Lee Foundation is Singapore's largest private charitable

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

. It was founded in 1952 by

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

and businessman

Lee Kong Chian Lee Kong Chian (; 18 October 1893 – 2 June 1967), also known by his alias Lee Geok Kun (), was a prominent Chinese businessman and philanthropist based in Malaya and Singapore between the 1930s and the 1960s. He was the founder of the Lee ...

, and has since supported various educational causes, healthcare and medical endowments as well as disaster relief efforts. It is run by a board composed of Lee's descendants and non-family members. The foundation is also shareholder of

OCBC Bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Limited (), often known as OCBC Bank (), is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in OCBC Centre, Singapore. OCBC Bank was born out of the Great Depression thr ...

and

Singapore Press Holdings Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments. Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...

Overview

The Lee Foundation was established in March 1952 with a funding of $3.5 million from

business magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

Lee Kong Chian. Lee had been donating to schools like Kuo Chuan Girls' School, Nan Chiau Girls' High School, Chinese High School,

Methodist Girls' School Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

, St Margaret's School, Singapore Chinese Girls' School,

Anglo Chinese School Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) is a family of Methodist schools in Singapore and Indonesia. It was founded in 1886 by Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham as an extension of the Methodist Church. Anglo-Chinese School is usually abbreviated as "ACS", wi ...

(ACS), the University of Malaya and

Nanyang University Nanyang University (, also known as Nantah (), was a university in Singapore between 1956 and 1980. During its existence, it was Singapore's only private university in the Chinese language. In 1980, Nanyang University was merged with the Univer ...

. He had also donated to community institutions such as the Hokkien Huay Kuan Building, the Chinese Swimming Club and the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, o ...

. Several institutions took on the name of Lee Kong Chian's father, Lee Kuo Chuan, as Lee had initially requested them not to use his name. Examples of institutions and buildings named after the elder Lee includes the Kuo Chuan Presbyterian School, Lee Kuo Chuan auditoriums in

ACS (Barker Road) Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) is a government-aided boys' secondary school located at Barker Road in Newton, Singapore. It is a member of the Anglo-Chinese family of schools in Singapore. It offers the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level ...

and

Maris Stella High School Maris Stella High School (MSHS) () is a government-aided, all-boys Catholic secondary school with autonomous status. As a full school, it comprises a primary section offering a six-year programme leading up to the Primary School Leaving Examin ...

, indoor stadium of Anglican High School, Lee Kuo Chuan Nursery Home and the Lee Kuo Chuan Creche. Lee Foundation was also registered in Malaysia in 1960. It was reported that Lee Kong Chian transferred half his shares in Lee Rubber Group to the foundation in 1964, it is alleged that he had bequeathed half of his wealth as proceeds to the foundation in his will.

Lee Seng Gee Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

, eldest son of Lee Kong Chian and chairman of the Lee Rubber Group, was the chairman of the foundation from 1957 till his death in 2016. Board members include members of the Lee family such as businessman

Lee Seng Tee Lee Seng Tee (; 16 April 1923 – 29 July 2022) was a Singaporean businessman and philanthropist. Early life and education Born in Singapore in 1923, Lee was the second son of Lee Kong Chian and a maternal grandson of Tan Kah Kee. Lee graduat ...

(second son of Lee Kong Chian), YS Lee, Lee Han Shih (investor and former journalist for the ''Business Times''), Lee ST, (director of OCBC), Lee Chien Shih and Alan Lee Shih Hua. Former board members include the former chairman of OCBC Lee Seng Wee. The foundation and the family has been known to keep a very low media profile. Since its creation up till 2015, the foundation donated approximately S$1 billion to various causes, regardless of race, language, religion, nationality, and geographical location. Seventy-five percent of that amount went to education. Notable contributions included the following * $60 million donation to the National Library for the

Lee Kong Chian Reference Library The National Library, Singapore is the flagship national library of Singapore. A subsidiary of the National Library Board (NLB), it is located on an 11,304–square metre site in Victoria Street, Singapore, Victoria Street within the Downtow ...

, 2003 * $50 million donation to the

Singapore Management University The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. The university is the only city campus in Singapore. It ranks third in Asia as a specialist university, behind Hong Kong University of Science and Techn ...

for

Lee Kong Chian School of Business The Lee Kong Chian School of Business is the business school of the Singapore Management University (SMU). Established in 2000, the school was the first to be established under the Singapore Management University's charter. It is a research-dr ...

, in 2004 * $30 million gift to the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

in 2005 for the Lee Kong Chian Wing. * $25 million for

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM) ( Chinese: 李光前自然历史博物馆) is a museum of natural history at the Kent Ridge Campus of the National University of Singapore. It is named after Lee Kong Chian, a prominent Chines ...

of National University of Singapore * $150 million to NTU-Imperial College London's medical school, named Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, shortened to LKCMedicine. * From 2014 to 2017, the Lee Foundation donated $3 million to Sian Chay for launching the "Pioneer Generation Medical Fund". The Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Initiative on Southeast Asia, founded in 2007, establishes a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship on Southeast Asia to help advance scholarly and policy-relevant consideration of this region. In 2015, the sister foundation in Malaysia also donated a total of RM50 million to

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (abbreviated as UTAR; ) is a non-profit private research university in Malaysia. It is ranked top 100 in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2018 and top 1200 in the Times Higher Education Wor ...

(UTAR) for the construction of its new campus building in Sungai Long, Kuala Lumpur. In honor of the foundation's founder, the university has named its engineering and science faculty as the Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science. The generosity of the foundation has earned them many accolades such as the Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award by the National Arts Council for several years, and the National Volunteerism and Philanthropy Award Special Recognition Award in 2004 for Pioneers of philanthropy work in Singapore. Chairman Lee Seng Gee was awarded the Distinguished Service Order by the President of Singapore. In line with its original mission, the Lee Foundation continues to drive and promote education in socially relevant disciplines, e.g. in health and medical-related fields, and especially for disadvantaged students in Singapore, Malaysia and worldwide.

References

External links

Lee Seng Gee Singapore Infopedia

{{Authority control Educational foundations Organizations established in 1952 Charities based in Singapore Singaporean voluntary welfare organisations 1952 establishments in Malaya