Impact UK: The power of partnerships
We interviewed Gary Lubner as part of Impact UK: The sizing and the story of the impact economy.
The key to making meaningful and systemic change is bringing government, business and charities together, believes Gary Lubner—founder of charitable foundation This Day.
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Born to Jewish refugee parents in apartheid South Africa, Gary Lubner’s life has been shaped by injustice and opportunity in equal measure. Witnessing the brutality of apartheid first-hand instilled in him a lifelong drive for social justice and equal opportunities.
After building Belron, parent company of Autoglass into a global brand, Lubner turned his focus to social impact. His ecosystem approach brings together governments, businesses, and charities to create systemic, lasting change. It’s a model that has seen his foundation collaborate with the South African government as well as Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. Determined to see impact within his lifetime, Lubner plans to give away all his wealth.
The Spark
Growing up in apartheid South Africa and being conscripted into the police force, I saw apartheid enforced first-hand. It set me on a lifelong course around social justice and the madness that your future could be determined by where you were born or the colour of your skin. I’ve never felt comfortable with the wealth I have.
I don’t think I deserve it, frankly. But it’s the system we work in. And so I decided that I was going to give it all away. And hence This Day. This Day is all about creating opportunities. If young people feel that there’s something they can do and that they can contribute, then the future becomes much brighter.
The Choice
The only way you can bring about lasting change is by engaging with government and civil society together. That’s why we support hundreds of different charities and work with political systems. To bring about real change we realised you sometimes have to change the government.
That catapulted me into politics—a way to turbo-charge philanthropy. If you work with government you can unlock billions rather than millions.
I believe that if you work with government, you can unlock billions rather than millions—that’s how you make systemic change.
The Impact
In the UK we dove straight into the refugee and asylum sector. We’ve become very strong supporters of some great organizations like Refugee Council and Hope Not Hate in particular. We’ve helped them to keep going, to grow, to make a big difference around things like building stronger communities and tackling extremism.
In South Africa we really leant into early childhood development. We did a lot of work behind the scenes to come up with the right approach and this culminated in the government announcing R10bn (£431m) for Early Childhood Development and adopting our programme. SmartStart the biggest charity we support now has 15,000 early childhood centres reaching nearly 200,000 kids who would have had no education before they were five years old. Our goal is to reach a million kids by 2030.
The Future
I’m committed to giving away all my wealth. I don’t want to die leaving a huge foundation; the joy is now.
Emotional ROI
There’s no question that giving is much, much better than receiving. If anyone is thinking about becoming a philanthropist, the first thing I’d say is it’ll be the best decision you ever make.
Giving Forward
The one thing I’ve learned is that focus is better than spreading too thinly. Focus on what you’re passionate about and where you can make a difference. I would certainly encourage people to think about the more systemic types of change because that is real impact in the end.
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