‘Philanthropy is the tail of the dog, not the dog itself.’ If ever there was a quote to summarise a session about professionalizing philanthropy in Asia, this would be it.

A whole philanthropic ecosystem is being built in southeast Asia, changing almost day by day. With the global headlines on USAID and traditional sources of philanthropy facing pressure, there is the sense that there is an opportunity for Asian philanthropists to take up the challenge. 

Unique to Asia is an intersection that others have yet quite to reach at the same speed. That of philanthropy working with private and public actors to meet net-zero and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target.  

Foo Mee Har, CEO of the Wealth Management Institute, pointed out what that driving force has been. 

‘Asia is leading the world with wealth creation outpacing North America and Europe. And yet when it comes to giving, there is enormous [potential] to grow,’ she said. 

The region, however, ‘remains over 30 years behind in achieving our key development goals. Lots of money but lots of catching up to do. Lots of money, not deployed.’ 

In Asia, some 80 per cent of giving is through grantmaking. But other ways have been touted, through impact investment, concessionary loans and giving with differing levels of risk and return. 

Rhett Ayers Butler, founder and CEO of Mongabay, called for ‘more collaborative action across different types of funders’ that were not driven by short termism. 

‘We are seeing a rewriting of meeting the SDGs. Private capital has to step up in a significant way,’ said panelist Stephen King, senior advisor at Omidyar Group, regarding professionalizing philanthropy.  

‘It is important to step back and say we can’t solve the problem even with all the philanthropic resources,’ King said, regarding professionalizing philanthropy. Strikingly, it is in Asia where the private-public-philanthropy discourse is at its strongest. 

He noted that although impact investing is ‘important part of the overall philanthropic market’, Europe and the US were far ahead with national impact investing bodies that emerged in UK, Germany and the US in the 2000s, when ‘leaders of an asset class grew.’ 

Read the full article about professionalizing philanthropy in Asia by Shafi Musaddique at Alliance Magazine.