Turning lifetimes into legacies

WILLS MONTH BLOG SERIES
Throughout September Wills Month we are sharing useful information and thought pieces from our network of member Foundations and supporters.

Maddie McLeod
Communications and Engagement Manager at Nīkau Foundation

During her lifetime, Dr Margaret Neave worked on the frontlines of famine, political unrest and epidemics, caring for communities across the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Over her long medical career, she gave many vulnerable individuals another chance at life, passed on hope to those in their darkest moments and provided lifesaving care to communities who would otherwise not have had access.

Although Margaret passed away in 2007, her kindness continues to touch communities she never lived in, her generosity reaches people she never met, and her support lives on through organisations founded long after her lifetime via funding delivered from Nīkau Foundation’s Margaret Neave Endowment Fund.

Across Aotearoa New Zealand, community foundations are acting as an intergenerational kaitiaki, ensuring the charitable wishes of the past can be translated to today and the future. When you leave a gift to them, they will ensure that the causes you love are supported as society evolves, as time goes on, new challenges arise, and new organisations are founded.s.

Take the example of Chris Thomas, a Wellingtonian referred to as ‘one of life’s true gentlemen’. Throughout his life, he had a love for the sea and cared deeply for nature. When he died in 2022, he left his estate to Nīkau Foundation – Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui, the Greater Wellington region’s community foundation, to establish the Chris Thomas Fund. Mirroring Chris’ own passions, the fund is dedicated to supporting environmental conservation.

As community foundations like Nīkau are focused on building reliable, long-term funding for charitable causes, Chris’ donation continues to be invested, grown and protected. At the end of every financial year, the Foundation calculates an amount available for funding while the balance of the Chris Thomas Fund continues to grow in the background.

As kaitiaki, Nīkau will connect his generosity with local conservation organisations. This year, that included the Friends of Taupō Swamp & Catchment, the Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation and the Rotary Club of Plimmerton Charitable Trust to complete wetland and riparian plant restoration – critical projects to mitigate climate change and maintain biodiversity.

However, as the Chris Thomas Fund will exist forever, it needs to have staying power. It can’t just make a meaningful impact today, but every single year, for generations to come.

So, let’s fast-forward 50-years. What will be the biggest challenges facing our natural environment? How will our communities respond? And who will be the organisations working to find and implement solutions?

Because we don’t know what the future will hold, Chris’ fund, like all Nikau’s funds, was intentionally designed to move with the times. No tight stipulations, no narrow funding criteria, just an enduring commitment to contribute to the things Chris loved.

Much like Dr Margaret, Chris’ generosity will continue to make a difference long into the future. Projects he could never have imagined will receive crucial support; new solutions will receive the backing they need to get off the ground, and organisations will have resources available to deliver transformative conservation outcomes.