On average, wealthy individuals – those with a net worth of $30m (€28m, £24m) or more – will donate $29.6m over the course of their lifetimes, with the total amount of lifetime donations from UHNW estimated at $550bn.
The average donation by someone in the Middle East is $5m, 50% higher than in North America, and rising levels of wealth in the region suggest that even larger sums will be directed at positive causes in the coming years.
“Ultra-wealthy individuals in the Middle East give nearly 10% of their net worth to philanthropic causes, which does not even account for the substantial Zakat and Sadaqah charitable contributions made anonymously across the region,” explained John Hanafin, chief executive of Arton Capital in MENA.
“The trends identified in this report are truly global, with the ultra-wealthy behaving in similar ways whether they are from Shanghai or Zurich or New York, and the Middle Eastern members of this club are no different, which demonstrates the global connectivity of wealth in the modern world.”
The report — commissioned by Arton Capital and produced by Wealth-X — also shows that major donors hold a greater share of their wealth in liquid assets, $85m on average, and typically donate about half of their cash holdings to charity over a lifetime.
