Giorgiana Notarbartolo’s global push for tax justice

Italian philanthropist and impact investor Giorgiana Notarbartolo is directing millions towards one of the most overlooked tools for tackling inequality of our times — shaping a global movement for fairer taxation in the process.

“I remember the first time someone mentioned tax justice to me,” says London-based philanthropist and impact investor Giorgiana Notarbartolo. “They told me, if you care about inequality, you should look at tax justice. I remember thinking, what has tax got to do with this?”

The question lingered. A few weeks later, at an event featuring Stephanie Brobbey, founder and CEO of the Good Ancestor Movement, and inequality economist Gary Stevenson, Giorgiana began to see the outlines of an answer. What followed was more than a year of research into the forces driving inequality, leading her to one of the least-funded yet most impactful opportunities for change: tax justice.

“Tax justice is highly neglected, it’s highly feasible, it’s proven to have great success — and it’s system change for reducing inequalities,” she says.

Over the next three years, Giorgiana is committing around US $4 million to international tax justice work to help close the gap between extreme wealth and growing inequality.

“For me, it’s about reducing inequality … I see how it’s affecting democracy, how it’s affecting media, how it’s affecting climate. It’s like a negative ripple effect everywhere in society.”

From inheritance to impact

The drive behind Giorgiana’s systemic approach can be traced to years of thinking about how inherited wealth shapes inequality. As a seventh-generation wealth inheritor growing up in Milan, she was acutely aware of her privilege but unsure what to do with it.

“When I inherited [at the age of 18], I wasn’t really interested in money; I wanted to be my own person … I spent about five years trying to figure out how to relate to this wealth that I hadn’t made, that was far more than I’d ever need, and that I felt deeply uncomfortable around.”

Things changed in 2015, when she discovered impact investing: when money is used not just to generate returns, but to create positive social and environmental outcomes.

“I had an ‘aha’ moment when I discovered impact investing … it made me feel I could take this responsibility, I want to take this responsibility and have a positive impact with it.”

Since 2023, with guidance from Generation Pledge, a global community of inheritors from ultra-high-net-wealth families, Giorgiana has committed to redistributing more than half of her wealth, focusing on systemic change through tax justice.

Why tax justice matters

Globally, an estimated US $492 billion is lost every year through tax evasion and avoidance — money that could fund vital services like health, education and aged care, building a stronger, more equitable society for everyone. Yet philanthropic funding directed to international tax justice work totals less than US $30 million a year.

The potential impact runs into the hundreds of billions annually, yet from a philanthropic perspective, we’re barely scratching the surface, including here in Australia. An evaluation by the Reichstein Foundation and Tripple found that while the country’s philanthropic sector is increasingly aware of the issue, funding remains minimal compared to the scale of the opportunity. The report’s conclusion echoes Giorgiana’s global research: that tax justice is one of the most powerful, underused levers for reducing inequality.

A global portfolio

So far, Giorgiana has allocated US $4 million of her commitment to 15 organisations across the tax justice ecosystem. Her funding supports research, advocacy, grassroots organising and narrative change — the cultural work of shifting how people think about tax and fairness.

Grantees include the Tax Justice Network, Global Alliance for Tax Justice, Patriotic Millionaires, School for Moral Ambition’s Tax Fairness Fellowship, Oxfam Italy, Financial Transparency Coalition and the EU Tax Observatory. About 25% of her portfolio is directed to initiatives in the Global South, recognising fair taxation as essential to sovereignty and development in low-income nations.

Next, Giorgiana hopes to support the development of a global theory of change for the tax justice movement — a roadmap connecting research, policy and advocacy efforts worldwide. Additionally, she’s supporting efforts to map the ecosystem and bring funders together to align strategies and share learning.

Giorgiana’s family office, PFC, is also working to promote progressive tax systems and tackle tax evasion. In 2020, it supported Patriotic Millionaires’ campaign urging the G20 to adopt a global minimum tax on the ultra-wealthy. More recently, the office has funded the Extreme Wealth Line Initiative, a research collaboration led by Patriotic Millionaires International with the London School of Economics and others, exploring when concentrated wealth begins to erode democracy and distort economies. The initiative, which still seeks further funding partners, aims to shape future policy.

New ideas and funders for tax justice

Part of Giorgiana’s mission is to bring new funders to the table. To that end, she’s developed an online learning module to help philanthropists and impact investors understand why tax justice matters and how they can play a role, with the first session kicking off at the end of the month.

Additionally, over the next 18 months, Giorgiana is hoping to convene a global gathering of funders and practitioners, creating space to exchange insights, align approaches and strengthen the field’s collective impact.

At its core, Giorgiana’s work is about rebalancing systems — and expectations. She’s clear that philanthropy alone can’t solve inequality, but it can spark the conversations and support the structural shifts that make long-term fairness possible.