Philanthropy as Investment: Professional Wealth Management showcases our CEO Taban’s vision

Our Founder & CEO Taban has been featured in Professional Wealth Management,  a Financial Times publication, explaining why philanthropy must be seen as long-term investment.

Speaking to PWM, Taban states that grassroots organisations like the Lotus Flower have an essential role to play when aid budgets are rapidly disappearing and displaced people are facing ever more challenging needs.

Drawing on her background in asset management, the piece sees her explain why philanthropy should be viewed as a way of strategically investing in individuals.

“The charity sector is very focused on aid and donations, but we’ve always looked at how we can invest in people,” she tells the publication. “To make an environment investable, you first need to invest in the human.”

The report also highlights Taban’s lived experience as a genocide survivor, describing how her own traumatic experiences have shaped her work and vision for the Lotus Flower.  

In addition, Taban stresses the need for private wealth to engage in philanthropy differently: by working directly with locally-rooted organisations. 

“Private wealth has mostly engaged with international organisations and hasn’t really had direct contact with local organisations,” she points out. “But every international organisation has an ‘implementing partner’ on the ground. You take those local partners away from the equation and nothing happens.”

At the heart of the piece is Taban’s call for more dialogue between philanthropists, wealth managers and local organisations working on the frontline.

“I am not asking for direct funding. I’m asking for dialogue,” she says. “How do we come to the table together and create a framework that allows everyone to be part of the change?” 

Read the full article in Professional Wealth Management here.