This has been a year of record-setting in billionaire philanthropy. In September, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of POM Wonderful and Fiji Water, pledged $750 million to the California Institute of Technology for environmental sustainability research. 



In June, Blackstone cofounder Stephen Schwarzman donated $189 million to the University of Oxford—the largest single gift to the school since the Renaissance—to fund its work on humanities. The same month, Broadcom billionaire Henry Samueli pledged $100 million to UCLA’s engineering school, the largest gift ever to the department. 



Forbes tracks gifts and pledges like these as part of our ongoing coverage of charitable giving by the country’s richest people.



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For the second year in a row, Forbes tracked the philanthropic giving of the richest 400 individuals in the U.S. and gave each member of The Forbes 400 list a philanthropy score. The score ranged from 1 to 5,  with 5 being the most philanthropic. List members for whom we could find no charitable giving information received an N.A. (not available).



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Though the number of the biggest givers—those who scored a 5—stayed flat in 2019, those who received scores of 4 and 3 increased compared with a year ago. 



The changes reflect two things: The country’s richest have gotten somewhat more generous, and Forbes had more information to work with this year. Some billionaires were willing to share information on charitable giving for the 2019 list who didn’t in 2018. As a result, four dozen people got higher scores this year than a year ago. 



This year, Warren Buffett led the list of top givers with $38.8 billion in lifetime giving, which is 32% of his net worth, and earned the top score of 5. 



He was followed by last year’s biggest giver, Bill Gates, who has donated $38.5 billion so far. Two people who scored a 5 last year—Paul Allen and David Koch—passed away. 



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Billionaires like DreamWorks Pictures founder David Geffen and WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton moved up to the top score after each scored a 4 last year. According to the latest tax filings, Geffen gave $38 million to his foundation in 2017, which brought his lifetime giving to about $1 billion. 



Acton and his wife Tegan, on the other hand, have been expanding their philanthropic network, Wildcard Giving, which they founded in 2014 after Acton sold WhatsApp to Facebook. The couple has given away more than $1 billion to charitable causes.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5da48621cd594c000620fe51/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="2019 Forbes 400 Giving"/><figcaption>FORBES</figcaption></figure>



Forty-one billionaires, including Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings and software billionaire Philip “Terry” Ragon, got higher scores this year than last year. Some, like Stephen Schwarzman, earned a higher score thanks to giving in the past year. 



Others scored higher because we were able to find more information about their lifetime giving, through new public documents or details provided to us by Forbes 400 members or their spokespeople. In September, a Los Angeles Times report revealed that B. 



Wayne Hughes, cofounder of self-storage behemoth Public Storage, had anonymously donated about $400 million to the University of Southern California in his lifetime. Hughes, who scored a 2 last year, jumped up to a 4.



Private equity tycoon Robert F. Smith’s pledge in May to wipe out the student debt of the entire 2019 graduating class of Morehouse College generated lots of headlines but did not end up changing his score because the gift wasn’t big enough to move him up a notch. In many cases, fortunes grew faster than lifetime philanthropic giving. 



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To come up with the information on which we based our score,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;reporters looked at tax filings for charitable foundations, annual statements, SEC filings and news about new gifts.&nbsp;When possible, we interviewed Forbes 400 members and executives from their foundations. Some Forbes 400 members said they have chosen to donate anonymously, citing religious or privacy concerns.&nbsp;



Our score is based on total lifetime giving and what percent of their fortune members had given away. We weighted these two factors equally. Some individuals were then bumped up or down based on several other factors, including whether they had signed the Giving Pledge, whether they had pledged significant donations, how personally involved they were in their charitable giving, and how quickly and effectively their private foundations distributed dollars. We didn’t count pledges or announced gifts that have yet to be paid out, but we took commitment to philanthropy—or lack thereof—into account.



Forbes has been tracking the wealth of the richest Americans since 1982. “Some of [the members] told us to drop dead,” James Michaels, veteran editor of Forbes, told the New York Times in a 1982 story about the list’s debut. “They said they wanted no part of it, that they’d sue us. 



