Our First Company Cheque

We recently signed up for DBS Bank's special corporate account package for social enterprises because of its many attractive features meant to help the social enterprise start-up. With it comes a cheque book bearing our company name. How appropriate therefore that as a social enterprise, our first company cheque should be a donation to MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore. Check out http://www.minds.org.sg/)

It's the third year in a row that we have made a contribution to MINDS through our involvement with the NTU Welfare Services Club's public awareness event. The Club never failed to impress us with their tremendous efforts which included an exhibition and a string of performances by members of MINDS and talented undergraduates. It's therefore not a surprise to find that the Club has won a number of prestigious awards, including the President's Award, for their voluntary welfare work. (Read more at http://clubs.ntu.edu.sg/ntuwsc/)

Our first year with NTU Welfare Services Club's public event for MINDS ~ Project-IDentity held at Junction 8 in 2008. This annual day-long event is always well-organised with an exhibition, entertaining performances by MINDS members and talented undergraduates, and a mini-bazaar featuring socially meaningful products of which we have been a part of in the last three years. For such a well-organised event, it is a pity that not more members of the public are aware of it.

We've also been fortunate to be able to contribute in other small ways. Our Beanie Bears, hand-crocheted by a mother-and-daughter team and other crafters, are our flag bearers for our "Beanie Bear Fund" in which part of the sales proceeds are put aside to help the elderly poor.

In one year, we bought quarker oats for some 30 elderly people staying in the Chin Swee area. In another year, we sponsored some 400 fashion rings as free gifts for an elderly event.

Our Love Bear, hand-crocheted by coconut plantation workers, is another bear with a big heart. Part of the sales money is put aside for our "Love Gift Fund" to help individuals in need.

Every now and then, there'll be student groups coming to us for our socially meaningful products for their school projects. We know that it's not easy for them to get companies to supply products for their projects since there's very little monetary returns to attract the profit-driven companies. Hence, we've always agreed to help in the spirit of social enterprise.

And we're happy that so far the students have done well with our products. Last July, CHIJ Katong Convent won the silver medal for the "Most Attractive Display Award" at the National Youth Business Challenge 2010 involving many schools nationwide.

We hope this is not sounding like we're blowing our own trumpets. We like nothing more than to be doing our things quietly and away from the spotlight as we're in this not for fame or fortune but because we find meaning and enjoyment in what we do.

Many people do their part in their own ways without ever telling people about them. But as we carry the label of social enterprise publicly, and customers do support us partly because of the social factor, we owe it to them to let them know what we do on the social front. We should add that whatever contributions we make to charity, the money comes from our own sales revenue and is never solicited from customers. Our products are never marked up for charity purpose. In fact they are marked down to make them more affordable.