Well Rounded View
We understand how important it is for lawyers to have a well rounded view, to be well informed and to be able to base legal advice on that knowledge. Our legal advice and services fit into our clients’ bigger picture. In this section of our website, we invite a leading business man or woman to share their views.
Dame Stephanie Shirley: Ambassador for Philanthropy in England
As Ambassador for Philanthropy I aim to encourage a giving culture by sharing my philanthropic journey and how I’ve put my self-made wealth to work. In doing so, I also hope to inspire Scotland to appoint it’s own ambassador and grow philanthropy throughout the UK.
I believe everyone's life plays out in three parts – you've got a phase in your life when you’re learning and then most of us have an earning phase in some way, followed by a returning phase focused around ‘giving back’. I certainly learnt a great deal in my early life because in 1939 I arrived here as an unaccompanied child refugee.
My father was a judge in Dortmund near Berlin at a time of horrendous discrimination, and we frequently moved around Europe trying to find a safe place. Then my parents did a very brave thing but more importantly a giving thing and they put me on a Kindertransport to England. They did not expect to see me again, which is a bold example of giving not in monetary terms, but giving to create an opportunity for another.
I arrived in London in July– I was stateless because Hitler had taken nationality away from Jewish families - I was penniless because we weren't allowed to bring any money, although my mother had put a Leica camera around my neck, which I later sold.
I learnt how to cope with change, how to welcome that tomorrow is different from today and also learnt to assuage my survivor guilt by making each day count, basically to make my life worth saving.
My first job came in 1951 and was partly an earning and a learning phase as I worked whilst volunteering with different charities. I soon hit the glass ceiling, which, in 1962 prompted me to found my own software company, thus providing a way of giving opportunities to women, because at that time we were very restricted. You couldn't serve on the stock exchange, you couldn't drive a bus- you couldn't even open a bank account without your husband's permission. I therefore became a pathfinder in the professionalism of women, especially in the high-tech area and so that was my earning phase.
Then in 1993 I started giving back – started returning, using what I had learnt in business and so on, because my company’s success had made me wealthy. At one time I was trailing Her Majesty the Queen in the women's rich list.
Personal wealth however is not just measured by money in the bank- we also have memories in our memory bank. I started off, not by giving money away, but by giving shares away in my company, firstly to the staff and then to various charities. The Shirley Foundation and its mission grew from the early days of my returning phase. I've always been involved in research, I've always been involved in pioneering and so the Shirley Foundation itself is pioneering. Because of my computing background, some big donations have been concerned with information technology, but the vast bulk has gone to the lifelong development disability of autism. It's something I know about and it's something I care about.
To explain, autism is a developmental disorder, it's present from birth, though it only exhibits itself a few years later – it hampers people's communication and social interaction; this was my late son's disorder.
Giles is the patron saint of disability, although I didn't realise that when we first used it, he was a beautiful baby but he suddenly turned into a wild, unmanageable toddler and the whole of our lives focused on him. He went to a good primary school and we had some relatively calm years, but he flipped completely when puberty hit and couldn't cope with it at all. I couldn't even find a secondary school that would accept him as a pupil. When he was 13 I broke down, I just couldn't function anymore - both of us went into hospital – I came out in a month but Giles stayed in a locked ward of an old style hospital for 11 years. Autism isn’t necessarily as bad as that but it can be absolutely devastating and it was with us. There is no cure.
My biggest charitable project therefore was to create a special school for pupils with autism and profound learning disabilities. It took 5 years but it continues to be a success to this day.
Giving is a social and cultural activity not just a financial transaction. I find that if I just write a cheque I feel very uncomfortable. Money can be given as a compassionate act of detachment, but I try to make giving a committed act of love. I started with hands-on support for my son but love transcends death and so autism continues as an ongoing focus of my life.
My personal belief is that giving should be proactive, ambitious and focused on results. My aim is always to be strategic – the money may be important but the passion and human touch are just as important. So I give with a warm hand and a liberal spirit. I feel more fulfilled as a social entrepreneur than I ever did in the years spent making money.
In 2009 I was selected as the British Government's founding Ambassador for Philanthropy for England because, it was said, I represent a modern model of philanthropy. My aim in this role is to give philanthropists a voice so that the government, the media and to a certain extent the charities actually understand what philanthropists are about. I encourage philanthropists to talk about their work so that others may understand and share how they give.
Across the world we know that philanthropy is a promising force for good, channelling resources from the successful and wealthy to invest in charities, community groups and social enterprises. Yet I'm convinced that the benefit of philanthropy is significantly unfulfilled until an appointment for an Ambassador in Scotland is confirmed.
The ideal paragon would be somebody who was prepared to work cross party, is creative, free willed and persistent in urging the necessary changes, because I believe that philanthropists lead and the politicians follow.
An Ambassador for Philanthropy in Scotland is something that would work here and by working together on such a project the government, charities and the media can really inspire the nation and help to foster the conditions in which generosity can achieve its greatest impact for good. I encourage Scotland to unleash philanthropy.
Click here to watch a video of the briefing
Click here to view photos from the event
View Dame Stephanie Shirley's biography
Click here to view details of Tods Murray's Charity team
Click here to contact Richard Findlay, head of Charity Law