Organised by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), the President’s Volunteerism & Philanthropy Awards (PVPA) is the pinnacle award and platform to recognise individuals, organisations and leaders who have achieved excellence in giving.
Further crafted into various categories, the Organisations of Good Award category recognises the giving contributions of large, small and medium enterprises, non-profit organisations and public institutions.
Our 2022 winners below, show that doing good with the long-term interests of the community in mind can be a force for good in shaping a more sustainable and inclusive society.
Large Enterprise Winner: DBS Bank
In the business of doing good, no one does it quite like DBS Bank. From volunteering to funding and even supporting local hawkers, DBS is truly a stellar example.
‘People of Purpose’ is DBS’ staff volunteer movement that brings purpose-driven values to leverage employees’ time and niche skills to contribute meaningfully to various communities. In 2021, DBS employees contributed over 100,000 volunteering hours, reaching out to 390,000 individuals across different backgrounds and communities.
Another of DBS initiatives, is the DBS Stronger Together Fund which set out to assist mitigating the impact of Covid-19 and it has provided 4.5 million meals, care packs and medical supplies to help communities across Asia.
With restrictions to in-person volunteering during the pandemic, DBS pivoted to virtual volunteering and teamed up with Lions Befrienders to engage over 100 isolated seniors in a virtual befriending effort.
The DBS Adopt-A-Hawker Centre initiative was launched in 2021 to undertake group buys of food with funds raised from DBS employees that were delivered to frontline workers.
Efforts to support hawkers’ digital payment onboarding and enhance hawker centres’ social media presence were also rolled out. With three adopted hawker centres, DBS employees raised $115,000 and helped deliver more than 15,000 meals.
DBS Foundation provided $3 million in grants to 19 social enterprises in the DBS Foundation Social Enterprise Grant Programme in 2021. Over 12,000 DBS employees engaged with the social enterprises, with over a third of them volunteering their time in mentorship, capacity building and development initiatives.
Non-Profit Organisation Winner: Canossaville Children & Community Services
With children at the heart of Canossaville’s care, the non-profit organisation provides timely, coordinated care to benefit the development of children in their pre-school and primary years, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
During SG Cares Giving Week 2021, Canossaville teamed up with Burger King, Cordlife Singapore and Deckle Edges Makes for giveback through fundraising and meal donations to the children in Canossaville’s care.
Partnerships with schools such as St Joseph’s Institution, Catholic High School and Catholic Junior College saw students running donation drives to gather goods and supplies for Canossaville’s day to day operations.
Seeking to foster a sense of giving within the Canossaville community, staff have been regularly involved in activities like care pack distributions including sourcing and procurement of items, packing and delivery to clients.
This need rose during the Ciircuit Breaker period when many families struggled with financial expenses. Canossaville partnered with MacPherson Residency Resident’s Committee to provide food and daily necessities to help ease these families’ burden with seven rounds of distributions conducted in 2021.
Looking ahead, Canossaville aims to improve on the social help rendered to children and families in its care via the new Canossian Family Care Services office.
There are also plans to establish a satellite office at HDB flats and a drop-in centre to conduct small group workshops, talks for families and assist children and families in need.
Small & Medium Enterprise Winner: Bettr Barista
Bettr Barista, a home-grown outfit, has a remarkable blend in its mission to do good by empowering the lives of marginalised groups through its social programmes. That includes building socially conscious communities and nurturing direct and sustainable trade across supply chains at wherever they operate.
To start, Bettr Barista has committed to hiring 20-30% of working staff from marginalised backgrounds which includes formerly incarcerated individuals, persons with special needs, financially challenged individuals, and single parents. With hiring, comes also the specific social training programs to induct them into their working roles, and it doesn’t stop there.
With a dedicated Bettr team championing Social Initiatives, inclusive hiring is at its forefront through its work with 97 community partners like the Ministry of Social and Family Development, family service centres, schools and non-profit organisations for training and job placements of their clients through Bettr’s training programmes.
The team collaborates with 33 employment partners to support their businesses in hiring these clients as employees. In 2020 and 2021, the Bettr team committed $456,000 annually for these holistic training programmes.
Outside of inclusive hiring, Bettr Barista also works with various community partners where there is a space for much good to be done.
Together with sustainable brewer company, Crust, Bettr has produced the unique, “upcycled” Coffee Beer ‘It’d Bettr be Beer’ that stems from the team’s belief in the circular economy by upcyling food waste and loss into beverages and other products. Surplus ingredients like bread and waste like fruit peels are repurposed into unique products like Bettr’s CRUST beers and CROP non-alcoholic beverages.
Bettr Barista also joined hands with partners DBS Foundation and Temasek to support frontliners in 2020 and 2021 through the provision of care packages. The Bettr team contributed 34,150 bottled beverages to 74 vaccination sites island wide and 6 Alzheimer’s Disease Association ADA sites.
Public Institution Winner: National Library Board
The National Library Board (NLB) has learnt over the years that its touchpoints – physical spaces, enriching collection and resources, and various stakeholders, make up an eco-system to inspire passion in giving as well as build a nation of readers and learners.
Focusing on the young ones, NLB’s KidsREAD-WondeREAD program, aims to build the love of reading among children from lower-income backgrounds. While the Big Book Giveaway occurs annually where pre-loved books can be redeemed for free.
Other activities spearheaded by NLB include Charity Book Donations, Project Deliver Me (delivering library resources to ill or persons with disabilities) and NLB Externship (equipping people with special needs to everyday life) are all part of their interactions and impactful giving to the community.
Everyone in the NLB community plays an important role in engaging, recruiting, and retaining partners and volunteers. From 2019 to 2021, over 200 active partners were engaged by NLB for their professional expertise to develop new and engaging programmes and services for the community.
For instance, NLB launched its first volunteer-manned library in Chinatown back in 2013 in partnership with Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple and CP1 Pte Ltd. NLB has since collaborated with more partners who contribute their professional expertise and personal time to serve the community together at five more libraries – Bukit Panjang Public Library, Tampines Regional Library, Choa Chu Kang Public Library, library@harbourfront and the LLiBrary.
“My Tree House” was the first ever children’s Green Library opened in 2013 at the Central Public Library, that was developed together with City Developments Limited (CDL). Constructed from recycled materials, it is a special library with on-going Green programmes designed to encourage children to explore, discover and challenge their curiosity in learning and caring for the environment.
NLB also trains and upskills persons with special needs, offering meaningful employment to individuals through it’s work with the Autism Resource Centre. In 2015, the NLB Digital Services Centre was established at the Enabling Village to digitise library materials and more individuals with autism spectrum disorder were hired in 2019 as library service assistants to work in the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.
Partnership with CapitaLand Hope Foundation saw NLB launch the Green Grove at Choa Chu Kang Public Library that focuses on sustainability. It is the first library that houses a hydroponics showcase and features a community wall where everyone is welcome to volunteer and share their knowledge on sustainable living.
Interested To Find Out More About Our Other PVPA 2022 Winners? Click Below!
PVPA 2022 People of Good Award Winners
