Beacon Philanthropy in the City Forum
held on 30 May 2007

Summary

This year the Beacon Fellowship's City forum highlighted the growing role of the City in both wealth creation and philanthropy in Britain. Almost 200 people packed the room at the Woolgate Exchange - the London home of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business – to learn from the experiences of Jamie Cooper-Hohn, CEO, The Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and Beacon Fellows: Claire Mackintosh, Founder and CEO, ShareGift, Dr Frederick Mulder, Founding Director and Chair, The Funding Network, John Studzinski CBE, Senior Managing Director, The Blackstone Group and Founder of The Genesis Foundation.

The key objective of the forum, as set out by Beacon Chairman Martyn Lewis, was to ‘highlight individual contribution to philanthropy through leadership, innovation, passion and dedication’.

The debate on Philanthropy in the City was very timely with the UK Labour Party’s Deputy Leadership candidates discussing increasing City bonuses. ‘Should the City show a lead with more proactive open style philanthropy in order to prevent greater regulation or changes in taxation?’, Beacon Chairman Martyn Lewis asked the audience.

The event was attended by representatives and executives from a wide range of sectors and organisations, such as Goldman Sachs, UBS, Lehman Brothers, Barclays, JP Morgan, ABN AMRO, Coutts, New Philanthropy Capital, Institute for Philanthropy, London School of Economics, CASS Business School, Bloomberg, several charities and private equity professionals.

The speakers shared their experiences, from a major donation to the Tate Modern, the foundation of ShareGift, a charity promoting share donation as a mechanism for fundraising to The Funding Network (TFN), the first public ‘giving circle’ that supports social change projects and the Children’s Investment Fund foundation (CIFF), a grant-making organisation focused on demonstrably improving the lives of children in developing countries.

The speakers emphasised the importance of role models in inspiring new philanthropists, a key element of the Beacon’s strategy, and the need to make people comfortable with giving. They also agreed that philanthropy should be fun and can even be addictive. It does not only change the lives of others, it also changes and enhances the lives of the philanthropists. The panelists represented proactive or so-called ‘New Philanthropists’, who combine business skills with charitable giving and are actively engaged in their projects. Some key elements raised in the debate were:

• The importance of role models to promote people to give;
• The role tax incentives could play to make giving easier and attractive;
• The rise of proactive, engaged, philanthropy;
• The role of research and measuring investment returns.

Full summary of debate