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SINGAPORE, 1 NOVEMBER 2022 – The significant contributions of 201 individuals and organisations were recognised at the Community Chest Awards 2022, which was held at the Istana today. Besides donations, many organisations also explored other ways of giving in FY2021, which enabled those in need to be supported in a more sustained manner.
“With greater awareness of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors, corporates are now adopting new ways of giving to address the evolving social needs. 2023 marks Community Chest’s 40th anniversary, and we look forward to even more impactful partnerships that will build and deepen sustainable giving. Together, we can empower every person to live with dignity in a caring and inclusive society, and strengthen our nation’s social compact alongside the Forward Singapore movement,” said Mr Chew Sutat, Chairman of Community Chest.
The evening ceremony, which recognised top donors and holistic giving from corporates in the Charity Platinum, SHARE Achiever, Volunteer Partner, Enabler and Pinnacle Award categories, was attended by Guest-of-Honour, President Halimah Yacob, and hosted by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development and Culture, Community and Youth Eric Chua. An earlier ceremony in the afternoon, which recognised SHARE and Charity Award recipients, was attended by Guest-of-Honour Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin and hosted by Minister of State for Social and Family Development and Home Affairs Sun Xueling. A total of 211 awards were presented to the 201 recipients at the two ceremonies.
Holistic giving by organisations enables sustained support to those in need
UOB, received the highest accolade, the Pinnacle Award, for its exemplary efforts in holistic caring. Since 2013, it has actively integrated persons with disabilities into the workplace. UOB trains and hires persons with autism and persons with hearing impairment from Autism Resource Centre and SPD respectively, and matches them with suitable job roles. It has also created a culture of giving in the Bank through regular fundraising and volunteering initiatives like the UOB Global Heartbeat Run/Walk. The event last year was held online for its 18 global markets and raised over $1.3 million for President’s Challenge and social service agencies (SSAs) through Community Chest. UOB also received the Volunteer Partner Award and Charity Platinum Award for its volunteerism efforts and donations.
“Our giving efforts have brought our colleagues, customers and partners together to make a positive difference. We hope that our collective efforts and continued partnership with Community Chest will inspire more people and organisations to support social causes,” said Ms Janet Young, Managing Director and Head, Group Channels and Digitalisation, Strategic Communications and Brand, UOB.
Another company that has embraced holistic giving is SP Group, the recipient of the Enabler Award, Volunteer Partner Award and Charity Platinum Award. It enables its customers and business associates to contribute to Community Chest through the SP app, donation appeals in SP’s utilities bills and participation in SP’s fundraising events. Last year, SP also partnered Community Chest and KidSTART to launch the SP Kids at Heart initiative. Through this initiative, children from lower-income families received learning tools like digital devices for home-based learning, which were assembled and distributed by SP’s staff volunteers.
About 8% of overall donations to Community Chest from first-time donors
Community Chest raised more than $61 million in FY2021. Of which, first-time donors comprising individuals, foundations and corporates, contributed about $5 million.
One such first-time donor is Tolaram, a Singapore conglomerate whose portfolio includes consumer goods, financial technology and infrastructure. In spite of the pandemic, Tolaram wants to make a tangible difference to the communities where it has a presence. For its contribution to Community Chest in supporting students with special needs from Pathlight School, Tolaram was recognised with the Charity Platinum Award.
100% of the funds donated to Community Chest was channelled to more than 100 SSAs and over 200 critical programmes, to empower children with special needs and youth-at-risk, adults with disabilities, persons with mental health conditions and families and seniors in need of assistance.
Showcasing impact of support to communities in need
To demonstrate the impact of the support from donors and partners, the Awards invited social service users to be a part of the ceremonies. They include students from APSN Delta Senior School’s co-curricular activity group D’Circulus who put up a circus arts act at the afternoon ceremony, and Danez Bin Yusny from Trybe Limited and Irfan Bin Imran from Care Corner Singapore who each co-hosted a ceremony alongside emcee and veteran radio presenter Susan Ng. The participation of social service users at the ceremonies highlight the importance of whole-of-community support in empowering every person to achieve their potential.
For media enquiries, please contact:
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Ms Tan Min Yan |
Ms Chew Kia Huey |
About Community Chest
As the hallmark of care and share, Community Chest has been uniting the community to mobilise resources and raise funds to serve those in need since 1983. Community Chest supports more than 100 social service agencies to meet underserved and critical social needs. As our fundraising and operating costs are covered mainly by Tote Board, 100% of your contributions goes towards empowering the lives of:
For more information about Community Chest, visit www.comchest.gov.sg.
Annex A: Community Chest Awards Categories and Criteria
Annex B: Key Translated Terms
