Legacy Giving Programs

Our community of incredible legacy donation pledgers all share one vision – to create a world free from avoidable blindness. Our legacy giving programs, and the invaluable charitable bequests you can contribute, will help to save and protect the sight of so many people. By joining our legacy giving programs, you will help to transform lives one by one, until no one is needlessly blind.

‘Few years ago, I redrafted my Will to not only benefit my loved ones, but also worthy causes such as Orbis. Enabling each of us to continue contributing to our world after we leave it, legacy donations are an easy but vitally important way of helping the less fortunate. For me, the most important thing about Orbis’s work is that opening needlessly blind eyes is only the beginning. Those whose sight Orbis saves can not only take better care of themselves but also their families. As the old saying has it "giving someone a fish simply feeds them for a day. Teaching them how to fish benefits them for the rest of their lives.”’

May Cheung - Legacy Donor

A legacy giving program is a way for individuals to support an organization's long-term vision or cause. Deferred giving is typically made through wills, trusts and other legal documents encumbered during the donor's lifetime but remain in effect after they pass. These contributions offer reliable and consistent income streams to non-profit organizations, like Orbis, helping us pursue our long-term charitable goals.

• Include charitable bequests provisions in a Will or trust

• Upon the death of the person who made the Will, Orbis receives the legacy donation specified

Legacy-giving programs are a great way for increased sustainability and ensure long-term charitable success. Legacy gives organizations a reliable, steady source of income by allowing donors to make commitments that will last beyond their lifetimes.

The most obvious benefit of establishing legacy giving programs is that it helps develop and cultivate relationships with donors over the long term. By encouraging donors to make commitments that will outlive them.

• May change the charitable bequests or trust designation anytime

• Can control the legacy giving funding during your lifetime

• Help people in need through legacy donation

• Provide future support for Orbis through planned gifts, give individuals the chance of a brighter future

Establishing a legacy giving program can ensure that our mission and vision remain intact for future generations. Legacy giving provides an opportunity for individuals to make legacy donations at levels that are comfortable for them.

To leave a legacy donation to Orbis Hong Kong in your Will, please share the below essential details about our legacy giving programs with your solicitor:

• Name of beneficiary: “Project Orbis International, Inc."

• Registered address: Unit A on 3/F and Units A, C and F on 5/F of Infotech Centre, 21 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon

• Certificate of registration no.: F-3403

Your deferred giving will mean a lot to us! However, due to our legal status, Orbis should not be appointed as an executor of your Will. Please kindly discuss your wish on deferred giving with your legal advisor.

Orbis Hong Kong is collaborating with ForeverGift.hk, a legacy giving platform, to make your Will for free if you donate a legacy gift to Orbis Hong Kong. Simply submit your wishes through the platform, and a Hong Kong practising lawyer would be assigned to draft your Will according to your needs. When the Will is ready, you would be able to meet the lawyer and have your Will signed and witnessed at the lawyer’s office. The process is simple, easy and legally effective.

To make your Will for free, please register through www.forevergift.hk/orbis-eng. If you provide this voucher code during registration, your Will would also be prioritised: ORBIS-FREE2022.

1. ORBIS LEGACY GIFT DONOR’S LOVE DOESN’T END WHEN THEY STOP GIVING…. WALTER KENT - A STORY OF DEFERRED GIVING

None of us know how long our lives will last. The big question is what kind of legacy we want for those left behind? Hopefully the following story from our legacy giving programs may provide some inspiring insights on charitable bequests ….

“As good friends and brother of Walter Kent, we would like to tell you a little about his life before his legacy donation. Walter was one of six children, five boys and one girl, of a Catholic family in Brooklyn, New York. Walter attended St. Francis College, but before graduation he was called up to active service in the National Guard. He joined a large international bank in the spring of 1967 and his first assignment was in Military Banking in Thailand in July of that year. He moved upward, to the commercial bank in Bangkok, after several years. Some years later he was promoted to the Hong Kong Regional Office. Over the years he served in Taipei, Jakarta and finally back in Hong Kong. He remained in Hong Kong for the rest of his life.

“Of all the many charities Walter supported, Orbis was his favorite, with monthly contributions for some 20 years. Generous in giving to the less fortunate at Lunar New Year, Walter had his Chinese name on specially printed red Lai See packets. When a young friend accidentally drowned, Walter also gave generously to his wife and two young kids.

“Although Walter has now left us, through his legacy donation, his compassion for the needlessly blind remains. In leaving a substantial charitable bequest to Orbis, Walter wanted his last gesture of deferred giving to go on bringing light to visually impaired people all over the world.”

David Bravender & Brother Ed Kent

January 31, 2018

2. A SIMPLE LIFE WITH EVERLASTING LOVE SENIOR LADY MS. LEUNG, ORBIS LEGACY GIVING PROGRAMS’ DONOR

Until recently, 80-ish years-old Ms. Leung used to go everywhere with her beloved husband. Although now separated by death, she is happy to follow her soulmate’s last wishes by continuing to support Orbis through deferred giving.

