Global Wealth and Society Programme

The Global Wealth and Society programme seeks to identify the important role that the privileged have towards their respective society. In building this programme, we measure wealth, not by the amount of financial assets individuals amass but by the positive impact they create on society through sustainable projects. Projects that are close to their hearts and which they believe to affect their immediate society in a deep and profound manner.

Based on this philosophy of contribution and giving back to the society, we identify these individuals as “Champions of Philanthropy” as part of our Global Wealth and Society Awards Programme.

Over the next few weeks until early October, our research team will be adding new names to the list and will be reaching out to them as part of the awards evaluation process.

The list below profiles selected Champions and their shortlisted projects across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East . In doing so, the list also tracks the way they are investing and deploying their wealth to bring about positive impacts on the society that they operate in.

Aliko Dangote

Founder Dangote Foundation - Nigeria

The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) is the Philanthropic endeavor of Aliko Dangote. The main objective of the Foundation is to reduce the number of lives lost to malnutrition and disease. Combating Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in children, is at the core of their programming. Improving the outcome of children’s lives, forms the basis for the work the Foundation is engaged in, through investments in health, education, and economic empowerment to help lift people out of poverty.

Mike Adenuga

Founder The Mike Adenuga Foundation - Nigeria

The Mike Adenuga Foundation is a proudly Pan African philanthropic foundation. The main mission of the organization is to help Nigeria and other African countries, where the Mike Adenuga Group of Companies are commercially active on a permanent basis, to achieve social and economic independence. The Mike Adenuga Foundation aims to contribute to an improved future for Nigerians and other African citizens.

Nicky Oppenheimer

Co-Founder Brenthurst Foundation - South Africa

The Brenthurst Foundation is at the frontier of new ideas and innovative actions for strengthening Africa's economic performance. The Foundation was created to build on the Oppenheimer' Brenthurst Initiative of August 2003. The Initiative was designed to instigate a debate in South Africa around policy strategies to achieve higher rates of economic expansion. Today the Foundation now has a wider African focus and aims to find ways to draw the investment needed for "continental regeneration and prosperity"

Patrice Motsepe

Co-Founder Motsepe Foundation - South Africa

The Motsepe Foundation was founded in 1999 by Mr. Patrice Motsepe and Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe. In 2013 the Motsepe family was the first on the African continent to join the Giving Pledge, started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet. The Foundation was founded on the philosophy of ‘ubuntu’, the African concept of giving and caring for your neighbor and other members of your community.

Strive Masiyiwa

Founder Higherlife Foundation - Zimbabwe

Higherlife Foundation is a philanthropic organization founded in 1996. Since inception, the foundation has been supporting orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa through education, material support and heartfelt compassion as well as their personal experiences of orphan-hood, are contemporary Africans moving the African continent forward through opportunities.

Olajumoke Adenowo

Founder the Awesome Treasures Foundation (ATF) - Nigeria

Adenowo has several philanthropic ventures. She takes pride in her Nigerian heritage and champions the potential of young Nigerians. In 1999 she founded the Awesome Treasures Foundation (ATF), a UN-recognised, faith-based NGO in Lagos, Nigeria. The foundation has a mission to raise 1000 leaders by 2030 working especially women and young people. The majority of her foundation's programming focuses on disadvantaged women and children. ATF runs Camp Dawn, an educational camp, to address the education gap for inner-city kids. It also manages Awesome Princesses, caring for young girls from the slums of Lagos who are at risk of sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS, supplying medical screenings and educational intervention. Awesome Treasures closely mentors women for transnational leadership and entrepreneurship through vocational training, business classes and leadership training that takes place across Nigeria. In its first 15 years, 70,000 people have attended ATF leadership summits.

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli

Founder LEAP Africa - Nigeria

LEAP Africa is a youth-focused leadership development nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire, empower and equip a new cadre of leaders with skills and tools for personal, organization and community transformation. Its interventions for youth, bridge gaps for effective leadership, education, employability, entrepreneurship and awakens civic participation in citizens to demand good governance or creatively address social issues.

Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Founder Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation - United Arab Emirates

The Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation was established by Law No. 20 in July 2007, issued by his Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, may God save and bless him. The vision of the Foundation is “Pioneering Initiatives for Welfare” and its strategies are focused on health and education on domestic, regional and global scales. The educational strategy of the Foundation includes supporting vocational educational projects in countries of the region, health needs related to malnutrition, child protection, and care and the provision of safe water on a global level.

Alicia Keys

Co-founder Keep a Child Alive - Kenya

Keep a Child Alive (KCA) is a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare, housing, and other support services to HIV/AIDS-affected communities in Africa and India. Co-founded by Leigh Blake and Alicia Keys, the organization aims to "realize the end of AIDS for children and families, by combating the physical, social and economic impacts of HIV." Keep a Child Alive organizes the annual Black Ball, a fundraiser gala, established in 2004, where celebrities and philanthropists gather to support and raise awareness for the cause. Since the first Black Ball, the organization has raised over $28.7 million for HIV/AIDS treatment.

Li Ka-Shing

Founder Li Ka Shing Foundation - Hong Kong

The Li Ka Shing Foundation is a Hong Kong-based charitable organization. It is the second-largest private foundation led by a wealthy individual in the world, after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Li Ka Shing Foundation supports projects that promote social progress through expanding access to quality education and medical services and research, encouraging cultural diversity and community involvement. Every project and every donation stems from Li Ka-Shing's belief in the inherent value of each human life, regardless of race, class, or circumstance. He has devoted himself to helping others overcome the educational and physical barriers preventing them from achieving their potential.