History
Since its establishment by Owen Glenn in the 1980s, the Glenn Family Foundation has helped people around the world create opportunities, develop their talents and knowledge and build better lives. Since its inception it has made numerous donations to individuals and organisations totalling over NZ$30 million.
The areas covered include Asia (India, the Philippines, China-Macau), Africa, the UK, the USA and the Pacific countries of Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. Among the first of these was assistance to a Leper Colony in China-Macau. A range of individual grants were also made to assist people with immediate needs; wheelchairs were provided, sporting bodies were given new equipment, and health facilities and schools were re-equipped. Funds were often delivered to local charitable organisations, such as religious orders, which had the capacity to deliver educational and medical services on the ground direct to the people who needed them. Thus began the Foundation’s tradition of working in partnership with other like-minded groups, with the aim of helping people to build better lives.
In 2002, the Glenn Foundation began what has become a flagship project in Asia. In consultation with Jimmy Keir, it was decided that the GFF would work to help the people living in the hill villages of Kalimpong, India. Here the Foundation now supports child rescue and rehabilitation, health initiatives and village, school and economic development.
Working with the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, the Foundation now houses, cares for and contributes to the education of over 120 children between the ages of 5 and 14 who have been rescued by the Sisters from child labour and exploitation.
To address the root causes of the poverty which creates the conditions for child labour and exploitation, the GFF also funds a Model Village Programme. This enables a widening circle of villages in the Kalimpong region of West Bengal to develop clean water systems and improve sanitation. It also provides villagers with regular medical checks, helps them upgrade and re-equip their local schools, and moves them towards economic sustainability.
Owen Glenn's affection for and involvement in New Zealand was rekindled during the first America’s Cup held in New Zealand in 2000. At that time a significant contribution was made by the Glenn Family Foundation to support a Chair in Marine Sciences at the Leigh Marine Laboratories at The University of Auckland. This was followed by a major gift of NZ$7.5 million to The University of Auckland Business School in 2005.
Since then, the Foundation, has provided other major grants to educational and sporting organisations to strengthen New Zealand’s knowledge and skills, especially those of its youth, in the business, science and sporting arenas.
The current aim of the Glenn Family Foundation is to concentrate its efforts on funding large-scale, transformative grants which have long-term benefits for as many people as possible. Although India and New Zealand are its current focus, the wider Pacific area will continue to be of interest to the Foundation.