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Global giving nears $2.5 trillion, but impact – not capital – is the real gap, says UAE official
UAE Special Envoy Badr Jafar tells London Stock Exchange summit that the UAE and UK can act as "twin hubs" to coordinate philanthropic giving worldwide
- PUBLISHED: Thu 18 Jun 2026, 6:57 PM
Global philanthropic giving is approaching $2.5 trillion a year – nearly three per cent of world economic output and more generosity in absolute terms than at any point in history, but the world’s challenge is no longer how much money is given, but how effectively it is deployed, a top UAE official said on Wednesday.
Addressing more than 140 philanthropists, wealth advisers, foundation and charity leaders, and policymakers at the Giving and Impact Summit 2026, held at the London Stock Exchange, Badr Jafar, Special Envoy of the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy, said the world faces “not a gap in capital – but a gap in impact.”
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Jafar opened trading at the Exchange to mark the summit before delivering the keynote address. Guests included Princess Beatrice, alongside leading philanthropists, foundation heads and advisers from the UK and abroad.
In his keynote, Jafar argued that the defining challenge of modern philanthropy is no longer the supply of money but the discipline with which it is deployed, noting that too much giving remains episodic and is rarely evaluated for its outcomes.
“Philanthropy becomes truly powerful when it is practised with the same rigour, discipline and accountability we bring to other forms of capital,” Jafar told delegates.
“When it moves from one-off donations to long-term strategy. When it backs trusted institutions to deliver,” he added.
Jafar said philanthropy is not merely as an act of goodwill but as a form of “first-loss capital” that absorbs early-stage risk, proves what works, and draws in far greater public and commercial investment – a dynamic he has called the "impact flywheel,” where public policy sets direction, philanthropy de-risks the experiment, and business scales what succeeds.
He described Gulf philanthropic capital, with private giving alone estimated at more than Dh770 million annually, as among the most significant and strategic in the world.
AI - an urgent frontier for giving
Jafar singled out artificial intelligence as the most urgent frontier for catalytic philanthropy, noting that of the more than $1 trillion currently flowing into AI globally, less than 1 per cent reaches social impact initiatives, even as nearly a third of humanity remains offline.
He pointed to the UAE – the first country to appoint a minister for AI – and its $1 billion initiative to extend the technology to development efforts across Africa.
Setting out a vision of partnership rather than competition between the two countries, Jafar said: “Not the UK and the UAE as rivals for the same capital. But as twin hubs – two trusted platforms, in two complementary corners of the world, that together can convene and coordinate strategic giving across every geography that needs it.”
