Kiwis intentionally shaping their legacies

Eleanor Cater
CEO (Acting)
1 September 2025

This article also appears as an opinion piece in The Post - read the article here.

It’s really hard to give well. Many people have shared this same thought with me over the years as they try to work out where it would be best to place their donations and giving intent, in order to shift the dial on the problems that they see locally.

There’s a real Kiwi drive to make a difference, we see it in our consistently high place on the World Giving Index (though that is slipping) and we hear it in countless giving stories from across the nation. From the Ashburton farmers (two brothers) who have launched local tertiary scholarships, to the Hawke’s Bay family who have started a fund supporting dementia services in honour of their wife and mum, to the Wellington mother who has discovered, through her giving journey, political activism. We see countless journeys of people who are learning how to give well into communities, who really want to make their donations count, and who are discovering something significant about themselves along the way.

We are a generous nation, but we are yet to give consistently well through our estates, with 2022 FINZ research confirming that only 6% of Wills in New Zealand include a charitable gift (compared to 10% in the USA and 17% in the UK). Of late however, we are seeing what I can only describe as a grassroots drive of people who want to create a better world and who can find that their optimal giving moment is through their estate after they have passed (as one donor said to me: “I’m not going to need it then, am I?” I guess not!) This can be the moment that people find that they can do something extraordinary, and something that will shape their legacy. Intentional legacy creation can lead to remarkable joy for many people, which is actually a researched phenomenon called the “warm glow” of giving.

Once a year, during our nationwide campaign 'Wills Month' in September, we share stories of these wonderful people. They are consistently personal - and often quirky - and many have been inspired by the humble, unassuming story of Edna Brown, whose final wish to do something meaningful with her estate started the first personal invested fund in New Zealand’s network of Community Foundations.

Edna Brown’s legacy

Edna, the youngest of ten, was born in 1913 and grew up near her family’s soda factory in Rotorua and Tauranga. Her upbringing inspired a life of hard work and hospitality, running the Tin Hut Hotel and later farming in Te Puke, Ōmokoroa, and Tauranga. Known for her quiet determination and generosity, in 2001 Edna left a $67k bequest to health charities in Tauranga. Two years after her passing, Edna’s donation became the fledgling Acorn Foundation’s first donor fund, a fund that has been invested and which now has granted over $83k to 15 charities, all the while growing in value to more than $100k. By 2055, Edna’s fund is expected to distribute over $228k (and the fund size is projected to grow to $144k).

In essence Acorn Foundation, as one of 18 Community Foundations in New Zealand, will safeguard Edna’s life savings and ensure that they honour her memory and work for the benefit of her community, forever.

What we find is that there is something really powerful about this idea, both for the memory of Edna and for her beloved community. Edna is not alone, 1300 individual funds now power a young and growing Community Foundations network in New Zealand, with over 700 gifts in wills waiting in the wings, which Kiwis have decided they will share with their community once they take their final bow. The network of managed funds has grown over 21% in the past year alone and this shows a quiet revolution of people intentionally planning their giving into communities for the long term.

Perhaps we can, together, turn around that underwhelming New Zealand statistic of 6% of Kiwis leaving gifts in their wills. Goodness knows many of us care - a lot - about the growing issues we see on our doorstep and there is an upcoming moment in time when we might be able to do something extraordinary, just like Edna Brown.

Find your local community foundation >>