Philanthropy in action

At Social Services Waikato our aim is to support and strengthen community-based social services around the greater Waikato.

Rua and Clarrie Stevens freely donated their time and expertise serving the Dunedin Community. Both gave without fuss or fanfare but with a lot of passion.

Colin Toop worked hard all his life. After he retired he started thinking more about how he could make a lasting difference to his community.

Greg Brownless has been practicing generosity all his life in small ways. His earliest memory of giving is to the RSA poppy sellers on the street when he was a child. He remembers thinking then, there are less fortunate people than me that need a hand.

Sir Roy McKenzie's contribution to philanthropy in New Zealand has been immense. He has maintained and enhanced his family's long history of creative giving.

In his work as a professional fundraiser in the early 1960s, Jim Mutch frequently encountered large and generous donors who declared that they would gladly give twice as much to the cause - if the donations were deductible for income tax purposes.

Jeremy and Ben give away one third of their pocket money. Every week they save a third, spend a third and drop a third into their moneybox marked 'charity'.

Winton and Margaret Bear were devoted to helping young people during their lifetime. Unable to have children themselves, the couple became deeply involved in helping children's homes after Mr Bear returned from wartime service as an army captain in 1947. They soon developed clear targets and ideas about the people that needed their help.

When Josephine was 13 years old, her father told her she would be very wealthy one day. He followed that statement with his philosophy that there is a limit to the amount of money an individual needs - therefore he would be giving a substantial amount of his fortune away to help others.