more enthusiastic supporters of their alma mater than Tuckwell, who has made his fortune as a pioneer of exchange traded funds. He and wife Louise have donated $100 million to build two residential halls at the Australian National University in Canberra, as well as establishing the $50 million Tuckwell Scholarships program. The moves make the couple the most generous donors to an Australian university.

 

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Clive Berghofer

 

Multi-millionaire property developer and philanthropist Clive Berghofer. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

 

Few dominate their home town as Berghofer does in Toowoomba, though his philanthropic pursuits extend across Queensland. Berghofer has been Toowoomba’s mayor and owns extensive property investments, but has also funded the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, CareFlight and even the Brisbane Broncos’ new training centre. Berghofer averages about $5 million in donations annually, $2 million of which goes to the QIRM annually for 25 years under an announcement he made in 2013.

 

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Gina Rinehart

 

Gina Rinehart.

 

Rinehart backs four Australian Olympic sports to the tune of up to $10 million annually via her Georgina Hope Foundation, but less well known is her extensive support of a charity for girls in Cambodia. She backs the Cambodian Children’s Fund that has so far helped raise close to 2000 orphaned and disadvantaged girls out of poverty and fund their tertiary education by providing scholarships. At a personal level, Rinehart has unofficially adopted several of the girls, whom she visits personally and for whom she funds trips to Australia and elsewhere.

 

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John Gandel

 

John Gandel. Picture: Hamish Blair

 

 

Billionaire retailer Gandel sits behind the Gandel Foundation, which has given away more than $100 million to Jewish and general causes. Gandel’s wife Pauline was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia earlier this year for her humanitarian, philanthropic and fundraising endeavours, and her contribution to Australia-Japan relations. She and her husband have supported medical and educational causes and the Pauline Gandel Gallery of Japanese Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as the Pauline Gandel Children’s Gallery at Melbourne Museum.

 

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Terry Snow. Picture: Kym Smith

 

 

Terry Snow

The Canberra billionaire established his Snow Foundation in 1991, which has since distributed more than $22 million in grants to local individuals and organisations focusing on health, education and employment and social welfare. Its support has ranged from scholarships for school leavers from the country to helping build houses in Canberra for people with disabilities to information network programs for new parents. The Snow Foundation was also a leading voice in the campaign for marriage equality, with Snow’s son Tom a prominent voice in the Yes campaign in 2017.

 

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Andrew Muir

Andrew Muir. Picture: Paul Jeffers

 

Muir is taking on one of the more difficult parental tasks, convincing children to eat their vegetables. His Good Foundation, named for the Good Guys retail chain his family sold in 2016, focuses on programs and projects promoting good health and nutrition. It has supported the introduction of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food cooking centres around Australia and backed the pilot Learn Your Fruit and Veg program that has run in early learning centres and primary schools in several states.

 

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Naomi Milgrom

 

Naomi Milgrom.

 

 

The owner of the Sussan retail chain founded her eponymous foundation in 2014, supporting Australian art, design and architecture projects and causes. The Naomi Milgrom Foundation’s most prominent project has been the MPavilion, a temporary structure erected each year in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens and then relocated to a permanent place in the city. Milgrom has also backed the annual Living Cities Forum, the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and various art and performance exhibitions.