This happens in reporting.” At times, our reporting on philanthropic giving received a similar response. “The new philanthropy ranking is fundamentally flawed, in that it is biased in favor of those who make their gifts widely known, and against donors who choose to make their charitable contributions anonymously,” one current Forbes 400 member (who did not wish to be named) wrote to us last year.



-Deniz Çam; Forbes

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These Are The Biggest Givers On The Forbes 400

German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited one of the greatest collections of women leaders ever for a G7 meeting inside her vast concrete-and-glass Chancellery last September. You could find the director of the World Health Organization (Margaret Chan) and the CEO of General Motors (Mary Barra). The prime minister of Norway (Erna Sold berg) and the former prime minister of Denmark (Helle Thorning-Schmidt). A Nobel Peace Prize winner (Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) and a queen (Rania of Jordan).
And at a circular table set for about two dozen, sitting directly across from Merkel: a former Microsoft manager turned philanthropist, Melinda Gates.
After Merkel danke schöns her guests and listens to reports on women’s political participation, health and economic empowerment, she opens up the floor. Gates, wearing a fitted inky-blue suit and reading glasses, speaks first, giving a precise, impassioned four-minute address.
“When you get women in roles of leadership, we make things happen,” Gates says. “It takes us using our voice, and it also takes us making investments, huge investments, in women and girls.”
Alone in this room of world leaders, Gates can single-handedly make that happen. Prime ministers have parliaments; CEOs have boards; Melinda Gates has a $41.3 billion endowment, and she can deploy it in pretty much any manner that she and husband Bill, the world’s richest person, see fit.
This represents a personal transformation. For the first decade and a half of its existence, the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation deployed its remarkable scale toward eradicating polio and malaria, and experimentation in education issues. But over the past few years, Melinda Gates has embraced having her name on the letterhead of the largest-ever charitable foundation, along with the influence that comes with that. She has become the most powerful person on the planet whose singular focus is women and girls.
“I kept looking for the advocate who would champion these issues,” she says over lunch at the iconic Hotel Adlon Kempinski, during a break from Merkel’s forum.
Gates, 51, has the air of a down-to-earth technocrat, traveling without an entourage but rather with reams of data and determination.
“I knew it had to be a woman. We would talk inside the foundation, ‘Could we get this person or that person?’ I considered other women leaders. But I couldn’t find the one who embodied to me the voice of women around the world. And so I thought, ‘If I’m the one, then I just need to do it. I have to have courage and not worry’.”
Women account for six out of 10 of the world’s poorest and two-thirds of the illiterate. “Excessive female mortality” in the developing world, in the parlance of the International Monetary Fund, means some 3.9 million women and girls are “missing” annually: about two-fifths are never born, one-sixth die in early childhood and more than one-third die during their reproductive years.
“What’s the most pressing issue of our time?” asks Gates. “It really is ending poverty in the world. And we know to do that you have to put women and girls at the center.” Poverty is sexist, and Gates is betting billions that it can be stemmed through the gender historically ignored.
Melinda French Gates was born and bred in Dallas, the daughter of an aerospace-engineer father and a homemaker mother who helped run a family rental property business on the side.
“That was literally how they were going to put us through college, and we all knew it,” she says referencing her sister and two younger brothers. On weekends, the kids cleaned and fixed up the rental properties and kept books on the family’s Apple III.
The valedictorian of her all-girls Catholic school and captain of her high school’s drill team, Gates earned a bachelor’s in computer science and economics and an M.B.A. from Duke in five years, consciously shaving a year so she could get into the workforce faster.
“She always knew what she wanted,” says her sister, Susan French. “She just has this confidence within her. Once she sets her eyes on the next project, her next goal, then it’s all out.”
That next project, in 1987, was Microsoft, as a product manager, where the founder famously asked her out in the company parking lot.
“I worked around a lot of really intelligent guys in college because there were very few women,” she says, describing her initial attraction.
“When I look back, Bill was the same kind of guy I was hanging out with in college. I had a lot of respect for them, and they had respect for me. I was definitely attracted to his brilliant mind, but beyond that, his curiosity. And he has a huge sense of fun. I love that wry side of him.”
The couple dated for seven years before marrying in 1994 in Hawaii. In 1996, Gates, now a general manager at Microsoft, became pregnant with their first child, Jennifer, and chose to stay home.
“That was completely her decision,” says Bill Gates. “I was a little surprised, but that really made sense for her. Then came kids two and three.”
Fast-forward two decades: Jennifer is now 19 and a sophomore at Stanford, with Rory, 16, and Phoebe, 13, leaning on Mom increasingly less. Like many mothers staring down an empty nest, Gates went through a period of intense soul-searching. Now what?
