Making the most of giving by adapting to changing times
Fullerton Health Foundation and DFI Retail Group have found ways to conduct their CSR initiatives during the pandemic while addressing the various needs of the community.
AN ARTIFICIAL intelligence-enabled Covid-19 symptom checker and an interactive chat function that allows app-users to interact with a medical professional about their Covid-19 related concerns.
These are a couple of features launched - in May 2020 - within Fullerton Health's LiveFuller app that were rolled out to the public in Singapore.
Seeing the need to improve healthcare access for the financially challenged during the early months of the pandemic, these in-app features were extended to beneficiaries of Fullerton Health Foundation (FHF), the giving entity of Fullerton Health that aims to reach out to the underserved and deliver affordable and accessible healthcare for all in the Asia Pacific. Shirley Lim, the general manager of FHF, recalled that in "the early days of the outbreak of Covid-19, our beneficiaries were not looking for wellness checkups but rather information on what Covid symptoms were." Therefore, FHF responded to those needs quickly. Covid-19 has changed the way we work - technological advances have enabled many organisations and individuals to be able to work from home or remotely effectively, a farfetched thought pre-pandemic.
In the same light, companies have had to adapt to how they conduct corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in this environment, especially early in the pandemic. They had to pivot from how such initiatives were traditionally conducted - in person - all the while addressing the changing needs of the community.
For FHF, adapting also meant turning to technology to continue serving the community through its flagship initiative, Project Big Heart (PBH).
Since 2015, FHF has run PBH, an annual event which sees Fullerton Health staff volunteers from both medical and non-medical fields serve lower-income families and individuals. Beneficiaries of the programme receive complimentary medical consultations and provision of medication while also receiving other healthcare services inlcuding free heart, orthopaedic and osteoporosis screenings.
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Lim said: "Due to movement restrictions during the pandemic, we brought PBH online by making teleconsultations available and worked with community partners to educate the elderly on how to access this service."
FHF also provided complimentary delivery of prescribed medication to beneficiaries of PBH, she added.
Lim recently completed the Company of Good (COG) Fellowship in September 2021, a 5-month talent development programme run by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). The programme, which is now accepting applications for its 5th intake, aims to groom talent in various organisations to sharpen their business perspectives and build capabilities in corporate giving.
Speaking on the fellowship programme, Lim said it afforded her opportunities to work with like-minded individuals that could lead to future CSR partnerships as well as having mentorship opportunities with fellows from past intakes. More importantly, she added, the knowledge-sharing within the programme has improved her ability to contribute to FHF. "I am able to better align FHF's strategy with the commercial side and create a win-win programme beneficial for the company and the community we are servicing," she said.
These views are shared by Gwen Cheong, who like Lim, completed the COG Fellowship in September 2021 as part of its 4th intake. Cheong was drawn to the programme after seeing the success of CSR initiatives that have been developed as a result of the programme.
The head of corporate and consumer affairs for South-east Asia at pan-Asian retailer, DFI Retail Group, said the programme has enabled her to "sharpen the strategic thinking required to build truly sustainable and impactful initiatives that are not only beneficial for the communities we serve, but also for our business."
When the pandemic hit, DFI Retail Group, like FHF, had to place emphasis on focusing their efforts where they could impact the community immediately.
Cheong said: "Our CSR activities focused more on donations to meet the increasing need for daily essentials from the more vulnerable groups within our community, due to the financial difficulties brought about by the pandemic."
Therefore, DFI Retail Group ramped up its efforts in donating food essentials to the needy through the group's grocery stores Cold Storage and Giant. Meanwhile, its health & beauty business - pharmacy chain Guardian - stepped up efforts to donate healthcare and personal care essentials to those in need.
On Guardian's efforts, Cheong noted: "The growing need of the community is not restricted to just groceries but also to these other categories of essentials due to increasing financial challenges faced then."
In December 2020, DFI Retail Group launched "Better Together" in collaboration with Food Bank Singapore. This sees the retail group's grocery stores Cold Storage and Giant take part in a food donation drive that complements existing food donation efforts by focusing on nutrition, providing vulnerable families with the long-term dietary requirements key to supporting healthy living.
As Singapore looks to move on from the Covid-19 pandemic, so too has the resumption of DFI Retail Group's long-term CSR initiatives. DFI Retail Group recently resumed a series of in-store communication campaigns centred around the retailer's 2 adopted charities MINDSET and Care Community Services Society (CCSS).
Cheong pointed out: "As Covid-19 becomes endemic, organisations should remain focused on where they are able to provide the best expertise to make the most impact through harnessing the passion and know-how of our team members."
These thoughts are not lost on FHF's Lim, who said FHF is exploring skill-based volunteering opportunities that can be done virtually in 2022. She noted that with the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak, "many programmes and services were interrupted or came to an abrupt halt. However, the needs of the community did not stop."
This is why she expects more corporates to "pandemic-proof" their outreach programmes and services. One way to do this, is to embrace technology better, which Lim says, will only see increased adoption by corporates or at the very least, "a hybrid of services that do not rely solely on in-person delivery format".
- Applications for the Company of Good Fellowship are now open. Apply at www.companyofgood.sg/fellowship
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