The Moby Dick manoeuvre: How charity organisers harpoon Sydney’s wealthy ‘whales’

Long before Sydney’s silvertails slip into their couture gowns, glittering jewels and designer tuxedos to rubberneck one another at this year’s Gold Dinner fundraiser on May 1, a high-stakes hunt worthy of Captain Ahab has been quietly underway for months. The prize? A different kind of “whale”: Australia’s ever-growing pool of cashed-up billionaires.

“The Gold Dinner has a life of its own and that makes it a vehicle for some people to donate in a public way, while others want to do it anonymously. My policy is simple … just say yes to everything! We are not shy people, we try to find out what cause resonates with people and try and align with that. We are not asking for ourselves, we are asking for the children’s hospitals.”

Apart from presiding over this city’s pre-eminent social barometer, the Penns, with their well-thumbed “little black books”, are at the coalface of prising donations from Australia’s super rich, many of whom are their neighbours.

This year the Penns are confident their committee – which they “strategically” select to reach a broader range of communities “than just the eastern suburbs” – is on track to shake more than $20 million out of the room of 500 people, the money going towards a $75 million target to help fund the construction of new hospital facilities at Randwick and Westmead.Over three decades the Gold Dinner has also provided intriguing social theatre.

With more than 26,000 registered charities endorsed by the ATO for tax deductibility, Linda Penn agrees philanthropy is intensely competitive.Australians give around $13.1 billion a year, however top-tier philanthropy consultant Lawrence Jackson notes: “Often 90 per cent or more of your donations are coming from the top 10 per cent of your donors … it makes sense for charities like the Gold Dinner to focus on the big end of town.”list, the nation’s biggest donors coughed up $1.

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