Here's everything you need to know about the Hong Kong tycoon's charitable foundation, which has funded 120 million students and 170 million patients in the Greater China region since 1980
It’s the second largest private foundation in the world
Founded by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, who has pledged to donate one-third of his assets to support philanthropic projects, the Hong Kong-based charitable foundation is the second largest private foundation led by a wealthy individual in the world, after Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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It’s Li Ka Shing’s “third son”
When Li was honoured the Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, he referred to his eponymous foundation as his “third son”, not only to emphasise how close the foundation is to his heart but to urge other Asian entrepreneurs to do the same, in the hope of altering the traditional culture of pass wealth predominantly through lineage.
In 2011, Li told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, “Thinking about an instrument for doing social good as a child—as your child, in particular—focuses you as the giver on building an entity that is robust, one that has inner strength.”