Giving while living.

For all our prosperity, Australians give modestly. We donate around 0.81% of GDP to charity; well behind New Zealand at 1.84% and the United States at around 2.1%. If we simply matched New Zealand, national giving would rise from roughly $13 billion a year to about $30 billion.

It's a gap the country has noticed. The Australian Government has set a goal to double philanthropic giving by 2030, prompting a once-in-a-generation Productivity Commission review. Philanthropy Australia is pursuing a parallel target: to double structured giving from $2.5 billion in 2020 to $5 billion by the end of the decade. The ambition is real. What's missing is the participation of the people most able to lead it.

The opportunity hidden in the transfer

Philanthropy Australia frames it starkly. Over the two decades to 2040, some $2.6 trillion will pass to the next generation. If families directed even 5 to 10% of that to charitable purposes, it would unleash between $130 and $260 billion: enough to place Australia among the most generous nations on earth. The capacity is already here. What's needed is intention.

Why give while you're alive to see it

Many wealthy Australians plan to give eventually, through their estate. But there's a quiet case for giving while living. You get to see the good your money does. You can learn, adjust and give more wisely over time. And, most importantly for a family, you get to give together: to involve your children in choosing causes, weighing trade-offs, and visiting the work.

That last point is the one families underrate. A bequest teaches a child nothing about stewardship; it simply arrives. But a family that gives together (that debates where the money should go and why) is teaching the next generation the single most protective habit there is: that wealth is a tool for something beyond itself. It is, quite literally, how values get inherited.

Giving with structure, not just sentiment

For families with significant means, intention is best paired with structure. Vehicles such as private and public ancillary funds let a family set aside capital, give in a planned and tax-effective way, and build a giving practice that can outlast any one generation. Done well, structured giving becomes a small institution of its own: a standing expression of what the family believes, with the children gradually taking the helm.

The Productivity Commission has called for reform to make this system simpler and fairer, and expects giving to grow by around 48% by 2030 regardless. Families who build the habit now will be ahead of that curve; and they will have shaped where the money goes, rather than leaving it to chance.

The values goal, made real

We often talk about setting a values goal beside the financial one: deciding what your wealth is for. Giving is where that goal stops being an idea and becomes a practice. It answers the question every inheriting family eventually faces: not just "how much will we pass on?" but "what will we be known for?"

The wealth will move regardless. Whether it leaves a mark that your children are proud to carry is a choice; and it's best made while you're still here to make it together.