By Kwon Mee-yoo
Samsung Card, one of Korea's leading credit card firms, aims to boost corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities with steady participation from employees as well as customers.
The company's major Green Shoot Campaign is to support the blossoming youth, as the name indicates. The main programs of the campaign include the Donation of Love Fund and the Challenge! Golden Bell Scholarship.
The Donation of Love Fund allows donations by Samsung Card customers to support young cancer and leukemia patients and children in need easily by using their bonus points or charging the amount to their credit cards.
This began as an online fundraising event for child leukemia patients in 2003 and more than 60,000 Samsung Card employees and cardholders have participated in the program for the past nine years.
Customers can subscribe at the card's website at www.samsungcard.com and choose to whom and how much they want to donate. They can either give regularly or as a lump sum. Donations are also possible via the phone by calling 1588-8700.
Donors can select from four themes ― boosting hope (aid for leukemia children), boosting happiness (social and welfare projects for underfed and abused children), boosting dreams (education and scholarship project) and boosting enthusiasm (culture and arts projects). Profiles of sponsored children are updated monthly.
All donations made through Love Fund are tax deductible.
Samsung Card also supports “Challenge! Golden Bell,” a television quiz show for high school students, since 2001. The winning student who survives through 50 questions will receive prize money including college tuition and funding for overseas backpacking travel. Runners-up will also receive scholarships and their school will be awarded with an LED television.
The firm has also organized a community among the students who have appeared on the program and provides them chances to volunteer in providing afterschool lessons for low-income students.
In an attempt to help farming and fishing villages to stand on their own feet, Samsung Card has set up a sister relation with local villages.
Since the program began in May 2004, the credit card company now has 11 sister villages across the country. Samsung Card employees visit the towns to provide a helping hand and hold farmer's markets to sell produce from them.
The card firm was awarded for promoting exchanges between city and rural areas by the National Agricultural Cooperatives Foundation in December.
The company also encourages executives and employees to volunteer and there are 108 voluntary teams in the company through its 365 Volunteer Service.