And so she began digging ever deeper into the work at the Gates Foundation, which is concentrated primarily on global health and development, and making stunning progress in eradicating polio, malaria and HIV, and promoting vaccines and sanitation. It should be noted, though, that the foundation “has not been a pioneer when it comes to advocating for women’s health,” says Linsey McGoey, author of No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.
Increasingly, Gates started focusing less on the foundation’s vertical efforts but rather on how to approach what it was already doing horizontally. Specifically, to fund initiatives in these areas that take the world’s most vulnerable women and girls into account. Yes, there was an empathetic component, but Gates looked through the lens of ROI.
Muhammad Yunus won a Nobel Peace Prize for microloan practices that targeted women in the developing world, recognizing they’re more likely to steward money effectively and channel it into the family. Bill Gates has saved tens of thousands of lives through immunization efforts; Melinda Gates began to encourage grants that took into account that women are more likely than men to take their kids to get immunized.
<div id="attachment_31859" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31859" class="wp-image-31859 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FO121415_062-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO121415_062.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO121415_062-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO121415_062-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FO121415_062-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />&#8221;Women’s issues are the hard issues.”</div>
“When I was first at the foundation I thought of women’s issues as the ‘soft issues,’ and I didn’t want to be seen as soft,” says Gates. “In fact, it’s just the opposite. Women’s issues are the hard issues. You want to get at violence or child marriage? Those are hard. Warren [Buffett] always says you have to swing for the fences.”
Melinda Gates’ public coming out also traces to Berlin. For years, even as she worked at the foundation, she guarded her privacy. (“Bill was already a public figure, so I knew what that half looked like.”) But eventually she decided that advocacy for a cause means putting your face out there.
“I tell my daughters to have their voice in this world, and it became clear I needed to role-model that.”
So three years ago, she came to Germany to give a TedX talk focusing on family planning and universal birth control access. Her original $70-million-a-year commitment was doubled three months later, and she just announced an additional $120 million.
Welcome to the limelight, Melinda. The Vatican’s office newspaper, under Pope Benedict XVI, published a front page headline, “Birth Control and Disinformation: The Risks of Philanthropy”, that accused her of spreading lies. A tough rebuke for a Catholic who says she prays or meditates daily (“whatever you want to call it”).
“It’s a really uncomfortable place to go,” says Gates. “To talk about sex, reproduction, tools. But these were things we were talking about inside the foundation.”
And Gates learned two valuable lessons. First, that when she speaks, by dint of her conviction and resources, the world listens.
“In giving voice to family planning, once I saw we could actually move resources on the global stage, I thought, ‘There are other women’s issues I have to take on’.”
Second, she could take a punch. “They say how mistaken Mrs. Gates was, and she must have been misled by the people who wanted to make money selling reproductive health tools,” says Bill Gates. In response he gave her the newspaper as a gift, which she keeps framed in her office at the foundation’s Seattle headquarters. “I gave her a copy because she decided she would speak up and deal with the controversy. It’s a complex area, but she took it on.”
Those who watch the foundation reject the idea that Melinda operates as a number two to Bill’s number one. “Anyone who’s paying attention understands that she’s playing a leading role,” says Aaron Dorfman of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog for the sector.
“We certainly weren’t working as equals when we started together,” says Melinda Gates. “I was down several levels at Microsoft, and he was the CEO. We’ve had to change to really be coequals. It’s not something that immediately happens overnight, but we’re both committed to it. We needed to talk behind the scenes when it wasn’t working. But I think that’s come now.
“We literally hand meetings and issues to one another, and we’re very comfortable about when to make a decision without the other one and when we should do it together. And the together isn’t always because of a dollar issue. It’s more about, ‘Will the other person care about this decision as much as I do?’ ”
“Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve always had a partner,” says Bill Gates. “In the early days of Microsoft it was Paul Allen who helped come up with the ideas and build the early things. Then it became Steve Ballmer, who I met at college and came in and helped run the company and made it super successful. Now it’s Melinda at the foundation.”
She carries the same title as her husband: cofounder and cochair. (Bill’s dad is another cochair and Warren Buffett, who is funnelling his fortune into the foundation, serves as cotrustee.)
“She and Bill are the final deciders,” adds Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the foundation’s CEO, who started in 2014. “The approval process that starts with annual budgets and strategies involves the two of them as equal partners.”
Gates’ family planning initiatives quickly segued to those who got pregnant, specifically maternal and prenatal health. Once you spend time there, infant health is a natural extension. Then a commitment to expand educational opportunities for girls. And what are these young women supposed to do when they get out of school? Gates understands most aren’t going to get paid to work in developing countries. So she’s green-lit numerous programs that encourage micro-entrepreneurship, such as small-plot farming and mobile banking.
