Welcome
A very good evening to:
Welcome to the U Care Charity Dinner 2012!
I am very happy to see so many of you here. Tonight’s event is, to me, one of the major milestones in my career to date. When I first took over as the Director for Care and Share Department in April this year, my staff told me that a key function of the department is to do fundraising. Having some fundraising experience in my previous job, I thought that this would be QED – Quite Easily Done.
Little did I know that it is so much more difficult than I thought. We are not talking about raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even $1 million dollars. Our target is a whopping $10.5 million dollars this year! And we must raise it in about 5 months’ time, which means to raise an average of $2.1 million dollars each month. This is definitely not QED, but rather we need a lot of QEE – Quite Extraordinary Efforts! As the deadline drew nearer and the numbers didn’t seem to be anywhere near our target, I told my staff that my seat is getting hotter by the day!
Fortunately, being part of the Labour Movement, we could count on the sisters and brothers in the family for support. Although we are a small department and the task may appear daunting, the spirit of Doing Together to Do Good spurred us on.
Throughout our fundraising journey, there were many heart-warming moments when our union sisters and brothers responded to our call for support. Let me share some of these examples:
Thank you very much, every one of you! We know we can always count on you.
In fundraising, I learnt that besides tapping on our usual network of contacts, we have to think of creative ways to reach out to more potential donors. We sent out some 300 appeal letters, of which close to a hundred of them are cold-call, unsolicited letters. We were pleasantly surprised that four new corporate donors responded to our appeal.
Although we do not actively seek individual donations, five individuals contributed in their personal capacity. I am happy that some of them are able to join us here tonight. As they have requested to remain anonymous, I shall not name them publicly. I sincerely thank you for believing in our cause and opening up your wallets so readily.
Being a Member of Parliament now, I am invited to quite a number of events as Guest-of-Honour. So I took the opportunity to sell ‘koyok’ about the NTUC-U Care Fund. One such function was the Professional Growth Plan Seminar in May. When I shared about the work we do to help our low wage workers, Ms Claire Chiang, Chairperson of Banyan Tree Global Foundation spontaneously pledged to donate to the U Care Fund. She even encouraged the other seminar participants to do likewise. For that, thank you very much Claire!
And recently, I shared with my community leaders about the fundraising shortfall that we were facing; I was so touched when Mr George Peh, PBM and Chairman of the Loyang Tua Pek Kong responded with a generous donation. George, thank you very much!
There are so many of you whom I am unable to name individually, but please know that we are truly grateful for your generosity and big-heartedness; and we want to assure you that every cent that you give us will go towards helping our beneficiaries.
So, are you wondering how much did we raise in the end? We will let you know in a short while.
All of you here are the champions of U Care Fund. For without you, we would not be able to achieve what we have set out to do. On behalf of the U Care Fund beneficiaries, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU for your generous support. Your contributions have made it possible for us to touch many lives of our low-income members and their families. To share more about our various assistance programmes, I would like to invite you to sit back and watch a short video about the U Care Fund and how your donations have been put to good use.
I hope the video helps you have a better idea of our U Care assistance programmes. We have also given you a copy of our latest Annual Report where you will find more details about our programmes and our Board of Trustees members. I must thank our Chairman Brother David Wong and the rest of trustees members for providing their guidance and oversight of the Fund and for being so supportive of the secretariat, as well as making contributions to the Fund too.
As a Labour Movement, we are very fortunate to have many sisters and brothers who stand by us and stand with us in good times and bad times. Our affiliated unions and association, our management and tripartite partners, and corporate donors have stood by us all these years and I am confident that they will continue to show their support for many years to come.
I want to specially thank our biggest donor, the Singapore Labour Foundation as well as our NTUC Social Enterprises, for their strong support, year after year without fail.
Thank NTUC Club and FairPrice Foundation
One ardent supporter is NTUC Club and its CEO, Brother Yeo Khee Leng. Through organising and fully sponsoring the Family Recreation and Fun Carnivals worth a total value of $1.5 million dollars, Brother Khee Leng and his team has allowed our low income members and their families to enjoy family bonding time at Downtown East at no cost at all. Thank you Brother Khee Leng for NTUC Club’s sponsorship!
Just last month, you might have read in the papers about the “Breadwinners – We Care, U Care” campaign. Through this campaign, I am happy to announce that NTUC FairPrice Foundation has pledged a total of $1.5 million dollars to U Care Fund as well. I wish to thank Brother Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of NTUC FairPrice who, incidentally, is U Care Fund’s founding Chairman, Brother Tan Kian Chew, Group CEO of NTUC FairPrice and Director of FairPrice Foundation; and Brother Seah Kian Peng, CEO (Singapore) of NTUC FairPrice who are also here with us tonight. Their on-going support over the years is truly a great encouragement for us. Thank you brothers, for always standing by U Care Fund!
To show our appreciation, I would now like to invite on stage NTUC President, Sister Diana; Sec-Gen Brother Lim Swee Say; Chairman of NTUC-U Care Fund Board of Trustees Brother David Wong; and Chairman of NTUC Care and Share Committee, Brother Francis Lim, to join me in thanking our donors and presenting them with our tokens of appreciation. Please put your hands together and welcome them!
