BY CHLOE MARKS
PAFs are on the rise
A Private Ancillary Fund (PAF) is increasingly becoming a popular tax-effective way to structure philanthropy and create a philanthropic legacy.
To establish a PAF, an initial contribution of $1 million or more is recommended, and PAFs cannot accept contributions from the public, unlike Public Ancillary Funds (PuAFs); therefore, it is mostly (but, not necessarily) the wealthy and ultra-wealthy that invest in and maintain these types of structures.
PAFs are required to distribute at least 5% of net assets each year in support of charitable causes, so, as a fund-seeking organisation, it is important to know the who, what, when, and where of PAFs to be in the best position to increase chances of receiving PAF funding. For this purpose, hundreds of Australian charities and not-for-profit organisations subscribe to PafGUIDE by AskRIGHT, the complete online database of every PAF, as well as every PuAF, and the most comprehensive research project of its kind.
Billionaires and their PAFs
Last month, Australian Financial Review (AFR) published its 40th annual rich list, which reveals 200 of Australia’s wealthiest people. Using PafGUIDE data, the AskRIGHT Research Team have referred to the AFR rich list, as well as the Richest 250 list published by The Australian, to highlight the rich listers that are linked to a Private Ancillary Fund.
Over 100 PAFs were found to be linked to individuals, couples, and families that have a wealth of at least $500 million to over $37 billion. This comprises about 40% of the combined rich lists, and this percentage is expected to increase in the coming years as more people realise the potential of PAFs.
Top 20 PAFs
In order of wealth (most to least) of the rich lister to which the PAF is associated, here are the ‘top 20 PAFs’ of the wealthiest people in the country:
- Rinehart Medical Foundation (Gina Rinehart)
- Forrest Family Foundation (Andrew Forrest)
- The Pratt Family Foundation (Anthony Pratt)
- Harry Triguboff Foundation (Harry Triguboff)
- Palmer Care Foundation (Clive Palmer)
- Cannon-Brookes Foundation (Mike Cannon-Brookes)
- Atlassian Foundation (Scott Farquhar)
- The Lowy Foundation (Frank Lowy)
- The Schwinghammer Foundation (Richard White)
- The 4am Foundation (Cameron Adams)
- The John and Pauline Gandel Foundation (John Gandel)
- The Walker Family Foundation (Lang Walker)
- The Ainsworth Foundation (Len Ainsworth)
- Packer Family Foundation (James Packer)
- Angela Wright Bennett Foundation / Bennetts Family Foundation (Angela Bennett)
- Chau Chak Wing Foundation (Chau Chak Wing)
- The Fox Family Foundation (Lindsay Fox)
- Lew Foundation (Solomon Lew)
- Spotlight Charitable Foundation (Morry Fraid & Zac Fried)
- The Wright Burt Foundation (Alexandra Burt)
If you are a PafGUIDE subscriber and would like the full list, please email [email protected].
How to find PAFs
Chances are, if you tried to Google any of the above PAFs, you might find articles that mention a major gift but rarely a website, and some don’t even appear on the ACNC Charity Register. You would have to spend hours going through every mention of the PAF and conduct further research into the people involved just to get an idea of whether the PAF aligns with your organisation. AskRIGHT does this legwork for you so that you can focus on actually engaging with the right PAFs: Visit PafGUIDE.com.
We would like to thank the PafGUIDE subscriber that requested information on the PAFs of Australia’s rich listers. If you have a similar research request or any questions, please email [email protected].