The result is a cradle-to-motherhood suite of initiatives for women and girls. The foundation doesn’t break out how much it spends in this area, mostly because it was so woven into its $3.9 billion in outlays in 2014. And it measures how each program specifically helps women and girls.
For example, the foundation backs M-KOPA, a Kenya-based organization that manufactures solar-powered lamps. On paper it’s a gender-neutral program providing the kind of personal power supply that relieves off-the-grid families of the costs and dangers of kerosene lamps. But it disproportionately helps girls, who often do homework at night after a day of chores.
Another partner, GSMA, brings mobile money accounts to the underbanked. Again, a bigger deal for women – just 37% in developing countries hold bank accounts, and many are intentionally excluded from formal financial systems.
“When you go on the ground, in places in India or inner Bangladesh, you kind of don’t want to hear what the women tell you,” she says. “But when you really sit and take it all in, you later go, ‘Oh my God, they’re right’. And this group of women helped me realize that all these other issues I see in the developing world, those issues need to be addressed, too. They’re all part and parcel of the same thing.”
The Gates Foundation is also keen on funding pilots in this area: Successes are rewarded with more money; failures are learning opportunities. Megan White Mukuria is typical. She founded Kenya-based ZanaAfrica Group, an initiative focused on sanitary pads. Girls in many low-income countries stay away from school during their period or even drop out, with numbers as high as one in 10 in Africa.
ZanaAfrica’s grant timeline neatly follows the arc of the foundation’s gender focus. After a $100,000 test phase grant in 2011 to develop sanitary pads from local materials such as bamboo or jute, Mukuria was turned down for a Phase 2 proposal to test distribution strategies and approaches to health education. That “no” went to “maybe yes” two months later and turned into a definite $1 million three months after that. Late 2015, ZanaAfrica received a $2.6 million grant.
“They [the Gates Foundation] initially couldn’t fund the scale-up because sanitary pads are outside their mandate in sanitation, which is all about the toilet,” Mukuria says. “But they literally just winked at each other and said, ‘We have to do this’. And if they didn’t do it, nobody would.”
Expect more such grants in 2016 through a loquaciously named program: the Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development Challenge. Some 20 awardees will net more than $20 million in grants aimed at gender-specific projects. Small money for Gates but a signal that she’s opening up to groups that see women and girls as the primary goal rather than a beneficial by-product, and a first step toward what Gates hopes might be a clearinghouse for those looking to help in this area.
“Everyone tries to read the tea leaves to understand what’s going to be in favor or out of favor,” says Dorfman, the philanthropy watchdog, “and many groups adjust their work plans accordingly.” That dovetails with a consistent criticism of the Gates Foundation—that it wields too much power and makes too many decisions in an echo chamber.
“Whether Mr. and Mrs. Gates prefer it that way or not,” says the author McGoey, “there’s this perception that the strong directional influence played by the executives is something to be celebrated rather than seen potentially as a cause for problems.”
“My experience has been that she [Melinda] likes to get [others’] views,” says Desmond-Hellmann. “We have people at the foundation who have spent their entire careers on a technical area, say, somebody’s done tuberculosis their whole life.” Asked if anyone says no to Melinda Gates, she laughs. “People do say, ‘Yes, that’s not possible.’ That’s more likely than no.”
“[We are accountable] to the people of the world, honestly,” adds Gates. “I do hope that at the end of our lives somebody will look back and say, ‘Melinda and Bill set out to change the world on behalf of poor people. Did they? Are more kids alive because of the work they did? Are fewer people getting malaria? Are more women getting contraceptives?’ That’s who we are accountable to.”
Back in Berlin, after a state dinner at the Chancellery, Gates heads off to her private jet. Across town from the airport and a world apart from the halls of power she just left is a government complex where thousands of Syrians and other refugees are waiting to register for asylum.
It’s impossible to ignore all the women tending to overstretched strollers filled with little ones and a life’s detritus sagging in plastic bags. They have their own tent for privacy, including nursing. Men stand in overcrowded lines, anxious to be called to sign up for IDs, funds and services. Having trekked all the way to Berlin, the refugees have nothing to do now but wait.
“When you see a picture of a child washed up on the beach — or a mother — so many of the faces you see are women,” she says. “And even if they get across the border, they’re put into camps, which are especially horrible for women in terms of the violence and rape. They’re disproportionately affected. So my heart breaks. It’s not a small heartbreak, it’s a huge heartbreak.”
The Gates Foundation is engineered to move quickly — the couple has dictated that all assets must be put to work and the organization wound down within 20 years of the last cofounder’s passing. So Gates is investing some $17.5 million around the Middle East refugee crisis — an investment that the world sees as alleviating suffering, and that Melinda Gates sees as another step in improving the lives of poor women.
The article first appeared in the December 14, 2015 issue of FORBES. The year references have been accordingly changed.

