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48 BCBusiness February 2015 rebecca chalmers (above); lions Gate hospital Foundation (riGht) "As Lululemon gained more momentum and became more suc- cessful, Chip and I realized we had the opportunity to give," Shannon explains, adding that the couple now focuses on technical design and children's education as "the areas we love and are committed to in our life." Through imagine1day, she says, "It's been amazing over the years to see how education in the communities is elevating fami- lies. I think in general giving is about people want- ing to make a difference in the world." Describing their over- arching drive to give back, Chip explains that donating takes away the frustration of "wanting to see things happen but not being able to do anything about it," which they experienced before they had funds. "You'd look at things and not know what to do," he says. "Now we have an ability to make that frustration come to fruition in a way that is very reward- ing. By giving, we can be the catalyst to make something happen." Their love of technical design was an obvious draw, too. They saw an oppor- tunity for the school, which is due to open this year, to close the gap between what the industry needs and the qualifications of the students. "We see possibility, and the world hasn't caught up to it yet," Chip says. "We have the ability to move the world to that place quicker." Robert + Greta Ho F ounde r s oF t He r obe r t H. n . Ho Fa miLy F oundat ion Raised by his grandparents in Hong Kong, Robert explains that his grandfather came from poverty to become a self-made businessman. "My grandfather never let me forget that he came from nothing, and he never forgot to give back money to the people and the place where he grew up—and that we should all do the same thing. That's why our family motto is 'Before you can receive, you must learn how to give.'" "I was born into a silver-spoon family," he continues, "but I wasn't driving around in a Ferrari. All of us in the family have a duty to give back what we have taken. The joke in the family is that you can't take it with you once you lie down, so why just keep it all to yourself?" As a "proactive" orga- nization—"it's not like the old days when you just wrote a cheque," says Robert—the Ho Family Foundation does much research into the chari- ties and institutions to which it is considering donating. Referring to his wife, two sons and daughters-in-law, Robert says it was dif- ficult at first to agree on the areas for donations. For one focus, however, since they all like arts and culture, and China has more than 5,000 years of it, "we thought, 'Why don't we tell the world about us?'" The result was the VAG's recent exhibit The Forbidden City. When it comes to hospital donations, helping locally was an obvious choice for the couple, which has lived in Vancouver for 25 years. "As we progress in years, our health is something we pay increasing attention to," Greta says. "We believe access to outstanding health care is something we should aspire to—not just for our- selves, but for our fellow British Columbians as well." As Buddhists, the pair also wanted to ensure the religion's meaning was conveyed. "Even when I was working," says Robert, "people thought of Buddhism as some sort of a cult, so we thought about telling people about the philosophy of Buddhism as something won- derful... while being mindful that we don't want to be missionaries—we're not preaching religion." Chip + Shannon Wilson Chip W il son, F ounde r oF L uL uL e mon at HL e t ic a inc . , a nd sh a nnon W il son, one oF L uL uL e mon 's origin a L de signe r s a nd c o - F ounde r oF K i t a nd ac e W h y T h e y G i v e W h y T h e y G i v e Their Claim To Fame two years ago, gave $8 million to the chip and shannon Wilson school of design at Kwantlen polytechnic university; estab- lished imagine1day, a children's educational charity focused on ethiopia, in 2007. Their Claim To Fame in 2013, gave $1 million to fund the Forbidden city at the Vancouver art gallery; in 2011, $10 million to Lions gate Hospital Foun- dation; in 2009, $15 million to Vancouver general Hospital; and in 2005, $4-million donation to set up north america's first centre of buddhist studies at ubc.