This is a book about the experience of philanthropy. A plethora of texts have explored the search for philanthropic impact and the difference that wealthy philanthropists can make in their focal communities. How to create and maximise that impact is an obvious and important subject for study. Yet there has been little interest in how that philanthropy is experienced by such donors and the psychological benefits it can potentially deliver, including the provision of a deep sense of personal meaning and purpose in life. It turns out that these benefits are hugely important for philanthropists’ sense of self, but also for their focal communities, because enhanced meaning also makes philanthropy more sustainable, even in the face of what can appear quite insurmountable challenges.

The research on which this book is based is the first to examine the major challenges that high- net- worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra- high- net- worth individuals (UHNWIs) must overcome in order to create the most meaningful philanthropy. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that theories of meaning and meaningfulness have been applied to the philanthropic domain and to the study of HNWIs in particular.

UHNWIs are commonly understood to be those with liquid assets of $30 million and over, while HNWIs are viewed as people who own liquid assets valued from $1 million up to $30 million. The thresholds typically include liquid assets only (money held in bank or brokerage accounts) and exclude assets, such as the value of a primary residence. In 2020, 11.6 million American households held a net worth of $1 million to $5 million, excluding the value of their primary residence (Spectrum Group, 2021). The top ten countries by HNWI population in 2021 were the US, Japan, Germany, China, France, the UK, Switzerland, Canada, Italy and the Netherlands (Capgemini, 2021).

Unsurprisingly, there has been a great deal of academic and professional interest in the behaviour of high- net- worth groups. A large amount of literature examines the relationship between income, net wealth and charitable giving (for example, Wiepking and Bekkers, 2012; Meer and Priday, 2021; Neumayr and Pennerstorfer, 2021).