Uni medal recipient making waves in philanthropic finance
Bachelor of Economics student Hugh McKinn will be awarded the University medal for his ground-breaking research undertaken for an Honours thesis.
Hugh, who works as a Venture Capitalist for Macquarie Bank, conducted his research on Private Ancillary Funds or PAFs, a new type of investment fund used for philanthropic investing, as he saw them as an “efficient way of redistributing financial resources from society’s wealthiest families and individuals to Australian charities - which was especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Australian PAF sector alone is cumulatively worth over AU $10billion, and annually distributes over $450 million into the Not-For-Profit (NFP) sector, helping charities provide services that Australian citizens, communities and governments depend on.
“I want to make a tangible difference to Australia’s non-profit community” - Hugh McKinn, 2021 University Medal recipient
Hugh was able to leverage his prior work experience at Macquarie Bank and various not-for-profits to build a holistic view of the Australia’s philanthropic ancillary fund sector.
His research has shown that, as ancillary funds have to distribute a minimum amount of capital into charities per year, higher investment returns equate to higher quantities of capital being distributed to Australian charities. Instead of “once-off” cash donations, ancillary funds provide Australia’s not-for-profit sector with a dependable and sustainable source of funding.
Hugh’s supervisor was Professor Bronwen Dalton, one of Australia’s leading academics in the not-for-profit space, and ‘an incredible support’ in his research and writing process.
On his hopes for life after honours, Hugh says he wants to “make a tangible difference to Australia’s non-profit community”. With an offer from Oxford University to continue his research on public policy, it seems like he’s well on his way.
Congratulations from UTS Business School, and the broader university community for this fantastic achievement.
Below are some brief snapshots of Hugh’s most recent work, where he has benchmarked the investment and distribution performance of major Australian Public Ancillary Funds (PuAFs), another form of structured philanthropic vehicle. This quantitative analysis of the PuAF industry between FY2011-2012 and FY2019-20 compares the long-term investment returns and relative philanthropic commitments demonstrated by a sample of Australia’s leading PuAF providers.
Disclosure: The below graphs contain estimates only.
