What if Asia’s wealthiest become bolder with philanthropy?

Asia is home to more billionaires than anywhere else, yet the way they 'do good' remains cautious, focused on traditional grant making. This leaves vast potential untapped to address challenges facing people and the planet at a moment of great urgency.

Just look at the $2.5 trillion annual financing gap to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — money needed to improve public health, access to education and climate resilience. This is happening at a time when many governments are still struggling with COVID-19-depleted budgets and when official development assistance (ODA) is shrinking, with the OECD projecting a 9 to 17% drop in ODA in 2025 due to shifting donor priorities.

If Asia’s philanthropists can step up, the world will have a fighting chance to meet the SDGs by 2030, given the region’s size and its ability to move the needle on many fronts, especially climate. In so doing, they would be able to influence the trajectories of global security, stability and prosperity.

So, the choice before Asia’s wealthiest is simple, but profound: keep filling small gaps with traditional grants or act boldly.

Give more — it’s been estimated that if Asian giving reaches the US benchmark of 2% of GDP, Asia could mobilize US$700 billion annually, meeting more than a quarter of the SDG funding gap.

But, as important as giving more, is the how.

This means concessional, patient and flexible funding that unlocks far larger pools of public and private investment. In this role, philanthropy can become the cornerstone of blended finance, strategically deployed to de-risk impactful ventures and crowd in commercial capital. Catalytic capital is not about replacing grant-making, but amplifying its value through leverage.

Evidence shows this catalytic potential: each $1 USD of philanthropic capital can unlock $4–30 USD in SDG focused investments. A good reference would be the Rockefeller Foundation’s Zero Gap Fund, whose $30 million USD in committed capital mobilized over $1.05 billion USD in supporting jobs, improving lives and catalyzing several investments in Asia.

A Southeast Asian example of catalytic financing is the ADB’s Green Recovery Programme. Under the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF), enabled by a $300 million USD contribution from the Green Climate Fund, it mobilized $3.7 billion USD. The focus is on low-emission infrastructure projects, with some 15 underway.

Impressive, no doubt, but there are just too few of such examples to enable the larger systemic shift required to scale from the billions to the trillions required.

Some philanthropists hesitate from doing things differently because of old assumptions and instincts — that their money is tangential to government funding and it should not be helping profit-maximizing private sector ‘fat cats.’ That needs to change. Break the silos, and create a new collaborative ethos of public/private/philanthropic partnerships (PPPPs)..

The Central Square Foundation (CSF) in India demonstrates this potential. Partnering with state governments, CSF has embedded technical teams, reformed pedagogy and aligned the private sector to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy in schools. It has helped unlock INR 2,000 crore (~$240 million USD) in public budgets and elevated foundational literacy and numeracy as a national mission.

On the health front, Japan’s Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund has pioneered systemic collaboration in R&D for neglected diseases. With ~$50 million USD in philanthropic support from the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust and backing from the Government of Japan and UNDP, GHIT has mobilized over US$200 million for global health innovation.

These cases show a win–win path: philanthropy as risk capital, governments as system leaders and private actors as drivers of innovation.

In Southeast Asia, Climateworks Centre’s SEAFOAM (Southeast Asia Framework for Ocean Action in Mitigation) project, funded by the Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) and its members, is helping to advance ocean-based climate mitigation strategies. By integrating blue carbon ecosystems, maritime transport and offshore renewable energy into national policy, SEAFOAM demonstrates how catalytic philanthropy can support public policy, strengthen coastal communities and unlock sustainable finance for climate action.

The Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory’s award-winning Decarbonizing Rice project has the potential to introduce low-carbon farming practices, improve water efficiency and deploy climate-resilient rice varieties. Donor-funded trials are ongoing across India, Indonesia and Laos, but the real proof is in the eating — will philanthropic capital be able to encourage adoption, bringing together local authorities, commercial off-takers and supply chain players?

Watch this space.

Deploying philanthropy as risk capital is not intuitive; deal structures and cross-sector models can be complex. Neither is working collaboratively (collaborate on my terms: sounds familiar?). Hence, platforms to bring together diverse actors to generate mutual trust and share what had worked and what had not are extremely valuable.

Asia is waking up to this need, with a recent mushrooming of regional convenings, such as the Philanthropy Asia Summit in Singapore and AVPN’s Global Conference in Hong Kong, where candid conversations on this agenda are beginning to get prime-time. And, there are new collaborative initiatives, like ASPIRE (Asian Partnership for Investment into Resilient Economies), seeded by AVPN and BCG, that help philanthropists and ecosystem players understand and engage in the area of blended finance.

The paradigm shift required is not merely financial — it is about leadership. Asian philanthropy can become a strategic pillar for global problem-solving, with outsized influence on climate security, economic resilience and the future of development impact. By deploying capital as catalytic risk, rather than cautious charity, Asia’s wealth holders can de-risk and accelerate the investments that matter most and play a major role in setting the rules of the game on how the world tackles its greatest challenges.

Shaun Seow is CEO of Philanthropy Asia Alliance and Varad Pande is Partner & Director at Boston Consulting Group. They were both invitees at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre in Summer 2025, which seeded the ASPIRE Initiative to scale blended and innovative finance in Asia.