Feeney and his wife,Helga,came to know Australia through their friendship with Brisbane tennis star,Ken Fletcher,who introduced them to university leaders such as John Hay and Peter Coaldrake and the political leadership in Queensland,including Peter Beattie,Glyn Davis and Kevin Rudd. The rest is history.
Feeney’s foundation granted more than $A100 million to UQ to help establish the Institute for Molecular Bioscience,the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology,the Queensland Brain Institute,the Centre for Clinical Research,the Translational Research Institute,the multipurpose UQ Centre and a new home for the UQ Art Museum. QUT and QIMR were also beneficiaries of investment in medical research and technology.
The largesse ushered in a new era in Australian philanthropy,even if Chuck was an American with Irish ancestry. Feeney’s doctrine was “Giving while living”,a concept that inspired Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to create the Giving Pledge to donate a big part of their wealth to philanthropic causes while they are alive.
Queensland was not the only Australian beneficiary of The Atlantic Philanthropies. Gifts to the broader Australian medical research community and other causes eventually totalled around $A550 million and have had a massive impact on Australian science.
Gifts to Melbourne included a $A30 million grant to support the University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute building,grants to support national taskforce on mental health in Vietnam,student scholarships at International House,the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and funding to support the university’s research partnership with the Indigenous communities of north-east Arnhem Land.
In the last decade,Chuck and Helga decided to spend down their remaining fortune of $A1 billion in the quest to promote a global social equity movement through building social change leadership around the world in health equity,racial equity and social equity.
Through the Atlantic Fellows program,The Atlantic Philanthropies awarded $A75 million to the University of Melbourne to create the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program,an indigenous leadership program intended to help drive social change across indigenous communities. The program is one of seven social equity hubs around the world,connected by The Atlantic Institute based in the Rhodes Trust at Oxford University. With this final gift,The Atlantic Philanthropies was formally shut down in 2020. The last of Chuck Feeney’s “big bets”.
Hence,with amazing precision,Chuck Feeney gave away all but his last dollar of an $A12 billion fortune before his death in early October. It was not entirely understood until late in his life,that without fanfare,Feeney had quietly given nearly all his money to The Atlantic Philanthropies for investment in public good.
In fact,Feeney was technically no longer a billionaire and the philanthropic investments made from his fortune were legally controlled by the independent foundation he created. As a result,Feeney’s under-the-radar style of philanthropy was ultimately mediated through formal divestment of his wealth to The Atlantic Philanthropies,and led to his biography written by Conor O’Clery being calledThe Billionaire Who Wasn’t.
The University of Queensland honoured Chuck Feeney and his wife with honorary doctorates in recognition of their inspiring contributions to research and innovation in Australia and globally. In 2021,Chuck and Atlantic Philanthropies’ Chris Oechsli were made fellows of the University of Melbourne in recognition of their unparalleled levels of philanthropic investment and leadership in establishing and supporting social change initiatives and biomedical research facilities.
In 2022,Feeney was formally appointed as honorary companion in the general division of the Order of Australia (AC). He is survived by his wife Helga Flaiz,five children and 16 grandchildren all from his first marriage.
James McCluskey AO is assistant vice-chancellor at the University of Melbourne and deputy chair,Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies.