Giving Compass' Take:

• Deepali Khanna explains how collaboration could unlock Asia's growing philanthropic power. 

• How can funders work to encourage effective philanthropy in growth areas? 

• Learn more about Asia's philanthropic potential. 

More than half of the world’s economic growth in recent years came from Asia. This eastward shift of the world’s economic center of gravity is fueling the expansion of individual wealth, with the number of high-net-worth individuals in Asia nearly doubling since 2012. According to the Forbes World's Billionaires list for 2019, one out of five newly minted billionaires from last year came from China, making up the largest number of new billionaires in the world.

With growing wealth comes the potential for a new era of charitable giving laser-focused on solving the world’s most intractable problems—like climate change, inequality and scarce food supplies. That this can be Asian-led is unprecedented. In fact, according to the Doing Good Index 2018, Asian philanthropists have the capacity to contribute $500 billion in charitable giving, surpassing that of the U.S. China, for example, has already begun to unleash this potential by harnessing the highest number of millionaires engaged in environmental, social and governance-related investing. Across the region, a new generation of globally minded and mission-driven ultra-rich are now taking the helm of the exponential growth in capital. This convergence uniquely positions Asia to fuel a new model of philanthropy that can make the biggest bets in bridging the $2.5 trillion funding gap needed to solve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.

Yet despite a strong heritage of collective action among Asian cultures, philanthropy in the region has also traditionally been a lonely mission. This is beginning to change, with a number of consortiums and alliances taking root. But as development challenges become increasingly globalized and complex, the time has come to accelerate collaboration and the pooling of resources to create outsized impact.

Read the full article about collaboration in Asia's philanthropic community by Deepali Khanna at Forbes.