Structuring a Family Foundation

Listen to Dr. Lee Oi Kum as she tells the story of how her mother set the foundation of successfully building a charity which was ultimately able to run on its own.

We have a charitable foundation, which are an old folks home and some hospitals. But it’s a charitable, and every year we still have to sponsor it. My mother did a very wonderful thing. She went to the villages and says, “we have an old folks home, we would like you to contribute, $5, $3, contribute, because this a little that you can do for your own community”. So she didn’t ask people to write $5000 cheques, $50 000 cheques. But by doing that, every year the vegetable growers have one whole month where they put produce and they sell for the old folks home, and it was cash flow positive. Within one year, the old folks home, we didn’t need to support it anymore as a charity. Why? Because people believed it was well run, they came in with donations.