One of the more important components to identifying a family office’s unique ethos lies within its approach to philanthropy. Structures and methods may differ, but when the correct groundwork is put in place, philanthropy can be a unifying force throughout a multigenerational family.
Philanthropy can also help engage the up-and-coming next generation, empowering them to learn to make financial decisions and reframe how they think about their privilege as a vehicle for doing good.
Crain Currency asked three global families to discuss the “why” behind their philanthropic efforts and how they bring their impact to life.
-
Amit Bhandari | founder, chairman and CEO of BioUrja, a Houston-based energy trading company; and chairman of Magic Bus USA
When Amit Bhandari was 17, he came to the U.S. from India as an exchange student. As his education and career progressed, Bhandari eventually launched BioUrja Group, an energy trading company that has grown to 800 employees and over $8 billion in annual revenue.
“Around 2007, 2008, with this monetary success, I thought about giving back,” Bhandari said. “Obviously you want to give back to your local community, but how do you do that at scale and make an impact in their lives? I had this connection with India, and then I came across Magic Bus.”
Magic Bus was founded in Mumbai in 1999 by Matthew Spacie as a way to engage children through sports. Today, it works with young people living in poverty to create a support network for them.
“I was always into sports, and you can go into a slum and engage kids through sports,” Bhandari said. “Sports doesn’t need a language; kids are attracted to it, and you can teach them life skills.”
As the program developed, he said, it was able to engage kids longer term, from three to six years, teaching them life skills like self-confidence, money management, personal hygiene and teamwork. “These are basic things that successful people don’t even think about because you get them through osmosis from your parents,” Bhandari said. “But when you’re growing up in a slum, these things don’t come up for them.”
As a board member since 2012, Bhandari has helped grow the program’s reach to 600,000 kids and has involved his own family in the charity, taking his children to visit the slums often. “My three kids are heavily involved, and they spend two weeks in the villages of India,” he said. “They learn the culture and the value system and they appreciate it.
“When my son was 13 years old, he would think of these poor kids with no air conditioning, and we took him to a Michelin-rated restaurant for dinner, and he got very upset. I like that because it keeps you grounded and in touch with reality and to appreciate what you have.”
Bhandari is proud of the progress that Magic Bus has made in its 25 years. The charity actively engages new technology and artificial intelligence to curate a comprehensive measurement of its direct impact on the children of India. It even boasts corporate supporters like Tom’s Shoes, Nike, BMW and Michael Dell’s family office, among others.
“We are quite the cutting-edge charity,” Bhandari said.
-
The Sabancı family | owners of the Esas Group, one of Turkey’s largest family-owned investment firms, as told by Christina Wing of Wingspan Legacy Advisors
Christina Wing is the founder of Wingspan Legacy Partners, which works directly with founders and family enterprises to build out their legacies. She works directly with the Sabancı family, owners of the Esas Group. Esas is unique in that it began as a for-profit company and now, after more than 50 years, has morphed into a family office, Wing said.
Şevket Sabancı, the family’s patriarch and founder, played an instrumental role in launching the group but eventually stepped back to allow his children to drive the business forward. Ali Sabancı, a board member of the group’s private equity and real estate businesses (Esas Holding and Esas Properties), focused on the investments; and Emine Sabancı, a co-founder of Esas Group and vice chairperson of Esas Holding, managed the family office and led the philanthropic efforts.
The family strongly believes that to help people and do good, you need to give them an education, “although the end goal is being able to apply that education in the workforce,” Wing said. “Job access is the main goal.”
Ali and Emine chose youth unemployment as the first area of social investment and created several programs to address this goal. The flagship First Chance Program aimed to help graduates of Turkey’s lesser-known universities transition into the workforce. Selected graduates were assigned to work for one of the participating nongovernmental organizations for a year, with Esas Social — Esas Holding’s social investment unit — bearing all the costs.
“Many employers were willing to take a student for free for a year, and almost all converted to full-time employees,” said Wing, adding that by 2019, 60 participants had completed the program, and 99% had received new job offers.
“People who are fortunate to attend top-tiered schools have connections to get jobs,” Wing said. “Esas took those who didn’t and put them through a one-year bootcamp, teaching them English, business skills and soft skills that people who grow up around a business have. They’ve created this legacy now where people who go through the training want to give back. It’s all about teaching someone how to fish, rather than giving them a fish.”
Additionally, Emine Sabancı personally invested in two startups run by female entrepreneurs: an artificial intelligence company providing logistics solutions and a propolis-based food and food supplements company.
-
Holly Johnson | president of the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Frey Foundation
The Frey Foundation was formed 50 years ago by Edward and Tally Frey. “They were entrepreneurs in banking and insurance who started the foundation as a charitable way of giving to causes they care about,” said Holly Johnson, president of the Frey Foundation. “But when they passed away, it was the second generation who operationalized the foundation into what it is today.”
The family’s third generation is at the helm today, shepherding the mission of place-based philanthropy and stewarding the legacy of their grandparents and engaging the upcoming fourth generation. “Our goal is to create multiple entry ramps into the work of the foundation,” said Johnson. “Peoples’ lives ebb and flow. We want to make sure there are ways for family members to get involved during their lifetime.”
The foundation has four key grantmaking pillars: building communities, early childhood education, community arts and water.
“The Frey Foundation has been involved in early childhood education and housing for a long time, and I get the feeling that the private and public sectors are looking to solve in this space as well,” Johnson said. “Our governor [Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan] is really focused on housing and access to preschool, and business owners know that their employees are struggling with affordable housing and child care options. So all three sectors are deeply committed to solving some long historical social inequities. We have the opportunity to make some big changes.”
One of the foundation’s core commitments is to “create opportunities for all family members to authentically participate in the grantmaking committee,” Johnson said. “It’s been a big moment for us to move to a committee structure.”
The foundation has also funded a fully endowed chair at Grand Valley State University to invest in world-class art as an integral resource for philanthropic families. “Family philanthropy is a privileged place to be,” Johnson said. “We must invite partnerships, collaboration, resident engagement and trust into our work every day.”
Johnson knows how important the work is to the Frey family and what it means for their legacy. “The ‘why’ [for the family’s] philanthropy is a deep, deep love for Grand Rapids and northern Michigan and a commitment to ensuring that the family would always have a philanthropic entity to drive community impact and support causes that they care about.”