Ways to Give

Bill and Jill's story - why we are giving through Top of the South Community Foundation

We have been very fortunate to spend 22 years working abroad for ExxonMobil in some very interesting and remote parts of the world.  I was originally from Wellington and Jill from Christchurch, so deciding on somewhere to retire was a bit of a challenge, or so we thought!   We decided on Ruby Bay and haven’t looked back.

When we returned to New Zealand in May 2015 and settled into our new home in Ruby Bay we needed to get our affairs in order. High on the list was updating our will.

We are both very passionate about philanthropy and therefore it was very important to us that our Wills were very clear on how our estate was going to be distributed when we passed on.  Being new to the area we needed help in deciding how we would do this. A casual discussion with Dion Smith from the BNZ led us to the Top of the South Community Foundation.

We had a couple of informal discussions with David Kerr (former Executive Officer) from the Foundation and he was able to answer all our questions and give us the confidence to sign up.

The key advantages that we saw with the using the Foundation to administer our wishes were that:

• It was part of a worldwide trend in philanthropy.
• It was one of 16 Community Foundations in NZ.
• It was supported by the Tindall Foundation.
• It had the ability to create an enduring endowment fund within the Foundation through our Will.
• Our gift will keep growing over time.
• we had the confidence that the Foundation is focussed on giving to those that need help within the region where we now live.
• The Board of Trustees are professional business leaders who volunteer their time to promote and provide good governance to the Foundation. Where applicable professional support is provided on a pro-bono basis thereby keeping administration costs to a minimum.
• Quality Corporate sponsors supported the Foundation and were committed to the region.
• The concept of bundling legacies, investing the funds and distributing the interest ensures that the capital base will be maintained and grow over time ensuring that there will be continuous funds to distribute to those in need in our community.

As we mentioned at the start, we are both very passionate about philanthropy. During our time abroad we got to see how this works in some of the countries we lived in. For example, in the US it is very common for people to donate a percentage of their salary and gift part of their estate to various local charities. This is not quite the culture in NZ but as individual wealth grows we see it becoming more prominent and we saw the Foundation as a great vehicle to do this.

Also, we were fortunate to experience life in some of the wealthiest countries (Hong Kong, US, Qatar) and one of the poorest (Chad). Firsthand we saw that wealth is not distributed evenly or fairly around the world and often this is driven by where you are born and what side of the tracks you come from. A lot of people need the help to get a start through no fault of their own.

We both felt that Community Foundations are in tune with the needs of our local communities. Since signing up with the Foundation we have started regular contributions to the Foundation by way of living giving, in conjunction with other charities that we regularly support.

I was also very pleased to be invited to join the Board so I could actively provide additional support to this important organisation in our community. We continue to be very happy with where the Foundation is heading and ultimately the big difference it can make to a lot of different groups needing help in our community. We encourage people to consider leaving part of their estate to charity to strengthen and grow the communities in which we live.

We hope this legacy we leave will make a big difference to people that have not been as fortunate as we have. The gift of giving feels right to us and gives us both a great deal of satisfaction.

We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have regarding our involvement in the Foundation or more importantly how you could get involved and support the Top of the South Community Foundation.

Bill and Jill Agnew are regular donors to Top of the South Community Foundation. They have also established an endowment fund through the Foundation in their Wills.