“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” ~ Bill Gates
“You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripples for change.” ~ Tim Cook
“The law of giving is very simple: if you want joy, give joy. If love is what you seek, offer love. If you crave material affluence, help others become prosperous.” – Deepak Chopra
Whilst never a written rule, the pledge of giving is firmly one that distinguishes a person or an entity from the rest. Giving back to the society in whatever form it may be, is a discipline that runs very deep within everyone in Cheng & Co because we take great pride in the fact that our success to date and well in the future, is reliant not only on us – success is teamwork and the world is indeed our oyster.
Armed with this fundamental realisation on the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Cheng & Co Group of Companies, being the biggest local accounting firm in Malaysia with 12 branch offices in the Asia Pacific region, established the Cheng & Co Foundation.
Driving Dreams To Reality
Founded on 23 September 2011 by Professor Dato’ Dr. Chua Hock Hoo and Mr. Ong Chin Giap (MD of Cheng & Co Australia) with a personal contribution of RM100,000 respectively, the Foundation aims to raise its funding availability to RM1 million in the near future.
The Cheng & Co Foundation is a public testament of the Cheng & Co Group of Companies’ commitment towards nation building and being a responsible corporate citizen – following the in footsteps of the founders, Mr. Liew Kwai Choy (Partner, Cheng & Co Australia) and Mr. Tan Wae Leng (Deputy Managing Partner) came forward to also contribute RM100,000 each to ensure the foundation is ready to serve deserving Malaysians
The main objective of the Foundation is to aid Malaysians in the field of education by way of providing scholarships/financial assistance to deserving employees of the company as well as children of clients, associates of the Cheng & Co Group of companies.
The educational financial assistance is specifically targeted at those from the above mentioned groups who are pursuing professional courses in the fields of accountancy, tax, business administration, financial and commercial studies.
In due time with an increased sum of donation or funding made available, the Foundation hopes to widen the fields of choice under the scholarship programme.
Fundamentally, the Foundation’s objective of helping deserving individuals pursue their professional recognitions of choice is based on the principle that every organisation has a role to play in nation building – offering stable and progressive employment by virtue of running a successful accounting practice is one part of our role whilst going beyond this scope, helping nurture younger, future talents to attain their dream qualifications and becoming competent human capital to the larger accounting/financial industry positively complements our CSR agenda.
In a knowledge economy era that we are presently in, it becomes inherently importantly that our future professionals are nurtured from young, given equal opportunity to choice education without political/religious distinctions and are welcomed into large organisations with the capacity to support their long term career developments – all of these factors have been carefully ingrained into the criteria and application screening process of the scholarships/study grants so that the Foundation is able to remain objective and independent.
A clear distinction that sets apart the financial assistance for education offered by the Foundation as compared to many other such CSR initiatives in the market place is the fact that existing employees of the group have an equal opportunity of benefitting from it. This further corroborates the life-long learning culture which the Cheng & Co Group of Companies strongly professes.
In terms of management, every designated education fund under the Foundation is managed by a Board which will be appointed by donors while the daily administration will be taken care of by Cheng & Co Secretarial Sdn. Bhd with the assistance of volunteers.
Efforts are already underway for a tax exemption status to be granted for all donations made to the Foundation.
Giving From The Heart
In staying relevant to the culture of ‘giving to grow’ the Foundation also gets actively involved in activities which are strongly community centric, apart from focusing on its main objective of providing study grants to deserving individuals.
In line with this, since its establishment in 2011, the Foundation has been involved in a host of events including:
- Charity Golf Tournament
A total of RM 30,000 was raised from this inaugural event held in 2012 and the funds were channeled to selected charity homes around Malaysia including the Spastic Children´s Association of Selangor & Federal Territory, Fungates Foundation and Pure Life Society. 80 kind hearted participants joined this charity tournament and YM Raja Mohd Azmi Bin Raja Razali, Group Chairman of Mainstay Holdings was the guest of honour.
