Deciding to leave a gift in your Will is a moment to pause and think about your life. The people who helped you. The places that mattered, and what you'd like to leave behind.
For many people in our region, a hospital is part of that story. A birth, a diagnosis, a long night in a waiting room, a team who were kind when it counted.
More than half of New Zealanders are open to leaving a gift to a cause they care about in their Will. Most simply haven't got around to it yet.
Your family comes first
Always. This is the single biggest reason people hold back, and it shouldn't be.
A gift in your Will is something you consider once the people you love are provided for. Even a small share of what remains can make a real difference here. You don't need to be wealthy. Most gifts in Wills in Aotearoa are left by ordinary people, for very ordinary reasons.
And nothing is fixed. If life changes, so can your Will.
The most useful gift you can leave
Wellington Hospitals Foundation is the official charity partner for Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley. Public funding provides the essentials. What our community raises lifts that care further.
We don't decide what that looks like. Our clinicians do. We work alongside the people delivering care every day, and they tell us where support would make the most difference.
Here's the thing about a gift in a Will. It might arrive in five years, or in thirty. None of us can know what medicine will look like by then. Technology moves fast. Treatments change. Crises arrive without warning. The equipment a ward needs most in 2040 may not have been invented yet.
A clinician directed gift is our best answer to that. It means whenever your gift arrives, it can go straight to whatever our hospitals need at that moment, decided by the people closest to the care. Nothing sits waiting for the right project. Nothing is locked to a need that has since passed.
If there is an area of care especially close to your heart, you can absolutely direct your gift there. Please reach out to our team, and we can work with you to ensure your wishes are clearly expressed while allowing your gift to have a meaningful impact for years to come.
Brian Carter's gift
Brian looked after people.
He left school early to run the family farm when his father became ill and stayed close to his mother after she was widowed. That instinct never really left him.
After a long career with the railways he retired early and gave the years that followed to others. He established and maintained bush tracks around Wellington and beyond, paths that strangers would walk without ever knowing who cleared them. He tended his garden, joined local community groups, gave his time freely. A bachelor for most of his life, he met Harriett later, drawn together by the outdoors, pétanque, croquet and the church.
When Brian wrote his Will, he chose to leave gifts to several charities that had mattered to him. Brian had lived with his own mental health challenges, and his family asked that his gift to Wellington Hospitals Foundation be directed to that area of care. It was the legacy he wanted to leave.
So, his generosity carries on.
The Sir Mark Dunajtschik Mental Health Centre at Hutt Hospital is a purpose-built home for acute mental health care. Brian's gift helps shape what happens inside it, so that people arriving on their hardest days find something exceptional waiting for them.
He spent much of his life making things better for people he would never meet. This is one more path, cleared for whoever comes next.
Our thanks to Brian for a gift that will lift care for years to come, and to Harriett and family for sharing his story and for their trust in us.
How to leave a gift
It doesn't need to be complicated.
Talk it through with the people you love, if that feels right for you.
Speak with your lawyer or Will provider. Public Trust, Perpetual Guardian, or another adviser can help.
Choose the kind of gift that suits you. A specific sum or percentage, property or other assets, or the residue of your estate, which is what remains once your family and other wishes are provided for.
Wording for your lawyer
Your lawyer will know what's needed. This wording is a starting point.
I give to Wellington Hospitals Foundation (Charity number CC22921) [the sum of $___ / ___% of my estate / the residue of my estate] for its general purposes, and I declare that the receipt of an authorised officer shall be sufficient discharge to my trustees.
Wellington Hospitals Foundation cannot provide legal or financial advice. We always recommend you seek independent advice, so your Will reflects your circumstances and your wishes.
Please tell us, if you'd like to
You never have to. Plenty of gifts arrive as a complete surprise, and we're grateful for every one.
But when people do let us know, something better happens for everyone.
We can thank you properly, in your lifetime, which matters more to us than you might think. We can make sure your gift is recorded and understood exactly as you intended, so there's no ambiguity later for your family or your lawyer. And we can keep you close to the work.
That means invitations to Foundation events and to see projects your support is helping to shape. Updates from the wards and the clinicians themselves, the through the keyhole moments most people never get to see. A relationship with someone here who knows your name and your story.
Telling us changes nothing legally. You can still change your mind at any time, and you never need to tell us the amount. If you'd prefer to keep it entirely private, we'll respect that completely.
Talk to us
There's no rush and no obligation. Everything you share stays confidential.
Esha Blade – Philanthropy & Legacy Giving Manager
Wellington Hospitals Foundation
022 408 8766 | esha.blade@ccdhb.org.nz