The Dunedin head and founder of Animation Research has teamed up with the charity Share My Super, which allows people to give their superannuation payments to be distributed to 12 charities which target child poverty.
Sir Ian said the challenge was to find enough people who were willing to make this change.
"If we could find just 1% who were able to share some of their Super while they didn’t need it we could make a difference to children who are missing the basics in life. These are children most of us never see in our day to life. The invisible ones.
"What I liked about Share My Super is that every cent we donate goes directly to the charities - the people on the cliff face doing the work.”
Superannuation was the government’s largest payout, Sir Ian said.
"No-one ever talks about it, but it's 18 to 20 billion dollars a year and if 1% of us could share some of that it will make a huge difference.
For 40% of people Super is their only income - another 20-30 need it to supplement their savings - and we totally understand that.
"But I looked at it and thought, well, what if we targeted people like me?
"It is about ordinary kiwi who think they can share some or all of their super.”
Sir Ian said the government "absolutely" should be addressing issues of poverty but felt the wheels of government and bureaucracy moved far too slowly.
"We can whinge and moan and complain to the government, or we can do something about it.
"Together, we can fix child poverty - that is a message to the government.
"The government needs to play the biggest role in this, but let’s see if we can show them how we can do it together."
Sir Ian said Share My Super would keep people informed about where their money was going.
"It has done all the homework, and it works alongside the charities to ensure the most effective use of the funds.It measures the impact it has transparently, and it follows it."
The charities from the scheme to benefit include Child Poverty Action Group, Women’s Refuge, KidsCan, Wellington City Mission, Te Pā and First Foundation.
Auckland University Retirement Policy and Research Centre co-founder Michael Littlewood said schemes such as Share My Super "sound like nice things done by nice people", but did not address the key structural issues surrounding poverty.
"By encouraging people to give away their pension, it does raise the issue of whether we should be means-testing the pension.
"I used to be in favour of that, but I've long since changed my mind."
Mr Littlewood said New Zealand had the most successful "tier one" superannuation scheme in the developed world.
This was largely due to the universality of the scheme, which made it "very easy" to administer, he said.