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THE FIRST WOMAN OF Women

It is so easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. What can you do this year that epitomizes the true spirit of Christmas?
A definition of a philanthropist is someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being. This could include giving your time, money, or reputation to charitable causes. By giving back to your community or missionary organizations you give yourself the opportunity, and the privilege, of making a positive impact on other people’s lives. Material possessions will ultimately lose their shine, but through philanthropy, one can make an impact and shape or even save lives.
Is there a particular cause that you have considered supporting? This might be a good time to crystallize your strategy for this. Review your finances to decide how much you can afford to give. Will it be a one-off donation or is it something you can continue to commit to year on year. Narrow your choices down to a few charities or initiatives that you can identify with and do some research on them to ensure that their ethos and mission aligns with your core values; then choose one or two to support. Follow up to see the impact your action is having.
While we all love to see the excitement on children’s faces on Christmas morning as they open their presents, try to emphasize the non-material aspects of the season, such as family, fellowship and thoughtfulness. It is not enough to just tell them to be charitable and kind, our own actions in supporting others or changing lives will speak louder than anything we can say. We must guide them through a program of action so that it becomes ingrained in their psyche.
The high cost of living and unemployment means that many people face a dreary holiday season and cannot afford much this Christmas. If you are fortunate enough to have an overflowing basket or trolley, why not shop for another family that is facing difficult times and then have it delivered to their doorstep.
There are so many people in need of the simple things that so many of us may take for granted. Get together with a few friends, put some money together and take some gifts to the elderly who have found themselves in retirement homes. Cheer them up; the gift of happiness and good stimulating company for an elderly person, who might be lonely during the holiday season, would make a huge difference.
Do you often reminisce and complain about how things used to be at your old school and how standards have now fallen? Why not do something about it? With an endowed gift you can provide permanent support for the educational institution. Your contributions will be invested and each year a distribution made to fund the program or area that matches your particular interest. Once it is officially established, you or anyone else may continue to add to the fund at any time.
Gifts do not only have to be of a financial nature. There are several other ways to give meaningfully. The possibilities of giving of your time, experience, talent and intellect are endless and by sharing your knowledge with others you can add sustained value to your community.
As we get caught up in the whirlwind of festivity, socializing and shopping, it is little wonder that we often forget the true meaning of Christmas. How can you make a difference? If you haven’t been doing much for others before now, this is a good time to start. As you prepare for Christmas, remember to be a blessing to others. Merry Christmas!
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For more personal finance tips, please follow Money Matters With Nimi on Twitter: @MMWITHNIMI and Facebook: MoneyMattersWithNimi

