KEY POINTS:
Auckland businessman Tony Falkenstein has given millions of dollars towards local education.
And he says more businesspeople would be encouraged to give back to the community if the Government improved tax laws around donations.
Falkenstein is the only New Zealander in a book on philanthropy worldwide written by British author and broadcaster Charles Handy.
"It's a dilemma for the Government [because philanthropy] does help things it could be doing, yet the Government doesn't give too much support [taxwise]," says Falkenstein.
"I suppose the Government sees it as giving away 39c. Other people would probably see it as the Government getting 61c."
The Government is considering raising the rebate cap and the rate of the rebate from 33.3 per cent.
Falkenstein, one of 20 international philanthropists included in Handy's book The New Philanthropists, said he was "honoured" to be included.
"It's funny, you do your own thing, and then you find you're typical of what they're now calling 'the new philanthropists'."
Falkenstein, a major stakeholder in NZAX-listed Just Water, donated $300,000 to help set up Onehunga High School's business academy.
He has also donated to the University of Auckland's business school and the Unitec School of Business Management via shares in Just Water.
Others to feature in the book are Sydney restaurateur Jeff Gambin, who helps to cook hot and cold menus for homeless people, and Niall Mellon, a young Irish property developer who is replacing shacks with breeze-block homes in a South African township.
