It's a regular topic of discussion in Australian philanthropy: how much do Australia's wealthy give - and is it enough?

Last year, FR&C put together a list of over 100 Australian donors (and some non-Australian donors to Australian causes) who have given over $1m. Twelve months later, we’ve updated the list – now with over 200 individuals and families listed!

We’ve only included people and families whose philanthropy has been mentioned in the public domain – either with a firm figure or with an estimate (we’ve put firm dollars ahead of estimates, even where it’s likely that the estimated figures are underreported).

We’ve provided links to the sources we’ve used for each person’s giving. We’ve drawn on previous lists such as the list BRW put together in 2006, Crikey’s philanthropy list from the same year, and Philanthropy Australia’s major donations list. And we’ll revise the list over time – if you have a suggestion for an update, email us.

For more detail on Australian giving, see our GiftSearch database – over 110,000 Australian donations listed, worth more than $1.275 billion.

NB: not all of these links are set to open in a new page yet, so if you want to check out one of the links but keep the list open, use 'right click>open in new tab' to open them

Known giving over $100m

•   Chuck Feeney – c. $500m in Australian giving via Atlantic Philanthropies
•  John Kinghorn – Established Kinghorn Foundation in 2005 with $300 million, $25m to Garvan Institute (2009)
• Talbot Family – Bequest from Ken Talbot to Talbot Family Foundation of c. $300m (2010)
•  Myer Family - $16m in 2009-10, $156m in total giving, via the Myer Foundation
•   Estate of Sir Ian Potter – $14.2m in 2009-10 and over $150m in total giving since 1964, including $8m from Lady Potter to the Australian Ballet (2010)

•  Andrew and Nicola Forrest – c. $80m in company shares to Australian Children’s Trust (2007), $2m to the launch of the Australian Employment Covenant/Generation One initiative on  indigenous employment, and a further $50m in shares to various charities in 2011 plus a further $5m in shares to Murdoch University and four WA performing arts organisations, and a $3m cash donation to complete the Art Gallery of WA's $25m campaign
•  Fairfax family – over $97m in total giving via Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation since 1962; Tim Fairfax gives over $3m per annum through Tim Fairfax Family Foundation including $1m+ to National Portrait Gallery
•   Clive Palmer - $100m for medical research and remote WA communities (2008), $6m to Duke of Edinburgh Awards Program (2010)

Known giving over $50m

·                     Estate of William Buckland – the William Buckland Foundation distributes around $5m per annum, with total giving to 2010 reaching $74m

·                     Greg Poche - $40m to melanoma research (2005) and $20m to indigenous health (2008, 2010)

·                     Gates Foundation - over $50m in Australian giving, including $12.4m to UNSW (2008), $9.7m to Murdoch University (2004), $8.7m to George Institute (2007), $5m to Australian International Health Institute (2004), $4.4m to QUT (2009), $2.9m to QUT (2008), $2.9m to Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (2007), $2m to University of Queensland (2008)

·                     Lowy Family – $10m to UNSW for the Lowy Cancer Centre (2007), c. $15m to sport and Jewish causes in 2005, $30m to create Lowy Institute for International Policy (2003)

Known giving over $10m

Known giving over $1m