Family offices may multiply giving via impact investing

FROM the Carnegie Foundation in North America to the Li Ka Shing Foundation in Asia, wealthy families worldwide have long been making charitable donations to support worthy causes. Based on a report prepared by UBS in collaboration with Campden Wealth Limited, families in Asia-Pacific, through their family offices alone, donated an average of US$2.7 million each to philanthropic causes.

Yet, only 25 per cent of those same families reported that they were engaged in impact investing.

Charitable donations - while important and necessary to provide the financial resources necessary to overcome systemic and market-based inequalities - are by their very nature, limited. Once expended, the grant is exhausted and the grant-maker must make a further donation if he/she wishes to sustain his/her cause.