With "We are family" as its core business philosophy, CTBC Holding harnesses social participation and feedback in its pursuit of growth that is both profitable and sustainable—for both itself and the community. From creating Taiwan's very first corporate charity fundraising campaign, Light Up a Life, to encouraging employees to volunteer, our social efforts over the decades have sought to inspire community engagement and ever more virtuous cycles. It's our sincere hope, and belief, that every dollar and hour we spend on these efforts will yield positive, outsized returns.
Charity, anti-drug abuse, sports, education, and arts and culture
Light Up a Life
For the 33rd year of Light Up a Life in 2018, a total of NT$143 million was raised during the three-month campaign. It went to the 312 rural elementary schools under the Child Welfare League Foundation's Rural Elementary School Student Care and Counseling Project, the 26 community development associations of the Taiwan Dream Project, and the 36 tours of remote areas undertaken by the Paper Windmill Educational Foundation, helping improve the educational and family life of nearly 50,000 children. CTBC Holding has also launched a comprehensive assistance program for disadvantaged children, and the charity foundation received recognition at the 2018 National Excellent Corporate Volunteer Team Awards presented by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. We undertake these efforts not only to brighten up these children's days but because we believe in alleviating poverty through education.
Taiwan Dream Project
This approach, by leveraging on-the-ground assistance, enables us to turn communities into safe spaces where children's dreams can be nurtured. As of 2018, a total of 26 Taiwan Dream sites had been set up, having cared for 499 children with the assistance of 510 community volunteers.
CTBC Poverty Alleviation Program
The probram has been provided for more than 1,580 entrepreneurial cases, empowering 291 families to start their own businesses with the support of more than NT$120 million in loans as of 2018 on a cumulative basis. Of these families, 239 remain in business.
CTBC Youth Baseball Project
The CTBC Youth Baseball Project currently sponsors 23 teams comprising 723 players. Participants have flourished, with some even playing in the 2018 X BFA U12 Baseball Championship, PONY Palomino League World Series, and WBSC IV U-15 Baseball World Cup.
Anti-drug education campaign
CTBC establish the CTBC Anti-Drug Educational Foundation in 2015. As Taiwan's first corporate-sponsored group specializing in anti-drug education, it has taken exhibitions and campus events all over Taiwan and its outlying islands over the past three years. In 2018, it set a new precedent by joining hands with the Ministry of National Defense to bolster its educational efforts. The foundation's message has already reached more than 360,000 people, and anti-drug textbooks compiled by the group have been used in 63 elementary and junior high schools in eight counties and cities nationwide. Students' satisfaction with the anti-drug textbooks was found to be 95%, with 94% saying the anti-drug education they provided gave them completely new insights into drug abuse.
Sports promotion
To support the development of Taiwan's national sport, CTBC Holding became the first enterprise to invest in all five levels of baseball, from little league to the pro game. We want the sport to "take root downward and bear fruit upward". By providing sponsorships and organizing events, we are steering the sport from strength to strength. And our sports efforts don't stop with baseball. We also have a long-running relationship with golf, the women's game in particular, helping to nurture and encourage top talent. This support also includes providing sponsorship as well as organizing events, with our tournaments having gone a long way to bringing international-level standards and status to the sport in Taiwan.
Charity and academic performance
From 2016 to 2018, and it topped the 2018 list of most promising young colleges as viewed by enterprises. In addition, the Ministry of Education has praised the school as a new model of corporate philanthropy. CTBC Holding is committed to fully utilizing the group's resources in order to achieve a 100% employment rate for graduates and the creation of a sound learning environment that cultivates outstanding international financiers through scholarships and grants, industry–academia cooperation, and overseas study.
Arts and culture promotion results
CTBC Holding has long dedicated a great deal of effort to supporting the arts, particularly in making diverse, world-class art exhibitions easily accessible to the public. These efforts have been recognized recently with our 12th win at the Art & Business Awards, and by winning the 2018 Arts Education Contribution Award from the Ministry of Education and the 2017 Social Education Contribution Award from the Ministry of Education. These honors have come on the back of the long-term efforts of the CTBC Foundation for Arts and Culture, including its Love & Arts for Dreams Initiatives, which won both the Special Excellence Award and Best Story Impact Award of the 2018 CSR Impact Awards for promoting arts and culture education in remote areas.
Welfare lottery
Specifically, between 2007 and 2018, Taiwan Lottery generated earnings of NT$311.164 billion for the government's subsidization of social welfare expenditure, the national pension scheme, and the National Health Insurance program for all counties and municipalities countrywide. Since we took over the management of the charity lottery business in 2007, its total sales have grown from NT$64.2 billion that year to NT$110.466 billion in 2018.
Caring for China's Next Generation on Campus
In terms of overseas aid, the CTBC Charity Foundation embraces the philosophy that poverty can be overcome through education. As such, in China in 2013, it launched the Caring for China's Next Generation on Campus program. By the end of 2018, 44 educational sites had been set up, with the project scope extending westward to Xinjiang, northward to Heilongjiang and southward to Hainan Island, with more than 50,000 underprivileged students gaining access to learning resources as a result, improving both their education and living conditions.
Disaster relief donations
Hualien earthquake
Ten minutes to midnight on Feb. 6, 2018, a strong earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck the coast of eastern Taiwan's Hualien County, causing some buildings to collapse and injuring hundreds. CTBC Holding called on its subsidiaries to help and soon after, CTBC Bank, Taiwan Life, and Taiwan Lottery made a joint donation of NT$20 million to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to assist in disaster relief and help resettle quake victims. In addition, a series of programs was provided for customers and policyholders affected by the disaster, including an emergency loan service.
Japan earthquake and flooding
On June 18, 2018, a quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale occurred in Japan's Osaka Prefecture. CTBC Bank and its local subsidiary, The Tokyo Star Bank, donated 5 million yen (NT$1.35 million) to disaster relief. The following month, heavy rain triggered severe flooding in western Japan. CTBC Bank and The Tokyo Star Bank contributed 10 million yen to help recovery efforts.
Other social welfare initiatives
Taiwan Life is one of CTBC Holding's two key drivers of profitability, along with CTBC Bank. While CTBC Holding has long been dedicated to caring for disadvantaged children nationwide, Taiwan Life has focused its public welfare efforts on long-term care, older people, and medical services.
In line with CTBC Holding's "We are family" brand spirit, Taiwan Life promotes the idea among seniors that they can help the next generation by taking good care of themselves. In doing so, it works in tandem with the government's long term care policies to encourage aging in place and active aging. Prioritizing the three key areas of regional cooperation, dementia-friendly communities, and health care worker supply, Taiwan Life is working toward greater alignment with international trends and standards in quality of life for older people and to encourage more youth participation, such as in creating innovation care solutions and engaging in intergenerational learning.
Social investment
Virtuous cycles of sustainable social welfare