An inherited fortune given away by an Austrian heiress who shunned her millions will go to dozens of non-profit organisations that work on issues including the environment, health and homelessness, a citizen group tasked to manage the fund has announced.
Marlene Engelhorn, a 32-year-old activist who has campaigned for a tax on extreme wealth, announced in January that she would give away the vast bulk – €25m(£21.1m) – of the money she inherited from her grandmother.
“My wealth was accumulated before I was even born,” Engelhorn wrote in her mission statement at the time. “We super-rich people are getting richer and richer, with money moving into our safes every day like a magnet.”
Engelhorn relinquished control over the money to a citizen council called the Good Council for Redistribution. It was formed from a pool of 10,000 randomly chosen Austrians, of whom 50 were selected to best reflect the country’s demographics, including gender, race and income.
The Austrian-German heiress withdrew completely from the process once the council – which ranges in age from 17 to 85 – was formed. She said she did not have the right to decide how money she had not earned should be distributed.
On Tuesday, the council announced it would give the money to 77 organisations that seek to improve environmental protections, education, health and social issues. Groups will receive amounts ranging from €40,000 to more than €1.5m.
While the allocations were fairly evenly spread, the Austrian society for nature conservation received the most money (€1.6m) to buy land, and the Vienna-based association Neunerhaus, which helps homeless people, received €1.5m.
“The result is as diverse as the council itself. But what all the decisions have in common is that they want a fairer society … to support those who are discriminated against,” the Good Council project manager, Alexandra Wang, told a news conference on Tuesday.
Globally, there are already more billionaires than ever before and their combined assets are estimated at $14.2tn – more than the GDP of every country except the US and China.
Austria abolished inheritance tax in 2008 and is a particularly unequal country. The richest 10% controls more than 60% of the Alpine state’s private wealth.
Engelhorn, whose wealth comes from the German chemical company BASF and pharmaceutical company Boehringer Mannheim, inherited her millions in 2022.
She had previously co-founded the Tax Me Now initiative, which brings together wealthy people from German-speaking countries to call on global leaders to tax extreme wealth.
In January, she said that her family supported her activism. “Nobody is openly telling me that I’m doing something wrong or bad,” she said. “On the contrary, my mum once said: ‘I’m going to be your biggest fan.’”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
