It was a quiet act of generosity that briefly captured the news agenda: David Clarke, a researcher in Liverpool, made the extraordinary decision to give away the £100,000 he had inherited from his late mother a decade ago. But instead of donating it to one cause, Clarke did something radical. He wrote to 600 addresses in the L8 postcode, where he lives, inviting people to nominate where the money should go.
Clarke lost his mother in a cycling accident. “Her death was a devastating shock to me,” he says. “She had a huge social conscience and was interested in the world and how it worked – a lot of my moral framework comes from her. I don’t believe in holding on to inherited wealth, so I spent a long time thinking about what to do with the money.” Clarke wanted to do something that would speak to his mother’s values. From his research, he came across the idea of democratising philanthropy – moving the decision over what to do with donated money to communities who would benefit from it. Thirty-eight people responded to his letter, and Clarke selected 12 to form a decision-making panel. They met over four sessions to deliberate and decided to donate the money to four charities, each receiving £25,000.
