Promoting volunteerism and building stronger and engaged communities

Mr George Tanasijevich, President and CEO, Marina Bay Sands 

Mr Laurence Lien, CEO, NVPC 

Distinguished guests 

Ladies and gentlemen 

1. I am happy to be here at the inaugural Pitch to Win competition organised by Marina Bay Sands and the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC).

2. It is encouraging to see more companies in Singapore stepping forward to do corporate social responsibility or CSR initiatives like this Pitch to Win competition. In fact, many companies have already started to embed social responsibility into their work and mission. They recognise that to succeed in the long haul, they must combine profit with real value; they must be a responsible corporate citizen, and engage in the community that they operate in.

3. Many of you would know that we've recently wrapped up several months of a national conversation. A common refrain heard during the dialogue was “bring back the kampong spirit”. To be sure, no one wanted to go back to living in a kampong. As one elderly participant said, “I know what life used to be then, and I certainly don't want to go back to living in the kampong days”. Rather, it is the spirit of connecting with one another that we would like to see alive and well. Or in the words of a young Singaporean participant – we want a “community where people look up and greet one another instead of looking down at their electronic devices”.

4. While everyone agreed on the importance of community, the question of how to strengthen this community spirit drew mixed responses. Some instinctively said that it was the job of the government. But upon reflection, many agreed that the effort must come from every Singaporean. All of us must do our part, and that includes the corporate sector in Singapore, which I believe play a crucial role in promoting volunteerism and in building stronger and engaged communities.

5. When we look at volunteerism in Singapore, we notice that the participation rate is quite high amongst young people in school, but it comes down when our youths graduate and enter the workplace. We can debate the reasons for this decline. Whenever I talk to young people, they often cite work commitments and the lack of time as common factors.

6. This is why it is important for corporate leaders to help shape a positive culture at work – one that recognises the value of CSR, and encourages your employees to contribute to the community. The emphasis on CSR must be set by corporate leadership, and it must permeate through the entire organisation. CSR initiatives cannot be relegated to a small team in the office tasked with just writing cheques for donations. Ultimately, employees must feel that their participation in a CSR project is a meaningful one, and helps to support a cause they care about.

7. Some companies are indeed making CSR an essential part of their corporate policy, and aligning their CSR initiatives to their corporate culture and values. For example, StarHub is focussed on nurturing a giving spirit in its corporate culture. Their employees are given two working days of paid leave to volunteer each year, and funds raised through employee-initiated CSR projects are matched dollar-for-dollar by the organisation. This signals the company's commitment to their employees' involvement in the community. Their efforts to promote a giving spirit extend to their customers – they have the option to donate their reward points to charity.

8. Besides providing time off and resources, corporates can also do more to promote skills-based volunteering – in other words, encourage employees to make use of their skills to help non-profit and charity organisations build up their capabilities. This can often be more impactful than donating money.

9. I read recently the story of what the car company Toyota did in the US. Instead of donating money to a soup kitchen in Harlem, they donated their engineers to improve the efficiency of the soup kitchen operations. As a result, the waiting time for dinner was reduced from 90 minutes to just 18 minutes. At a warehouse in Brooklyn where volunteers were responsible for packing boxes for Hurricane Sandy relief, Toyota's engineers were able to cut down the time to pack a single box from 3 minutes to just 11 seconds.

10. Likewise, there are companies in Singapore which have initiated volunteering projects which tap on the skills of their employees. For example, over the past two weeks, senior Marina Bay Sands executives were involved in coaching the Pitch to Win participants on their presentations. In Credit Suisse, the IT staff not only donate computers to Metta School, but also equip the students there with basic computer literacy skills so that they would be able to assemble and handle computers independently.

11. I'm also glad to see professional bodies doing their part. For example, the Law Society has a strong tradition of offering pro bono services, and has been providing legal services to non-profit organisations (NPOs) for some time. More recently, the Singapore Chapter of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute has started to encourage their members to help NPOs better manage their reserves. These are all positive signs which bode well for the future of CSR in Singapore.

12. Finally, I would like to thank Marina Bay Sands and all the companies here who have demonstrated your commitment to CSR and to the community. I hope you will continue to build long-term relationships with charitable and community organisations, and inspire even more CSR initiatives across the corporate sector. Together, we can strengthen the kampong spirit in our cosmopolitan urban city, and make this a more caring, gracious, and warm-hearted society for all Singaporeans.