Taming the dragon
Duncan Bannatyne, a 59-year-old Scottish entrepreneur with a £310m (€390m) fortune, is no stranger to the media spotlight but he confesses to feeling rather awkward about his latest incarnation as the poster boy for wealthy British philanthropists.
“To be honest, I feel a bit of a fake,” he said. Bannatyne has cultivated a sideline as a television personality on the back of the success of Dragons’ Den, a BBC business pitch show.
He filmed a recent documentary on how Britain’s wealthiest citizens are increasingly pursuing charitable endeavours and last month addressed a meeting at the House of Commons on tax-effective giving.
But he claims the idea he is a figurehead for new philanthropists is misleading: “If I was a proper philanthropist I would be giving away all my money.”
Bannatyne has put £1m into a taxefficient charitable trust as an attempt to bring more structure to his giving. “I realised this year that I was taking a very disjointed approach,” he said. He has been seeking informal advice from Mark Evans, a philanthropy specialist at private bank Coutts.
Bannatyne is not a client of the bank but said he is likely to open an account.
He believes it is natural for rich people in middle age to take more interest in philanthropy. “I have the quandary that I don’t necessarily think the best thing to do is to leave all my money to my kids,” he said.
He has taken two of his children to visit a Romanian orphanage he funds for children with HIV and Aids. “I would love it if the kids wanted to be involved, but the initiative has to come from them,” he said.
And while he may be a reluctant figurehead he acknowledges the need for more publicity about philanthropy. “If we can get more people bragging about their giving, it will encourage others to do more.”
To illustrate the point, he said one of the millionaires he interviewed for his TV documentary, who disparaged the idea of giving away his hard-earned fortune, subsequently sent a big cheque to a charity Bannatyne supports.
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