What Impact  Will You Have?

Saloni Wahi puts down her cup of coffee and shakes her head. The café we are in is buzzing with young TV journalists and executives respectful of her presence. Saloni smiles and exchanges a word with each of them, inquiring about their work, asking about their families, radiating the warmth she is synonymous with.
It is hard to ignore her; and harder to describe her. A few minutes with her and you are convinced no one description would suffice: she is wife, mother, businesswoman, artist, gourmet chef, philanthropist, and above all, a perfectionist.
“Credibility is everything to me,” she says, thumbing through a sheaf of papers. She is organizing a fundraising event for the ABN Education Trust on September 8, and there is much to do, details that need to be ironed out. Yet, you can tell it’s not the event she’s worried about. It’s the beneficiaries that are her real remit: children in need, women in despair, single mothers who are abandoned.
There’s pathos in her voice as she talks about acts of kindness that can change the lives of the less fortunate.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are in India or Africa, children are the same everywhere. To me, giving back is integral to my being,” she says.
Originally from Delhi in India but based in Dubai since 1989, Saloni moved to Johannesburg in 2007 after her husband, Rakesh Wahi, along with Zafar Siddiqi, set up the ABN Group, which includes CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA.
In 2011, they began talking about setting up a foundation, the ABN Education Trust, for their charitable activities, and decided on two causes. The first to develop skills in financial journalism by providing bursaries for a few children, drawn from disadvantaged families, each year at the University of the Witwatersrand and University of Johannesburg. During the graduation, they are offered internships and subsequently have the option of fulltime work with the Group.
“I received a bursary from the ABN Trust and the icing on the cake was the life-changing opportunity to work for an internationally-affiliated media company. Today, I get to live my dream every day,” says Leigh-Ann Carey, one of the beneficiaries who is now a trainee producer with CNBC Africa.
The second segment the Trust prioritized was orphans.
“We started working with an orphanage in Alexandra. Most children were abandoned by HIV-infected parents. It is creditable how the founders and caretakers of the orphanage have worked tirelessly to help children that would otherwise have died or ended up on the street,” says Saloni.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29507 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Saloni-Wahi_7644-1-300x212.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="212" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Saloni-Wahi_7644-1-300x212.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Saloni-Wahi_7644-1-600x423.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Saloni-Wahi_7644-1-768x542.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Saloni-Wahi_7644-1-1024x722.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Saloni-Wahi_7644-1.jpg 1023w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Over the years, through the Trust, Saloni has committed her resources towards caring for the children, participating in Christmas parties, gifting them provisions, and buying them a bus to safely commute in.
“None of our efforts would have seen fruition without the efforts of the entire team at the ABN Group, particularly Roberta Naicker, Nola Mashaba and more recently, Sian Schlebusch. We are currently working with the orphanage founders and management to find a permanent shelter for the children. This is a critical requirement,” she says.
Saloni has made a significant financial commitment towards this cause. In addition, the ABN Group has also been blessed with support from partners such as the IDC that has contributed directly to the orphanage.
“Our intention is to help facilitate resources for these causes and take these initiatives to other parts of the continent where we are setting up meaningful businesses. We would be expanding these activities to Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. Along with Roberta and the team, I will be now looking at how to put a formal structure to the foundation in these countries,” says Saloni.
