Margot believes that success should be re-invested into the community to help those less fortunate than ourselves, those who have been denied opportunities to progress in life through no fault of their own, and to promote critical research into debilitating diseases that diminish our collective quality of life. Find out more about her philanthropic work in Australia and internationally.

Margot McKinney has been a Patron of The King’s Trust Australia (formerly The Prince’s Trust Australia) for almost a decade. The King’s Trust was founded by King Charles III to tackle the global crisis of youth unemployment and to support young people worldwide. In Australia, it works to empower young people to achieve their full potential, help veterans and ADF families to transition into self-employment, and run sustainable projects to help young people and their families to thrive. Margot’s work as Patron was instrumental in her being honoured with an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) in the Australia Day Honours List in 2022.

Margot is a long-term donor and advocate for the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Charitable Trust. She is an avid supporter of the work of the Trust in its many forms, a body which has been caring for the Brisbane community since the 1950s. The Trust supports grassroots charities and has a significant positive impact on Brisbane’s most vulnerable residents. In the 2022-2023 financial year, the Trust supported some 107 charity organisations with over 226 grants of much-needed funds.

Margot was involved with her nephew Andrew McKinney Welch to establish the charity ‘Dining for Dementia’, dedicated to raising funds for the QBI (Queensland Brain Institute) at the University of Queensland for medical research into early detection and treatment of this debilitating disease…and ultimately to find a cure. At the charity’s inaugural black tie dinner event in Brisbane in October 2023 a phenomenal $500,000 was raised for the cause.