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On honouring his late majie’s memory in this way, Mr Lim said: “It’s a statement that her life mattered. I hope, in a very small way, to honour her and the generations of majie who have made Singapore their home and given their lives in service. Rather than them fading into history, we can help to remember them.”

Majie are women from China who worked as domestic servants or nannies in Singapore since the Republic’s pre-independence years. The last of these majie were said to have retired in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr Lim is one of the growing number of people who have started a donor-advised fund at the CFS, which is Singapore’s first community foundation, set up in 2008.

There were 244 such funds by the end of September, up from 143 funds in the 2019 financial year, said CFS director of partnerships and engagement Theresa Cheong. Sign up

Donor-advised funds allow wealthy donors to give to a range of charitable causes without incurring the significant expenses needed to start and run a standalone private foundation.

At the CFS, a minimum of $200,000 is required to start a donor-advised fund, and the donor can name the fund and decide on the charitable causes to support. The CFS will handle the administration and management of the fund. 

To start the Loi Ooi Toh Fund, Mr Lim topped up more than $100,000 of his own money to the sum Miss Loi left, to meet the $200,000 sum required.

He said his majie was originally from Guangdong, China, and she never married.

“Toh Jie”, as his family called her, started working for his family when she was in her 60s and he was a pre-schooler. She lived in their house for four to five years until she retired.

“She was like a surrogate grandmother to me,” said Mr Lim, who would only say that he had a “privileged upbringing” when asked about his family.

She cared for him and his younger brother, while a Filipino maid did the housekeeping chores. His youngest brother was born after Miss Loi retired.

Recalling how she was strict and “stoic”, Mr Lim said: “She was not a woman of many words, but she was always happy to see us.”

Mr Lim said his family kept in touch with Miss Loi until her death about 10 years ago. She was in her 90s when she died.

After retiring, she lived in a one-room HDB rental flat in Chinatown, which she kept “super spartan and super clean”, Mr Lim said.

She was “fiercely independent” until she fell and broke her hip.

She could not walk unassisted after that, and Mr Lim’s family paid for her nursing home stay for a few years until she died.

“She spent her life in service to others,” he said. “To the end, she was always thinking about how she could do something for us.”

Mr Lim said Miss Loi left the bulk of her life savings to him for his wedding, and the rest of her money went to her relatives in China.

“I was shocked by the amount and that she left it to me. I was only the last of her charges. I was very touched.”

He is not married, and said he would pay for his own wedding if he does tie the knot.

As he did well at work during the Covid-19 pandemic “and I don’t really have any need for the cash”, Mr Lim used the money Miss Loi left him to start the charitable fund.

Mr Lim said many social workers visited Miss Loi when she was living alone after retirement and so, he wanted to support social work education.

The Loi Ooi Toh Fund supports financially disadvantaged social work undergraduates at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

It also funds the Yong-en Care Centre’s home care service, which supports seniors with limited mobility and chronic health conditions as they recover at home after being discharged from the hospital.

Ms Cheong said the growing number of donor-advised funds at CFS reflects the growing awareness and shift towards strategic and impactful philanthropy.

Many of the new donors give to education, healthcare and social welfare, she said, adding that there is a growing interest in sustainability causes.

CFS disbursed $22.5 million in charitable grants in the 2023 financial year, up from $16.8 million the year before.

The Dr Lim Boon Tiong Foundation was started in 2018 with a gift of $24 million – the largest sum given to start a donor-advised fund at the CFS – to support urological cancer research, palliative and elderly care.

The late Dr Lim was a general practitioner who worked until he was 80 years old, and he often gave free medical treatment to those in need, Ms Cheong said.

In 2023, the widow of the late Law Society president Adrian Tan started the Adrian Tan Memorial Fund as a “heartfelt tribute to her late husband and to support causes Adrian was passionate about”, Ms Cheong said.

The Adrian Tan Memorial Fund focuses on facilitating access to legal services for marginalised communities through Pro Bono SG, and advocating for the welfare of migrant workers.

Mr Tan died in July 2023 at the age of 57, after a legal career that spanned over 30 years. He is also known as the author of The Teenage Textbook and its sequel, The Teenage Workbook.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.