The billionaire co-founders of graphic design tech company Canva have been named as the second most giving philanthropists in Australia. 

Husband and wife Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, both in their late 30s, along with their co-founder Cameron Adams, have so far donated up to $39 million via Canva’s foundation in eighteen months.

Canva, worth $39 billion (Australian dollars), has spiralled into one of Australia’s most valuable tech startups and propelled both Perkins and Obrecht into Australia’s top 10 wealthiest people, with an estimated $11 billion jointly with a 30 per cent share in their business.

The duo pledged to give 80 per cent of their fortune away, via the Canva Foundation, in 2021.

Adams, meanwhile, is worth reportedly worth $3.3 billion.

According to its website, the Canva Foundation has cost $641,677 to run over the 18 months. It has distributed $31.639 million so far, with grants going towards literacy programmes in Southern Africa and India, as well as support for Afghanistan, Philippines, Ukraine and the US.

Canva’s founders also gave $700,000 in disaster relief for earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco, as well as humanitarian aid following floods in Libya and support in Hawaii after deadly wildfires.

In total, $31.2 million has gone towards grants and donations internationally, and $372,478 of grants made in Australia.

Australia has around 150 billionaires. Billioniare and former mining magnet Andrew Forrest and his former wife, Nicole, gave away $224.9 million via their own charitable fund, Minderoo.

Three years ago, Perkins wrote about Canva’s philanthropic ambitions as part of a two-step plan to become ‘one of the most valuable companies in the world’, followed by ‘do the most good we can.’

‘It has never felt like our money, we’ve always felt that we’re purely custodians of it. As we’ve previously shared, it’s long been our intention to give the wealth away, and we’ve been thinking long and hard about the best way to start that journey,’ Perkins wrote in 2021.

Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance Magazine.