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SINGAPORE – It was her son’s degenerative eye disease that put ophthalmologist Dr. Audrey Looi and her husband, neurosurgeon, Dr. Ang Beng Ti, on the path of philanthropy.
The couple were devastated a decade ago to discover that James, now 19, suffered from Stargardt’s disease, which causes progressive loss of vision, when he was in elementary school.
To make matters worse, there was a serious lack of programs to support children with low vision in their educational and other needs, said Dr. Ang, 51.
In 2011, the couple established the charity iC2 PrepHouse, which teaches children with low vision the skills to cope with daily life and supports them to stay in regular schools.
They now plan to leave $ 200,000 or more in their wills to establish an endowment fund to support the work of iC2 PrepHouse and fund scholarships for needy undergraduates from Singapore Management University (SMU).
James is now a business student at SMU. The Angs have two other children, ages 13 and 21.
Dr. Looi, 50, said: “So instead of giving (our wealth) everything to our children, we have started thinking about setting aside a part for charity. I think we have to be a little less self-centered. and give back to society.
“We told our children that they can contribute to the fund (in the future). And I would like to think that our children can manage without this sum that we are giving to charity.
“Long after we are gone, we have this charity that continues to help children with low vision. IC2 PrepHouse is our family legacy.”
The couple is one of the donors spearheading the “A Bigger Gift” campaign in a three-month campaign to promote inherited giving that was launched on Tuesday (November 24) morning.
The campaign was started by the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS), a charity that promotes philanthropy here.
Inherited donations are broadly defined as future donations to charities, such as leaving money or assets to charitable causes after death.
Catherine Loh, CFS executive director, said the charity has seen more interest in bequest donations in recent years, from people of different demographics, including singles and married couples without children.
However, he added that Singaporeans’ interest in bequeathing lags behind Western societies, noting that it is taboo in Asian cultures to talk about death and even write wills.
However, he said it is changing.
“People think that legacy giving is only for the very rich. But we want to tell people that nothing is too small. We want to change this concept that it is only for the very rich.
“Another thing that people think is that if they give an inherited gift, their children will have nothing. We mean that it is not a (situation) of one or the other and they may consider leaving a part of it (their wealth) to the charity, “added Ms. Loh.
While there are the super rich who are leaving millions to charity after their death, some charities have also received as little as $ 10,000 from a person’s estate, he said.
The CFS will provide resources to help charities engage their donors in legacy giving, among their efforts to advance this form of philanthropy here.
In addition to the Angs, the other donors taking part in the campaign include MP and lawyer Nadia Ahmad Samdin, 30, and venture capitalist Hian Goh, 46.
In her campaign video, Ms. Nadia said that she attended school with the help of financial aid and now wants to help at-risk youth, while Goh wants to create opportunities for innovators to reach their full potential.
Goh is a co-founder of the Asian Food Channel, a pay television channel that is now known as the Asian Food Network.
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