CapitaLand conferred inaugural President’s Award for Volunteerism and Philanthropy (Corporate)
Lauded for community outreach efforts to more than 100,000 beneficiaries with over 1,200 volunteer activities
Singapore, 14 October 2015 – CapitaLand Limited has been accorded the inaugural President’s Award for Volunteerism and Philanthropy (Corporate) for its strong commitment towards helping underprivileged children via engaging, innovative community programmes supported by staff volunteers and funded by donations from its philanthropic arm, CapitaLand Hope Foundation (CHF). Conferred by the President of the Republic of Singapore and organised by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), this was the first time an award category was introduced to recognise the significance of complementing philanthropy efforts with volunteerism by an organisation.
Mr Lim Ming Yan, President & Group CEO of CapitaLand Limited, received the prestigious award from Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of the Republic of Singapore, who was the Guest-of-Honour at the President’s Volunteerism and Philanthropy Awards (PVPA) ceremony, on 14 October 2015.
Mr S R Nathan, Chairman of CapitaLand Hope Foundation, said: “The inaugural President’s Award for Volunteerism and Philanthropy (Corporate) is timely. It also marks a decade of CapitaLand Hope Foundation’s unwavering commitment to ‘Building for Tomorrow’. Since its inception in 2005, CHF has donated more than S$23 million to support underprivileged children in their education, shelter and healthcare needs. It is heartening to know that our corporate giving programmes have benefitted at least 100,000 children across Asia. Some of these programmes involve long-term financial support and education, which have resulted in improved academic results and behavioural performance. In this 10-year journey, we have also gone beyond donations to advocate volunteerism. To date, we have organised more than 1,200 volunteer activities. In 2014 alone, staff of CapitaLand put in more than 28,000 hours to do volunteer work.”
Mr Lim Ming Yan, President & Group CEO of CapitaLand Limited and Director, CapitaLand Hope Foundation, said: “We are honoured that CapitaLand’s philanthropic and volunteerism efforts are recognised by the prestigious, inaugural President’s Award for Volunteerism and Philanthropy (Corporate). This is the first time NVPC recognises a company for its efforts towards volunteerism, on top of philanthropy. The award is a boost to our continuing efforts to drive volunteerism within CapitaLand and we hope it will inspire other organisations as well as encourage the wider community, to join us in making a bigger difference to those in need.”
He added: “CapitaLand has been actively promoting volunteerism in our people, in line with our credo of ‘Building People. Building Communities.’. We believe that it is the strong commitment of volunteers that embodies the true spirit of giving. More than 95% of our staff volunteers conveyed that they are proud to work for the company after volunteering, and they enjoy working in the company as it has a positive and vibrant corporate culture. This attests to our belief that volunteerism helps build better communities, and better companies too.”
CapitaLand launched its #100KHopeHours global initiative in March this year to rally people within and beyond the company to support volunteerism. The initiative received overwhelming response from the community, including corporations and non-profit organisations, with over 200,000 volunteer hours pledged; far exceeding its original target of 100,000 hours.
As a strong advocate of volunteerism, CapitaLand is one of the first companies in Singapore to formalise a three-day Volunteer Service Leave (VSL) system. When a staff fully utilises all three days of VSL within a year, CHF makes a donation to a registered charity in Singapore or China designated by the staff in recognition of the volunteer efforts.
Prior to the President’s Award for Volunteerism and Philanthropy (Corporate) in 2015, CapitaLand was also conferred the Corporate Citizen Award for Philanthropy by NVPC back in 2009. To date, CapitaLand has won more than 30 local and regional awards for its outstanding efforts in corporate giving initiatives and activities. Some of the local awards that CapitaLand has received include the Community Partnership Excellence Award 2015 from the People’s Association, the Caring Corporate Award 2014 from the Southwest Community Development Council, as well as the Corporate Gold Award at Community Chest Awards 2012. CapitaLand also garnered regional awards such as the China Best Corporate Citizen Award for the seventh consecutive year in 2014 by the China Committee of Corporate Citizenship and CCTV2, and the Best Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Award by the Southeast Asia Institutional Investor Corporate Awards in 2012 and 2013.