By: Gwendolyn Lim, Pritha Venkatachalam, Jeffrey Bradach, Xueling Lee, Denise Chew, Roger Thompson
Wealth and philanthropy in Asia are on the rise. The region now has more billionaires than any other part of the world, yet its’ unmet social and environmental needs challenge philanthropy to do more and do it better.
Against this backdrop of accelerating wealth creation and massive need, research by The Bridgespan Group, supported by the Institute of Philanthropy in Hong Kong, identified five practices that leading institutional philanthropies employ to produce lasting results. These practices have come up again and again in our work over the past two decades and in ongoing conversations with leading funders:
Whilst these may appear simple and obvious, we have found that consistently embodying these practices is an uncommon discipline. The problems funders strive to address are always complicated; solving them requires patient progress and willingness to correct course over long periods. That kind of persistence and self-reflection is a skill in its own right for funders as they strive for greater impact.
Challenges aside, a growing number of Asian philanthropies are grappling with how to use their new wealth to achieve big, ambitious goals. We reached out to several institutional philanthropies, predominantly from Asia, to learn how they have applied high-impact practices to produce greater and lasting impact. Whilst their initiatives are instructive, they would be first to say that their efforts are works in progress. Even so, we think their stories provide compelling examples of how to apply the five practices in the real world.
