Around the globe, wealthy families commit billions of dollars yearly to philanthropic endeavours that change lives for the better. Some allocate funds from their private foundations, whilst others tap resources generated by family-controlled businesses. Whatever the source, what sets family philanthropy apart from other types of giving is that the family members themselves make meaningful decisions about giving. 

The scale of families’ influence can be seen in the latest Bridgespan Group survey of institutional and corporate giving. Thirteen of the world’s 20 largest institutional funders are private foundations families linked to founder or family-established wealth, accounting for US$18.6 billion in cumulative giving in 2024. Families’ influence extends to corporate giving, especially in Asia, where 11 of the 20 leading corporate givers are family-linked compared to four out of 20 globally. 

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As private wealth continues to grow faster than the broader economy, families will increasingly shape not only their own giving but also institutional and corporate philanthropy practices and nonprofit funding norms. At the same time, families face rising expectations about the role their wealth should play in addressing social and environmental challenges.

Given its important role in the philanthropic ecosystem, family philanthropy has attracted a growing body of research from think tanks, academic institutions, and wealth managers in recent years, including reports by J.P. Morgan, UBS, Bank of America, and The Milken Institute.

To contribute to the growing knowledge base on family philanthropy, we undertook a research project supported by our Funders Council – the Institute of Philanthropy, the Gates Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation – with two key objectives.

First, we sought to provide a landscape analysis of how the 10 wealthiest families in 20 different economies approach giving. Twelve of those economies are in Asia, where private wealth is newer. The analysis describes what families fund and how, and it finds more convergence than contrast. Where practices do diverge, structural factors – such as when wealth was accumulated, the degree of business ownership, and the surrounding policy environment – often explain as much as geography. Details of our analysis of the wealthiest families’ philanthropy appear in a separate report: How the World’s Wealthiest Families Give. 

Second, we describe in this report what makes family philanthropy distinctive and provide examples of family-driven efforts that achieve high-impact results.

We define family philanthropy as giving in which living family members retain meaningful decision-making authority, regardless of legal structure, method of giving, or degree of professionalisation. Family means two or more individuals connected by blood, marriage, or chosen familial bonds, and need not be multigenerational. 

Families engaged in philanthropy have advantages that few other forms of giving share. Importantly, they are less constrained by political cycles, shareholder pressure, institutional mandates, or the accountability structures that govern other funders. That autonomy enables them to act quickly when needs arise, such as responding to a natural disaster or to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Families use their autonomy to deploy financial capital and social capital across deep, often multigenerational, networks spanning business, government, and civil society. Reputation and relationships enable families to convene diverse parties and influence collective action. 

Interviews with family principals and experts reveal three high-impact approaches families use to achieve enduring results. Family philanthropy: 

1. Takes risks others cannot or will not. Families have greater autonomy to move from decision to deployment than institutional or corporate funders. In Singapore, for example, the Lien Foundation has made a decade-long push into early childhood development, a sector few had championed when the work began. Its sustained work alongside government and other stakeholders contributed to broader sector development over time.
2. Facilitates collective action. Families with trusted relationships across sectors can bring together stakeholders who might not otherwise convene, helping fragmented efforts evolve into coordinated action. In 2025, the Jollibee Group Foundation, led by Tony and Grace Tan Caktiong, partnered with the Provincial Government of Basilan, the Zuellig Family Foundation, and the League of Corporate Foundations to expand its school food programme in Basilan, an island province of the Philippines. Together, they established a central kitchen, one of 37 built across the country to date, to support the delivery of nutritious meals to nearly 25,000 children in 250 schools.
3. Mobilises multiple types of capital. A family with authority over philanthropic and investment decisions may be able to deploy capital between instruments with fewer external negotiations, board approvals, or fiduciary obligations to outside investors. Builders Vision, the platform led by US-based Walmart heir Lukas Walton, illustrates the range of tools a family platform can bring to a single goal – protecting the world’s oceans. Among other efforts, Builders Vision has awarded grants, invested in businesses developing innovations to manage microplastics, and used its endowment to support SWEN Blue Ocean, a European ocean-health investment fund.

With each approach, families have unusual freedom in how they proceed. What distinguishes those who achieve high impact is how deliberately they use that freedom to make consequential decisions about their giving. Six questions emerged from our research to help families navigate those choices:  

• Do we give as a family – and who decides?
• What would success look like?
• How much to give, when, and for how long?
• How focused should we be?
• How accountable – and how visible?
• How do we engage?

When families confront these choices and deliberate carefully, they can make the most of the three high-impact approaches to philanthropy that are difficult for other institutional givers to replicate. However, these choices rarely remain settled. The transitions that reshape a family – a marriage, a death, a liquidity event, a generational handover – can alter what once felt clear. So can a shift in the political or economic climate around the family’s wealth.

Our research found that good intentions are an essential starting point. But lasting change depends on how families use their capital, listen to others, share power, respond to evidence, and remain accountable for results. The examples of family giving in the report illustrate what is possible when autonomy is paired with humility, disciplined problem solving, and sustained collaboration. Families may have distinctive autonomy to act. What matters is how they use it.