An heiress asked a group of strangers how to give away her $27 million inheritance. They've now told her what to do.
Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Image
- Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn asked 50 strangers to help distribute $27 million in inheritance.
- Engelhorn, whose ancestor was a rich industrialist, advocates for higher taxes on the ultrawealthy.
- The group proposed giving money to 77 charitable initiatives, including environmental and women's groups.
Earlier this year a 32-year-old Austrian heiress asked a group of complete strangers to decide how best to distribute roughly $27 million of her inheritance.
This week, the group "Good Council for Redistribution" (Guter Rat für Rückverteilung in German) reached a decision on how the money should be spent.
It should be awarded to 77 charitable initiatives over several years, the group said, including several women's shelter associations, children's charities, and climate crisis organizations.
The largest sum, of about $1.75 million, was earmarked for the environmental group Naturschutzbund Österreich, with other potential beneficiaries including the World Inequality Lab, Reporters Without Borders, and Catholic charity Caritas.
Marlene Engelhorn inherited a fortune as the descendant of Friedrich Englehorn, a 19th-century German industrialist who founded BASF, which would become the world's largest chemical producer.
After receiving the inheritance from her grandmother, Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto, who died in September 2022, Engelhorn sent out invitations to randomly selected Austrian citizens to help her redistribute her wealth.
Fifty people, aged 16 to 85, were ultimately chosen to decide how the bulk of the money would be spent.
They came from all walks of life and met over six weekends, hearing from experts in redistribution, poverty research, and law before making their decision.
Participants received stipends for childcare and travel expenses.
Englehorn's decision to give away her money, and have others decide how to go about it, received plenty of attention earlier this year.
In a mission statement, Englehorn explained her motives: "Our tax system favors precisely those who already live in abundance: work is taxed highly, wealth is taxed low or not at all."
Englehorn also told The Guardian: "To not redistribute wealth is as much of a distributional decision as to redistribute it."
She's previously called on the Austrian state to tax her 90% of the inheritance, telling Le Monde in 2022 that it was "unfair" to receive such a huge sum, given that she had never worked for it.
Austria abolished inheritance tax in 2008.
Englehorn has advocated for higher taxes on the world's wealthiest people. She also cofounded Tax Me Now, a collective of wealthy people in German-speaking countries calling on global leaders to tax their extreme wealth.
Englehorn, contacted via Tax Me Now, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.