We come from humble beginnings. Grant was raised by a single mother on the pension. Sophie grew up in a newly arrived migrant family where English was not the first language. We each remember the weight of financial strain and yet, in those modest homes, we were surrounded by love, stability, and the belief that hard work could open doors. That nurturing environment gave us the confidence to strive, and ultimately to build lives neither of us could have imagined as children.

The wealth created by our business is far beyond what we had imagined and we find ourselves today in an extraordinary position which for us creates a sense of responsibility. We feel privileged to be able to join the Giving Pledge.

We believe that financial wealth makes life easier, but that real richness comes from our family, our relationships and our purpose. Giving away 60% of our wealth is entirely consistent with those values. If anything, it deepens them.

To paraphrase Bloomberg, the reality is simple: you cannot spend it all, and you cannot take it with you. What you can do is direct it, with intention and rigour, toward the challenges that matter most. We are determined that our philanthropic dollars work every bit as hard as the work it took to create them. We can understand the instinctive desire to pass on great wealth to children, but we’ve been determined to neither spoil ours while we’re alive nor to do so once we’re gone.

Having established and fully funded our foundation, McKinnon, we have chosen to direct our philanthropy not toward symptoms but toward systems. Australia has benefited enormously from courageous, long-sighted leadership but that leadership cannot be taken for granted. The quality of our democracy, our institutions, and our governments has rarely mattered more. When those systems work well, the benefits flow to everyone. When they fail, everyone bears the cost.

So we have taken a venture capital approach to giving – deploying our capital where it can unlock the greatest leverage: investing in policy innovation, accelerating reform, and advocating for what is rational but politically unpalatable. By improving how policy is made, how government functions, and how democracy holds together, we believe that the whole nation benefits. And personally, by strengthening institutions, investing in the next generation of political leaders, and working to renew public trust in government, we hope that future Australians, our children included, will have the same chance we had to grow up in a country that gives its people a genuine opportunity to flourish.

Our work and the team at McKinnon excite us. Watching passionate, principled and talented people achieve things that once seemed impossible is among the deepest satisfactions we have known. When we see a team of dedicated educators and policy innovators launching Australia’s first Multi-School Organisation (MSO) trial in Tasmania – bringing a proven model from England to some of the state’s most disadvantaged communities, with the potential to lift outcomes for the state’s children – we are reminded why this work matters. That is not abstract impact. That is a child in Risdon Vale or Moonah getting better teaching, in a better school, because a courageous political leader was willing to back our evidence-based approach and fight to make it real.

To us, this is what giving looks like when it is working. And there is nothing more satisfying or important.