Lee Foundation

Lee Foundation is Singapore's Largest Private Charitable foundation, created to aid "the advancement of education, medicine and cultural activities; helping the poor; and assisting victims of fire, flood and famine", It also funded other philanthropic work. It was founded in 1952 by philanthropist and businessman, Lee Kong Chian. It is a family run foundation, notable board members include Lee Seng Gee (Chairman of Both Lee foundation and Lee Group of Companies) ,Lee Seng Tee (well respected philanthropist) Lee Seng Wee (former Chairman of OCBC) , Lee Han Shih (notably outspoke former journalist for the Business Times) , Lee Ti Shih (Researcher and Professor at National University Singapore.

In 1957, Lee Seng Gee took over as chairman of the foundation. Lee Foundation remains among OCBC's largest shareholder. It is reported that Lee Kong Chian had given a large fraction of his share to the foundation, it is alleged that the half of the family's wealth has actually been set aside as proceeds to the foundation. .^[1]

Since its creation till 2009, 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 towards the building of the new National Library in 2003 ^[2]
• $50 million donation to the Singapore Management University in 2004 ^[3]
• $30 million gift to the National University of Singapore in 2005
• $25 million high profile donations to fund the new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum
• Singapores (NTU) Lee Kong Chian school of medicine

In 2002, the Foundation and the Old Rafflesians' Association launched and funded the Lee Tzu Pheng Poetry Award. The bi-annual award is awarded to aspiring young poets in secondary schools and junior colleges.^[4]

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.<http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/research/nusstanfordsea/> In the long run, the Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Initiative on Southeast Asia aspires to advance the use of scholarly and policy research and education to deepen international understanding of Southeast Asia and augment the well-being of Southeast Asians in that larger context, a matter very close to the heart of its benefactor.

On 5 January 2011 the foundation donated S$150 million to the Nanyang Technological University medical school, which will be named the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in honor of the founder of the Lee Foundation.^[5] This is the largest donation to an education institution in Singapore to date.

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. Pioneers of philanthropy work in Singapore, The Lee Foundation continues to drive and promote the charity worldwide.

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