Already long generous Orbis donors before their legacy giving, Ms. Leung and her husband, owned and operated a small veggie shop in an old corner of Hong Kong for over 30 years. Having lived frugally all their whole lives, Ms. Leung and her husband loved to provide inexpensive but nutritious and delicious meals for their local community. Although far from lavishly decorated, their shop is loved by the whole neighborhood.

Before their legacy donation, the good-hearted couple always made use of any surplus from their hard-earned money to help the needy. While Ms. Leung’s physical health is not as good as it was when she and her sweetheart were younger, she has continued to run their small shop and keep helping people on her own.

The secret behind Ms. Leung’s faith in planned gifts is her enduring love of her husband. “It is my heartfelt desire to honor his last wishes by continuing to contribute part of the surplus from our shop to legacy giving programs that help blind people from needy areas see again,” said Ms. Leung, with tears in her eyes. “I trust Orbis and will leave planned gifts to the world by joining Orbis’s legacy giving programs. I will donate part of my estate as a form of charitable bequests to their sight-restoring work when I leave this world to rejoin my other half. I urge other people to follow my example to make a deferred giving and share their good fortune with the less fortunate,” she added.

3. A STEP FOR A LIFELONG MISSION - MR. WOO CHUNG YAN’S EVERLASTING WISHAN ORBIS LEGACY GIFT DONOR’S TALE

While talking about one’s death or legacy has long been a ‘no-no’, not to mention legacy donation. Nowadays, modern Hongkongers are way less superstitious, many of them have decided to make a deferred giving to the future generation when they are still young and healthy. Having carefully planned arrangements with regards to legacy

ng for after his passing, Orbis legacy gift donor, Mr. Woo Chung Yan, is an excellent example of how to use one’s lifetime achievements to light up our world.

Born in 1936, Mr. Woo lost his

givi

mum early and was raised by relatives from his village. Having experienced many hardships during Japan’s wartime occupation of the Territory, he then studied in St Paul’s College, Grantham College of Education and United College, eventually becoming a teacher and later principal at Yeung Ching School after college graduation. Determined to help others throughout his life, Mr. Woo actively participated in community work and sponsored several poor students to continue their education. In 1995, he began supporting Orbis.

Before Mr. Woo passed away last year at age 82 he made a last will with legacy gifts of donating his library of 2,000 books to a university and sharing part of his estate as charitable bequests with Orbis and several other deserving causes. Like Mr. Woo, you don’t need to be unimaginably rich to leave a legacy donation! All you have to do is to share your love through planned gifts with the world and brighten less fortunate lives.

4. PASSING ON KNOWLEDGE TO LIGHTEN UP THE WORLD - MS. SO KING WAI, ORBIS LEGACY GIFT DONOR

In our fast-changing world, love and knowledge are amongst the very few things that are eternal. A much-loved teacher, Ms. So King Wai, devoted her whole life to education, inspiring her colleagues and students to be gentle and kind. Although she has now sadly passed away, her family have kept her passion for teaching alive by donating a legacy gift on her behalf to Orbis training initiatives. These charitable bequests are continuing to help the needlessly blind by educating the next generation of eye care professionals.

Before her deferred giving, Ms. So taught Chinese at St. Paul’s Co-educational College Primary School for over 40 years. Many of the students she taught continued to meet up with her long after they had graduated. Ms. So was legendary for remembering every student’s story and the eagerness with which she shared her extensive teaching experience when mentoring new colleagues.

Ms. So understood the lifetime struggles awaiting children who were unable to read or write and began helping the needlessly blind by supporting Orbis since 1997. She eventually went on to become a valued monthly donor. When Ms. So passed away at age 83 in January 2020, she continued her lifelong love of education by donating her body to The Chinese University of Hong Kong for scientific research. Her family then honored this inspirational woman by making a legacy donation to Orbis’s medical training programs in Shandong China, Ethiopia and via our telemedicine platform Cybersight. While life is limited, let’s try to make our love and knowledge last forever by following in Ms. So’s footsteps and leave planned gifts of eternal light to the world through our dedicated legacy giving programs.

1. What are legacy giving programs?

Legacy giving programs are a long-term commitment to philanthropic giving, whereby individuals make deferred giving to charities and other organizations during their lifetime or through estate planning. Legacy gifts are often made in cash or securities but can also include real estate, artworks, life insurance policies, retirement plan assets, and more.

2. What are some common types of legacy giving?

The most common type of legacy giving is a bequest, which transfers money or assets to a charity upon the donor’s death. Other forms of deferred giving include charitable trusts, annuities, beneficiary designations and life insurance.

3. What are the benefits of participating in legacy giving programs?

Legacy giving allows individuals to make philanthropic investments that will have a lasting impact beyond their lifetime, and allows non-profit organizations like Orbis to pursue longer term charitable goals.