The World Wealth Report, Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch’s annual review of the state of the world’s richest people, is now out.  The seventeenth edition of this document provides a mountain of evidence that the environment for philanthropy has changed and that globalization is perhaps its most important feature.

What were some of the key shifts over the last year?

  • The world’s population of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs), or people with more than $1 million in investable assets, grew 17.1% in 2009 to 10 million people
  • Ultra-HNWIs, or individuals with over $30 million in investable assets, saw wealth rebound 21.5% in 2009
  • While North America remains the single largest home to HNWIs, with 3.1 million individuals and 31% of the global HNWI population, Asia-Pacific’s HNWI population reached 3 million in 2009, matching that of Europe for the first time
  • Asia-Pacific wealth rose 30.9% to $9.7 trillion, surpassing the $9.5 trillion in wealth held by Europe’s HNWIs
  • Philanthropy was up around the world in 2009—except in North America

The report also suggests that philanthropic giving is expected to grow across nearly all regions by 2010 (with the possible exception of North America) and that the trends toward transnational giving and inter vivos transfers are also expanding as legal barriers fall, donors focus more on philanthropy and the desire to see the impact of giving during one’s lifetime becomes more important to donors.

So what are we doing about all this?

Not nearly enough.

Clearly, we have been living though a very difficult economic climate generally and philanthropy has been hurt dramatically.  Our fundraising activity has been adversely impacted both practically and psychologically.  But the wealthy, both in America and around the world, have experienced a dramatic reversal.  And they are trying to find responsible recipients for their charitable investments.  Are we there for them?

Since the cost of raising major gifts globally can actually be quite modest—one leading California university calculated the cost of international fundraising at just three cents on the dollar—there is no reason for organizations with an existing international constituency, a global programmatic reach or even just Facebook and Twitter accounts to ignore this market any longer.

We are like people panning for gold downstream as someone uphill yells, “there’s gold in this mine, bring your pick axes and have at it!”  We continue to do what we know because it works, not thinking that a potentially larger opportunity is just a short trip and a little work away.  True, more gold is currently coming from the panning, but that’s in part because few of us are digging.

It’s time to go where the gold is.