For teenagers Zhao Dian (pronounced Di An), Wang Zhe, Vanessa Goh and Lin Yeqing, the chance to gain first-hand experience in a social enterprise and organising their very own community involvement project (CIP) prompted them to join Citi-YMCA Youth For Causes.
Naming themselves Spectrum, the team comprising students from
Victoria Junior College and Temasek Junior College exercised their entrepreneurial
spirit to develop and implement a business plan to raise funds for their
adopted charity, Club Rainbow which provides comprehensive help to children and
youth who suffer from chronic and potentially life-threatening illnesses.
“Citi-YMCA
Youth For Causes provided us an invaluable opportunity to start a social
enterprise and further our efforts in volunteerism,” said team leader Dian. “The
idea of implementing our own CIP is challenging, but attractive and gave us a
great sense of achievement.”
Dian
says that their team name was inspired by their chosen charity as “rainbows,
widely regarded as symbols of hope, feature a continuous spectrum of colours.” It also symbolises the team’s desire to organise a
variety of activities to raise funds and awareness for the beneficiaries of
Club Rainbow.
Between May and September this year, the team mobilised a total of
120 volunteers to publicise their cause and sell customised rubber wristbands,
balloons, T-shirts and toys at various locations islandwide.
“Our business plan was based on three tenets: recruit quality
volunteers, widen our outreach and minimise cost,” elaborated Dian. “During the
process, we
learnt to strike a balance between our targets and reality; we experienced how
to arrange logistics, solicit for sponsorships, manage volunteers and learnt
the importance of communication.”
To boost their resources, Spectrum ingeniously tapped on their
wide network of local and overseas contacts. They had used their “existing
network of friends, relatives and schoolmates to reach out to more
possibilities of cooperation.”
“To
reduce our cost and utilise our advantage of having overseas contacts, we secured a toy company in China as our sponsor,” elaborated Dian. “This approach proved effective and enabled us to gain significant profits from
selling a wide variety of nice toys at reasonable prices.”
Spectrum’s
resourcefulness did not just end there; with a unique strategy, the team also
managed to avoid direct competition for sales with the 99 other teams.
“To get more opportunities to publicise our cause,
we contacted People’s Association (PA), which provided us with a list of PA
events for us to join,” explained Dian. “Since we were the only group who
participated in these events, we were able to avoid fierce competition with
other teams and thus, maximise our revenue.”
Spectrum’s
innovative approach paid dividends as they managed to raise more than $20,000,
nearly 13 times the amount of seed funding allocated to each of the 100
participating teams.
Over
the course of Spectrum’s social entrepreneurship project, they were mentored by
Mr Sanjay Balaji Shankaran, Assistant Vice President from Citibank whose main
objective was to “sharpen” the team’s ideas.
“Whenever the team came
up with a new idea for driving revenue or raising awareness, I would put forth
different aspects and possibilities to them and get them to respond to all of
them,” said Mr Sanjay. “That way, the whole development was the team’s brain
child, and they were exposed to real time situations which they need to tackle
whilst planning for executing their plans.”
Organised
for the 11th year running, the Citi-YMCA Youth for Causes programme
is a community initiative jointly organised by Citi Singapore and the YMCA of
Singapore. Funded by Citi Foundation, the programme is
a catalyst for social entrepreneurship and community leadership development
among Singapore youths. It provides youths aged 13 to 25 with seed funding,
resources and guidance of selected mentors, to execute sustainable social
entrepreneurship ideas and business models that benefit and support Voluntary
Welfare Organisations (VWOs) of their choice
Mr
Stephen Loh, President, YMCA of Singapore, describes the programme as “a fertile ground to plant the seeds of entrepreneurship and nurture the growth
of responsible and impactful community champions.”
“Citi-YMCA Youth For Causes provides youth
with the opportunity to be exposed to positive values-in-action, learn about
resource management and servant leadership, and be equipped with entrepreneurial
skills,” reinforced Mr Loh.
Teo Mui Eng, Chief Financial
Officer, Citi Singapore, said, “Citi is honoured to be a part of this
meaningful programme and partner YMCA to develop social consciousness and
community leadership amongst youth in Singapore. Our support goes beyond the
funding from Citi Foundation as our employees are encouraged to contribute
their time as volunteers to the programme. Our senior management endorses the
programme by serving as committee members or judges on the selection panels.
Every year, we also have up to 50 of our colleagues who volunteer as mentors to
the youth teams.”
In
recognition of Spectrum’s outstanding efforts in mobilising resources to
further their cause, they received the ‘Most Promising Entrepreneur’
award at the Citi-YMCA Youth For Causes 2013 Awards Celebration on 19 November. Madam Halimah Yacob, Speaker of Parliament graced the occasion as the Guest-of-Honour.
A total of nine awards were presented this year and the winners
are as follows:
1
|
Best Team Award
(Category A)
|
iCANCERvive
|
2
|
Best Team Award
(Category B)
|
Team K.I.T
|
3
|
Fund Management Award
|
Inspire'13
|
4
|
Volunteer Management
Award
|
iCANCERvive
|
5
|
Public Outreach Award
|
Team K.I.T
|
6
|
Most Promising
Entrepreneur Award
|
Spectrum
|
7
|
Best Mentor Award
|
Mr Tew Ming Wei
|
8
|
Most Supportive VWO
Award
|
Lions Club of Singapore
Goodwood
|
9
|
Most Supportive School
Award
|
Hwa Chong Institution
|
Teams were assessed by their mentors and two judging panels; the
Citi-YMCA YFC Judging Panel assessed teams on project implementation, volunteer
management and public outreach, whilst the Citi-YMCA YFC Secretariat appraised
the teams’ fund management, training and enrichment and timeliness of report
updates.
Asked which aspect of their project contributed to their win, Dian
said that their unique sponsorship arrangements and wide variety of sales
events were crucial to their success.
“We definitely feel honoured to win the Most Promising
Entrepreneur Award and to have our efforts recognised,” said Dian. “All the work we have
done for the past
15 weeks has boosted our confidence in starting our own business. It has also given us more insight on entrepreneurship and serves as precious experience that can guide us in the future.”
15 weeks has boosted our confidence in starting our own business. It has also given us more insight on entrepreneurship and serves as precious experience that can guide us in the future.”
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