The Community Chest of Hong Kong

The Community Chest of Hong Kong

Type	Non-governmental organisation
Established	1968
Location	Hong Kong
Website	www.commchest.org

The Community Chest of Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港公益金) is an independent, non-profit organisation. It was established on 8 November 1968 in Hong Kong. As one of the most important charities in Hong Kong, The Community Chest serves as an umbrella organisation to provide grants to a wide range of community projects. 100% of funds raised are used to enhance local social welfare services without any deductions for administrative costs.

The goal of The Community Chest is to work for the betterment of Hong Kong through the support by millions and to build a caring society through greater participation and giving by the Hong Kong community.

The mission statements of the Community Chest are:

The Community Chest is governed by a Board. Under the Board, there are four main committees: the Executive Committee, the Campaign Committee, the Public Relations Committee and the Admissions, Budgets and Allocations Committee. Over 300 volunteers serving on various sub-committees contribute to support the work of these committees. They also work with the 40 staff at the Chest office to accomplish their fundraising target each year and allocate these funds to over 140 social welfare agencies.

Each year, more than 1.7 million needy people benefit from the fundraising programmes organised by the Chest. The Chest's administrative costs are subsidised by an annual grant from The Hong Kong Jockey Club and returns from investments. Therefore, the Chest is able to allocate 100% of the donations it receives to the beneficiaries without any deduction for administrative expenses.

There are over 140 member agencies of the Chest in 2010. They are:

(Agency names are listed in alphabetical order)

There are residential services, community support services, carer support services, and empowerment and health services. The Community Chest of Hong Kong collaborates with its member agencies such as Helping Hand and Caritas Hong Kong, to provide services for the elderly in Hong Kong.

For child welfare services, there are day care services, developmental and supportive services, residential child care services and child protection services. For family welfare services, there are 5 components: family support services, services for families with special needs, services for family reunion and new arrivals, services for women/men as well as parent education.

Eight groups of people are provided with aftercare and rehabilitation services from the Community Chest of Hong Kong. They are the visually impaired, the hearing impaired, the mentally handicapped, the physically handicapped, people who are chronically ill, drug-abusers, ex-offenders and people with other disabilities.

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