DBS People of Purpose (DBS PoP) is our employee volunteer movement empowering colleagues across key markets to create impact beyond banking. DBS PoP volunteers play a vital role in the bank’s impact journey – contributing their time and/or skills to make a difference.
Since 2014, our employees achieved over 1 million volunteering hours and reached more than 790,000 individuals.
As the bank further catalyses social impact – committing up to SGD 1 billion over the next decade to improve lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable and foster a more inclusive society – we will also contribute over 1.5 million volunteering hours over the same period.
With two official volunteer-leave days per year, employees are encouraged to join skills- and service- based programmes that align with the bank’s third sustainability pillar: impact beyond banking.
As part of our bank-wide effort to tackle the urgent challenges of ageing societies, we work together with DBS Foundation to enable every person at every stage of life to age with dignity, purpose and joy.
We do this by:
Read how DBS PoP volunteers create impact beyond banking with their time and/or skills.
Teaching seniors digital literacy skills with 'Getai' shows
Learn more
Empowering people with disabilities with financial literacy skills
Her grandfathers kindness sparks her to volunteer and give back every weekend
Fostering resilience among lower-income families
Mentor-mentee pair proves that ITE is not 'the end' of their dreams
Driving communication accessibility for the deaf using AI
Read about how we’ve worked with partners to understand and support the needs of local communities to drive long-term, sustainable and meaningful impact in their lives.
Since 2015, we’ve been partnering Shanghai Zhonggu Charity Youth Development Center to drive digital inclusion among children from rural communities in China. To promote greater access to online learning, the children receive refurbished, retired laptops from the Bank and participate in digital workshops with our employee volunteers. Over 1,600 children have benefited so far.
Since 2018, we’ve been working with the Foodlink Foundation to redistribute surplus food to underprivileged communities in Hong Kong. As of September 2022, 125,000 kg of surplus food (that’s the weight of 8.5 double-deck buses!) have been rescued and re-distributed. Besides food distribution programmes, we also help conduct “zero food waste” cooking workshops for elderly and children.
Together with our long-time partners, Goodera and United Way of Hyderabad, our employee volunteers have impacted various segments of the underserved in India. From volunteering to record audiobooks for the visually impaired and organising tours for the elderly to supporting school infrastructure transformation projects, our volunteers have positively impacted more than 175,000 lives.
Since 2021, we’ve partnered Surplus.id, a food rescue app that connects customers to F&B businesses with surplus food, to channel excess food to communities in need. Our employee volunteers have supported the rescue and redistribution of food to the underprivileged including children in orphanages.
Since 2015, we’ve been mobilising our employee volunteers to promote active ageing among seniors at Lions Befrienders. Our programmes include upskilling seniors in digital and financial literacy skills as well as organising social activities to prevent social isolation.Increased accessibility to mentors for different segments, including youths, is also an area of focus. To date we reached more than 450 students from various tertiary institutions.
Since 2016, we’ve been working with The CAN, a social enterprise with a mission to drive urban and rural sustainable development in the Sanxia Township. Our employee volunteers have supported the town’s river clean-up as well as workshops to preserve the town’s traditional crafts such as indigo dyeing and metalworking.
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Learn how DBS scales impact beyond banking in our latest Sustainability Report. Get in touch with us at peopleofpurpose@dbs.com for enquiries about our volunteer movement.
Asia’s Safest Bank, 2009 – 2024, Global Finance
Best Bank in the World 2022, Global Finance
World's Best Bank 2021, Euromoney
Best Bank in the World 2020, Global Finance
World's Best Bank 2019, Euromoney
Global Bank of the Year 2018, The Banker
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