Prime Minister John Key celebrated the Acorn Foundation's 100th donor at a special breakfast in Tauranga on Thursday morning.
John Key celebrated the milestone at a breakfast at Classic Flyers in Mount Maunganui with over 400 invited guests.
Prime Minister John Key speaks to a crowd of over 240 people at a special breakfast celebrating the Acorn Foundation.
He praised the foundation for its unique concept, which involves people donating their estate, or part of their estate, to the foundation when they die.
"Acorn has a long term picture of where your legacy is going to go and that's really important."
An anonymous $303,000 donation was also made to the Acorn Foundation at the breakfast.
The anonymous person has already made previous donations to the foundation - taking the person's total donation to over $500,000.
John Key compared the Acorn Foundation's concept of raising money to Harvard University's investment fund.
"They are incredibly wealthy. The reason they have so much money is because they have a very simple formula that is similar to Acorn's," says John.
He told the crowd the driving force behind donations to the Harvard Investment Fund was the US tax code.
At the breakfast, the Prime Minister also announced proposed changes to New Zealand's tax code, which would benefit charitable organisations.
Currently if a person donates money to charity, a third of that total is refunded as a tax rebate.
John told the crowd that he wants to change the system so people also have the option of donating the tax rebate to a charity of their choice.
The Prime Minster will also visit Zespri and a Tauranga mussel farm on Thursday.