While benefactors generously spread billions across Asia, a range of factors limits the potential good. Ronnie Chan and Ruth Shapiro talk about revolutionary research and strategies to promote excellence in Asian philanthropy
It takes a lot of courage to ask the famously fiery property tycoon and philanthropist Ronnie Chan for a favour, yet Ruth Shapiro asked not once, but twice. “The first time Ruth knocked on my door was in the ’90s,” remembers Chan, chairman of the Hang Lung Group. “Ruth said, ‘I’d like to set up an Asian business initiative. There are a lot of businesses in Asia that have been rising and successful, yet there are very few organisations that are pan-Asian for business leaders to come together.’ So, from 1997, Ruth and I worked together for maybe a decade in order to build up the Asia Business Council.”
The second time Shapiro came calling, it wasn’t about helping individuals, businesses and economies to generate more money. Instead, Shapiro wanted to find ways to encourage people to give their money away. “A few years later, Ruth knocked on my door again. I thought I’d got rid of her,” Chan says with a laugh. “Ruth said to me, ‘I think we should create a Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS). A lot of people have made a lot of money in Asia; it’s time perhaps for them to give back to society—and many of them are trying to do exactly that. So now is the time to do something regarding Asian philanthropy.’”