Philanthropy & Major Gifts

We are firmly focused on ending avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific. A future with resilient and sustainable eye care systems that are locally-led.  This is at the heart of our long-term strategy.

We rely on generous support from individuals, families, charitable trusts and foundations, and corporate partnerships that share our vision of a world in which no person is needlessly blind.​ Philanthropy and major giving plays a significant role in ensuring long-lasting and sustainable impact across the Pacific.

Significant gifts fund extensive projects and initiatives including essential equipment, training eye care specialists, outreaches to remote communities and much needed research. This creates transformational change for people living with avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific.

“It’s obscene to let people go blind when they don’t need to.”- PROFESSOR FRED HOLLOWS

We launched the Future Fund in 2018 to fund the upgrade and expansion of the Vanuatu National Eye Centre in Port Vila where today they are celebrating a zero-patient backlog for the first time in several years. This is a massive achievement for the Eye Centre, which back in 2018 had over 400 patients on its backlog waiting to receive eye surgery. The minimisation of the backlog was achieved by a Foundation-supported outreach, attended by Dr Johnson Kasso and Dr Andronico Ly, with support from the Vanuatu Ministry of Health.

Since then, the Future Fund has raised over $1.8m, funding many transformative projects and programmes across the Pacific. From vital equipment to scholarships for eye nurses and doctors, to surgical teams visiting remote regions and upgrades to clinics.

As well as backing significant projects like these, your investment in the Future Fund directly provides the resources our Pacific teams need to develop the local eye care workforce, whilst also strengthening health systems to restore sight. This will change the lives of thousands of people for many years to come. We are deeply grateful for your generous support. Thank you.

View our 2024 Future Fund brochure.

This brochure suggests some of the ways your support can help those who are needlessly blind right now.

One of our philanthropists, Pat Pettit, generously funded an eye screening van that has enabled the team in Tonga to expand their reach and provide more comprehensive eye care services. When asked what motivated her to give, Pat said:

“My sight is the sense which I most value -to see the smiles on the faces of my children and friends, to interact with my precious nine grandchildren and watch them growing, developing and achieving goals. It distresses me greatly that there are people in this world who are needlessly blind or with restricted vision.

I have long admired the work achieved by The Foundation providing much-needed facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of eye conditions. I feel honoured to be able to facilitate the provision of eye care to outlying areas of Tonga by funding a van for this purpose.”

Between January and October 2023, the eye care van performed 5,413 eye consultations and screened 498 patients for diabetes eye disease. 

View other significant projects like this that you can help make possible in our 2024 Future Fund brochure.

With a significant gift, you can make a powerful, lasting difference for the needlessly blind or vision impaired in the Pacific. Your gift can be directed towards a programme of your choice, or it can go towards wherever the need is greatest.

We are committed to working closely with you to ensure your gift is directed to an area of our work that you’re most passionate about.

You will receive personalised impact reports and regular updates, with potential opportunities to visit our programme work in the Pacific and meet key staff, as well as invitations to informative events about eye care in the Pacific.

Stephne Vaughan, Relationship Manager
Phone (+64) 9 217 4914
Email svaughan@hollows.nz
Address Level 22, 120 Albert Street, Auckland 1010
Mail Private Bag 99909, Newmarket, Auckland 1149