Philanthropy is not new for the Wahis. Hailing from an illustrious business family in India, Saloni says she has seen acts of kindness from a young age. Marrying into an equally-philanthropic family has allowed her to continue to do social good all through her life which is integral to her existence.
And like most people, Saloni’s journey has not been without significant responsibilities.
“When my husband started out in business after leaving the Indian Army [in 1988], I had a challenging life. Ricki [Rakesh] was traveling to Russia and other parts of the world as he was trying to make a success in a very different world from the Army. Not only did I have the responsibility of bringing up Sidharth and Shweta, but I had to double up to support all the executive functions of the small trading business we had established.”
She continued through thick and thin as the solid anchor for the family making sure the children never missed anything and Rakesh had all the support he needed at work.
“I could never have achieved anything without her indulgence, positivity and perseverance,” says Rakesh, “she has truly been my compass and Rock of Gibraltar.”
With a continued focus on education, the Group has recently set up a university in Ghana with Lancaster University in the UK; it’s their second initiative after the Murdoch University in Dubai; and they offer scholarships to students on both campuses.
Excerpts from the interview with Saloni:
Your philanthropic take on wealth creation?
My great grandfathers had established charitable trusts in India and I have seen the family’s involvement in schools and hospitals in North India that benefitted children from disadvantaged families. Their work has outlived their time on earth. This is true wealth creation. Both my husband’s parents have been involved with setting up institutions to benefit the poor. For me, as a woman, if the work my husband and I are doing is carried forward and built on by our children, I would consider myself blessed. Both children have been involved with the Trust through their own contributions. Sidharth, our son, is a Trustee, while our daughter, Shweta, a young fashion designer, has raised significant funds through her own initiatives and has recently offered fashion school bursaries in Mauritius.
How important is it for African businesses to give back?
Africa occupies a unique position – on the one hand, it is the cradle of mankind and has abundant natural resources. On the other hand, it’s a young continent with respect to its economic development. For all-round inclusive economic growth, it is imperative private business plays an important role along with the state. While a lot is being done by both corporates and individuals, given the magnitude of the continent, and the nascent stage of its development, a lot more needs to be done.
Is enough being done to educate women, especially in areas such as reproductive health?
There are several programs undertaken by developed countries on issues of malnutrition, infant mortality and reproductive and maternal health. I do not believe enough is being done. Providing care in the early years of an infant is crucial for mother and child.
I would also like to highlight the prevalence of ‘single mothers’ across the continent. To my mind, this is what makes the African woman most vulnerable. There is a need to educate both boys and girls about the importance of family values and taking ‘basic responsibility’ for nurturing the infants they bring into this world. Education on the ‘development of a responsible family unit’ will be significant  in solving issues like crime, HIV, unemployment, and will provide protection for the girl child. The approach has to be preventative rather than only curative or crisis-based.
Any advice for juggling work and family?
You need to balance your life and set clear priorities. These must not be compromised either at work or on the family side. The second most important aspect is sharing responsibilities with your partner. This is critical for the right balance. Yet another aspect is developing hobbies. We tend to neglect what we are passionate about. Besides the Trust and my involvement with the family investments, I am passionate about cooking, golf and pottery.
A charity auction and fundraising morning with the theme ‘Heavenly White High Tea’ will be held in aid of the ABN Education Trust on September 8 at 54 on Bath, Rosebank, Johannesburg. To book a table, call +27113840314.

Tag: Philanthropist

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