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Good karma

Sharon Brettkelly
Tuesday, 1 July, 2003

In a classroom at one of the country’s poorest primary schools, businessman Scott Gilmour is helping eight-year-old Kesaia write her autobiography. She’s one of 36 Year 4 pupils at Wesley Primary School, a decile one school in Auckland’s Mt Roskill, who have been “adopted” by Gilmour. For 10 to 20 hours each week, he spends time with Kesaia and her classmates, encouraging them to dream big, ambitious dreams that will break them out of the constraints of their impoverished community.

Wesley Primary is surrounded by state houses in a community of migrants, a world away from well-heeled Takapuna, where the Gilmours live. In his corporate life, the father of four is a business mentor and angel investor. At Wesley Primary, he’s a “social entrepreneur”. His motivation? Like other busy professionals who find the time to do their bit for charity — from the West Coast car yard owner who raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for community projects, to the Wellington businesswoman who mentors other women — Gilmour is committed to giving something back.

For Greymouth businessman Tony Kokshoorn, charity work is an addiction. The more you give, the more you want to give, he says. Christchurch’s Sir Gil Simpson, founder of software house Jade, has been involved in voluntary work with church and youth groups since he was 16. For Wellington entrepreneur Helen Hancox, philanthropy provides a humbling reminder of her own time on welfare.

Gilmour, who sold his successful US software company ABC Technologies last year, is making a long-term investment in his class of “dreamers”. Earlier this year he launched I Have a Dream (IHAD) at Wesley School, modelled on a US programme aimed at lifting the aspirations and achievements of children from low-income communities by providing mentoring and tuition from primary school through to university.

He has made a 15-year commitment to the 36 kids in Kesaia’s class, undertaking to help at after-school programmes in reading, writing and life skills, on community service projects, family and class outings, all the way through to the day they graduate from university. Gilmour’s dream is that every child on his project will acquire a tertiary education, and that Kesaia will one day write in her autobiography that she is a doctor. If his dream comes true, they’ll be defying statistics that show around a third of decile one students leave school before Year 12, while less than half achieve C bursary.

Southland-born and Otago University-educated, Gilmour wants these pupils to have the same opportunities he had in an era when you didn’t have to be rich to go to university.
He also wants his own American-born children to grow up in a more productive, harmonious New Zealand and he says it is up to individuals, businesses and charitable groups to play their role as social investors.

“When I give companies advice, I’m not just looking to build something up and flick if off to an overseas buyer after two years. I want it to be of value, to create wealth in New Zealand. I feel the same way here. This country has some serious problems. Whole swathes of society are not participating. I think we all have an obligation to try to create the kind of society we want.”

His inspiration to set up the programme came from a newspaper article he read 10 years ago while living in Oregon about IHAD projects in the US. Gilmour clipped the article and held onto it until last year, when he started exploring ways of taking the programme out of the US for the first time and adapting it to New Zealand. Now, he wants other sponsors to step up and adopt their own classes. “These kids all have potential to be leaders and great contributors to society but there are greater road blocks for them than maybe for your kids or my kids.”

But besides a desire to give less privileged kids a chance, Gilmour says there are selfish motivations for his dream project. “Whenever you give something to someone else, you get a lot back. You feel good when these kids give you a hug.”

The returns for Tony Kokshoorn can be counted in his vote tally as a local council candidate and the number of cars he sells. The West Coast car yard and newspaper owner is a fundraising guru, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars for local causes like Relay for Life for the Cancer Society, lights at the aerodrome to enable night hospital transfers, and a search and rescue bus.

Kokshoorn’s not shy about admitting the personal spinoffs. He was the highest polling candidate at the local body elections, due, he believes, to his reputation as a fundraiser.
He reckons that reputation might also have helped sell a few cars from his car yard. That lines up with statistics collated by AC Nielsen Omnibus showing that good works bring good results for companies. Eighty two percent of New Zealanders say they would be more likely to buy products or services from a company that supports a worthy cause, and nearly three quarters would be prepared to change their normal brand or service if a similar brand or service supported a worthy cause.

But selling more cars is not the motivation for Kokshoorn, who spends three quarters of his work time raising money. He gets a kick out of charity work. “I’m a driven person. I have always set goals. I find I always have to be achieving something.”

He’s passionate about politics and community affairs. Even so, he admits, “You have to be a bit cheeky.” He has to psyche himself up to pick up the phone and call people on his Greymouth rich list to ask for money. But he finds signing a donor more satisfying than clinching a business deal. “Giving is a habit. It’s an attitude. My motivation is seeing us [the West Coast] come into the 21st century, instead of having to put up with the older ways of doing things. We deserve the same equipment and service. And it needs someone to organise the organisers.”

How do busy people find the energy for good works? Wellington business and social entrepreneur Helen Hancox manages it by putting her personal life first.

“I always put myself first because I believe I have to be strong,” says the founder of Wellington records and data filing company, The Flying Filing Squad. She lives by the motto: “Something for love, something for money and something for business development every day. Love is about giving to the community, money is so I can live, and business is so I can grow the business to be a multimillion-dollar company.” Hancox was a struggling single parent who weaned herself off welfare by creating her own company 15 years ago. Women friends provided mentoring and support. Hence her involvement now with the Women’s Loan Fund, which provides interest-free finance for business and personal needs to women who wouldn’t be able to raise a loan elsewhere.

“I’m sexist,” she quips. “It was women who were there for me. I think men have lots of places to go. These women don’t have the assets to go to the bank to ask for a loan.”
Hancox heads the trust that raises money to keep the fund afloat. She also mentors women in businesses she believes show promise. She has no qualms about handing donors automatic payment forms so they can arrange regular contributions to the Women’s Loan Fund. “If we don’t get $3000 a month, the fund can’t operate.”

You’d think Sir Gil Simpson would have enough on his plate running Jade, one of New Zealand’s most high-profile software companies. Still, he finds the time to offer his skills as a backroom worker and key fundraiser to the Christchurch City Mission, which costs $6000 a day to run — 90% of it coming from the citizens and businesses of Christchurch. Sir Gil’s company tries to be a good corporate citizen, too; hosting charity balls, auctions and supporting schools and sports teams, while many of his staff also work as volunteers at the mission.

He chose to become involved in the mission because it’s “engaged with the lowest socio-economic group. It’s part of my society, part of my community. It’s no different than someone helping out with scouts. I’m no more holy than them.”

There’s also likely to be a payback for Jade in his and the company’s involvement in community work. According to the AC Nielsen survey, 72% of employees working for a company involved in charitable activities have a strong feeling of loyalty for that company, compared with 55% of staff at companies that don’t support a charity. More than half of those surveyed said it should be standard practice for businesses to financially support charitable causes.

Clearly, there’s no hair shirt motivation for these social entrepreneurs. Giving back brings its rewards. Hancox says the contact with women through the Women’s Loan Fund reminds her of how far she has come and of the friends who helped her along the way.

For Sir Gil, the mission helps him retain a clear sense of right and wrong, and brings perspective on life. “Sometimes when I’ve been under a lot of pressure, its good to go to the mission and see that the issues people face there are much greater.”