Home  >  How you can help  >  Legacy Gifts & Bequests

The power of legacy giving & bequests

When you leave a legacy gift to the NORTH Foundation you are investing in the future of healthcare for generations to come – so that we can continue to be there when the community needs us most.

The NORTH Foundation is proud to be the registered charity for the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) and to serve as the fundraising partner for Royal North Shore, Ryde and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospitals and the Kolling Institute of Medical Research. While our clinicians, healthcare workers and researchers are proud to be able to serve the community, the NORTH Foundation is honoured to be able to support their work. We work to raise crucial support for hospital and research facilities, equipment, training and program support in order to ensure that our medical and hospital staff are able to continue providing high-quality patient and healthcare services.

Our Foundation is driven by a clear purpose to meaningfully engage with the community and showcase the incredible medical and health services work happening within the NSLHD. By doing so, we hope to present NORTH Foundation as the charity of choice that is worthy of support for those seeking to improve community wellbeing, hospital services, innovative medical research and the delivery of exceptional patient care.

The NORTH Foundation is built on four main pillars of purpose:

  • Research: Funding world-class research that has a direct impact on the community and patient experience
  • Education: Educating the community about the services NSLHD provides and how they can impact and support our work
  • Care: Improve patient care and community facilities through the provision of new health services and medical equipment.
  • Nurture: Develop long-term and meaningful relationships our community and supporters.

Northern Stars – Join a community committed to guiding the future!

Many of our District’s health and medical services began as the result of philanthropic investment from caring and generous members of the community like you.

In 1929 after Mrs Eva Kolling OBE made a generous gift of £5,000 (equivalent to $644,400 in today’s AUD) in memory of her late husband Charles Kolling to fund medical research for the community. This generous donation was used to fund the construction of what was one of the first medical research laboratories in New South Wales – the Charles Kolling Memorial Laboratory. Upon her passing in 1941, Eva generously left a legacy gift in her will to continue and eventually expand the laboratory to become what is now the oldest medical research institute in New South Wales – The Kolling Institute of Medical Research.

Similarly, Ryde Hospital was created as the result of generous philanthropic investment and relentless support from the community. Although it was originally thought to be too expensive for a hospital to be created in Ryde, the community banded together to advocate for the hospitals creation and raised the funds necessary to buy ‘Denistone House’ (a then aged-care facility) to act as the first hospital building. The building was transformed into a hospital with the necessary equipment and services to meet the medical needs of the community. This spirit of advocacy and giving back still forms a strong part of the community spirit in Ryde.

It took incredible foresight, generosity, and passion for these members of the community to make the philanthropic investment that they did (especially during a time when such charity was unheard of). These gifts laid the foundation for the standard of hospital services and medical research available to the community for generations to come. For this reason, we consider these generous philanthropic pioneers to be our first Northern Stars – guiding the future of health and medical services for years to come.

A Gift in Will is a truly selfless act that has the potential to impact the lives of others for years to come and for this reason we have chosen to name our bequest society the ‘Northern Stars’ – a group of individuals who are choosing to make gifts that lead the future of healthcare for the Northern Sydney Local health District.

Gilbert Lorquet - NORTH Foundation CEO

Our Legacy Gift Charter

Choosing to leave a legacy gift is a testament to your values and how you want to be remembered.

We understand that leaving a gift in your Will is a very personal and generous decision. Your first priority is your loved ones and it is important to talk with them about your wishes and why you would like to include a gift to the NORTH Foundation or one of our beneficiaries in your Will.

Choosing to leave a gift in your Will is a deeply personal and generous decision. Your first priority is your loved ones and it is important to talk with your family about your wishes and the reason why you might choose to leave a gift to the NORTH Foundation.

Our legacy gift charter:

  • We will do our best to honour your wishes and ensure that your gift has a meaningful impact on the services we provide and research we conduct.
  • We respect that writing your Will is an important personal process that takes time and careful consideration.
  • We will respect your privacy and any information given to us will be held in strict confidence and will not be disclosed in your lifetime without your express permission.
  • Where possible we will provide you with updates and information on the area that you have chosen to support.
  • We will handle any gift you leave us with care and respect.

We want to ensure that we will take good care of your legacy, use your gift wisely and for the purposes you originally envision – to provide the community with access to high-quality patient care and continue to undertake world-class research.

Find out more

For more information about leaving a gift in your Will or to just have a confidential conversation, please contact our Philanthropy Manager on (02) 9436 0162 or email [email protected]

Back to top