BRW Rich Families list, top 250 is now the top 300, and another new World Wealth report

• Fairfax have published the BRW Rich Families list for 2015 - covering all the wealthy Australian families not appearing in the BRW Top 200 list of wealthy individuals which they publish each year in May. Top of the list (again) are the Smorgon family, followed by the Wilson family, the low-profile owners of the Reece plumbing chain of stores.   The clickable links in the online list reveal a useful short paragraph on each family.

• Credit Suisse have published their Global Wealth Report 2015. The publication and the accompanying databook can be downloaded here. This year New Zealand replaced Australia as the country with the highest median wealth per adult - a metric which as Credit Suisse point out "favors countries with lower levels of wealth inequality". Australia ranks third on average net wealth at US$ 364,900. Credit Suisse claim the number of Australians with wealth above US$1m to be 1,198,000.  (As this is nearly 6x the Capgemini World Wealth Report figure, we are assuming the Credit Suisse figure does not exclude value of primary residence).

• Forbes Asia's Asia Pacific Heroes of Philanthropy list is headed by three notable Australian philanthropists this year, led by Len Ainsworth, and details examples of substantial personal philanthropy from around the region.

• And our own list of Australia's philanthropic donors of gifts of $1m or more keeps growing - we've just reached 300 after our latest update, and changed the format to make the list searchable. It's here.  If you have anyone to add, let us know!
  

• We'll be talking about prospect research and identifying your potential major donors  at Fundraising & Philanthropy magazine's expanded two-day conference on sources of significant funding on 23 and 24 November in Melbourne, Big 4 Fundraising.

• And hurrah - the Australian government is finally putting some money again into research into philanthropy in Australia