- Soup Kitchen For The Homeless
Cheng & Co’s employees came together in a great show of unity with Fungates Superflow Foundation during this 2012 event which provided complimentary pre-packed lunch for the under-privileged, homeless community and urban poor via a Soup Kitchen located in Jinjang Utara, Kuala Lumpur. This activity allowed all staff to understand the predicament and hardship faced by some quarters of our society.
- Community Outreach
Cheng & Co employees had an up close opportunity of working with children from underprivileged children through a charity event held in association with the Pure Life Society. Volunteers had a memorable experience cooking food for the children and allowing professionals to interact with the children in the home.
- Save A Life, Donate Blood
Cheng & Co’s Malacca branch co-organised a blood donation drive in May 2014 to help promote the spirit of social responsibility through the symbolic act of donating blood and helping save lives. Some 160 donors participated in this event which was done in collaboration with Kelab Pacuan 4 Roda (PUMA).
- In Aid Of Flood Victims
As a result of the massive floods in Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu in late 2014, the Cheng & Co team came together to provide essential food items to families who were displaced due to the floods. Canned food, dry edibles and much more were distributed on voluntary basis in Kuala Krai through the office of the Seputeh Member of Parliament’s office.
- Welcome Home
In conjunction with Christmas, the Foundation organised a visit to the ‘Welcome Home’ located in Batu Arang, last year. The company’s employees were given the rare opportunity to interact and mingle closely with HIV positive patients – portraying genuine kindness and understanding the pain of social stigma.
- Complimentary One Day BSC Training
Being a results oriented company, one other activity regularly done via Cheng & Co through the Foundation is provision of a complimentary one-day training on Balanced Score Card (BSC) approach for companies keen on aligning their aspirations, key metrics and measurement against actual outcome. This valuable one-day course provides a helicopter view as to why BSC is a proven approach to measuring actions against real results.
Giving To Grow Together
Social engagement and empowerment of the society by way of having access to quality education, healthcare and shelter needs basically encapsulate the mission of the Foundation.
In promoting a ‘no-discrimination’ policy, in the coming years, the Foundation aims to work hand in hand with its employees to promote greater sense of volunteerism to achieve the following strategic goals:
- To provide educational financial aid to anyone with the desire to improve and grow
- To strengthen the bond between Cheng & Co, partners and clients through community outreach opportunities thus sharing mutual interest
- To participate in social projects of any size with the aim of leaving a positive impact to the local community which will eventually benefit the business community, such as talent development, etc.
Terms & Conditions of The Cheng & Co Foundation Awards/Scholarships
- Scholarships are only offered to the following fields of study:
- Accountancy and taxation
- Business administration, financial and commercial studies
- Fields related to the above.
- Applicants are required to achieve good academic results. Applicants from poor families will have an added advantage if other factors are similar.
- Only Malaysian citizens are eligible to apply. However, staff and children of Cheng & Co Group of Companies, clients and associates will be considered first.
- In addition, applicants must also possess leadership qualities, positive attitude and be active in extra-curriculum activities.
- Applicants are allowed to hold a maximum of two (2) scholarships at any time.
- Offer of scholarships will only be made upon confirmation of university/ college/ school places.
- The scholarship is not transferable.
- Scholarship will be a one-off award but will be paid in two (2) installments within five-months’ intervals and may be subject to review.
- The decision of the scholarship selection Board will be final.
- Applicants are required to submit the following documents together with the completed application form:
- Name and address of university/ college
- Name of course(s) applied
- The last two (2) years/ semesters results
- The estimated tuition fee for the whole course
- A simple write up on the applicant & his/her family background
- The amount/ value of scholarship applied for
- Applicants are required to pay back the scholarship awarded without interest in ten (10) equal quarterly installments. The repayment will start from the thirteenth (13th) month after their graduation or completion of their related field of study or when they start working, whichever comes first.
