It’s been announced this week what happened when Marlene Engelhorn asked 50 randomly-selected Austrians to give away her £21m fortune. They opted for a selection of 77 organisations including conservation charities, a left-wing think tank, a community football club, a religious group and a homeless shelter.

I think what is striking is the diversity of the beneficiaries chosen - both in terms of the causes they seek to address and their “theories of change”. For example the money will go to groups focused on advocating for policy change as well as others focused on on-the-ground service delivery.

"The result is as diverse as the Council itself.” says the project manager for Marlene's Guter Rat für Rückverteilung initiative. “What all the decisions have in common is that they want a fairer society. They want everyone to live well together. And they want to support those who are discriminated against."

I'm curious as to how the outcome of initiatives like this is shaped by their design. There are a few differences between Marlene Engelhorn’s project and Wealth Shared. Our cohort opted to give the money to four organisations aimed at improving the life chances of people in the local area.

The Austrian project involved a much larger cohort of people from all over the country, they were given a longer time to deliberate (six weekends vs four two-hour sessions), and they were provided with lectures, including from philosophers and economics professors, to inspire their choices on who would ultimately get the money.

They were specifically encouraged to consider issues around wealth distribution and inequality, whereas we chose to leave the deliberation as more of an unstructured free-for-all. Although issues around inequality and wealth did come up in the discussion.

An element of the Austrian project I really like is that the decision-makers have had a platform to present their conclusions in their own words.

I think it’s very exciting to see further iterations of this concept. I think bringing together diverse groups of citizens is a powerful way of unlocking wisdom and ingenuity. The question of “how to use money to make the world better” can be approached in new and smarter ways.

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