UOB Chinese New Year Drive Raises SGD 1.87M, Features Bonsai Workshop

UOB’s Chinese New Year fundraising drive brought in SGD 1,868,888, the bank said in a statement on Feb 25, with proceeds earmarked for arts, education and children’s causes. Straits Times reporting noted the total and said “more than 2,000 people will be able to tap” the funds, while UOB’s corporate materials list specific recipient organisations for the campaign.

The campaign combined a series of events and a digital donation push. On Jan 29, more than 40 commercial banking clients took part in a bonsai appreciation workshop that UOB and media reports described as part of the fundraising activities. A gala fundraising dinner on Feb 24 hosted live auctions of artwork, and UOB ran an e-hongbao PayNow donation drive coinciding with the first 15 days of the Lunar New Year, from Feb 12 to Feb 26, under its PayNow for a Cause programme which the bank says was launched in 2017.

UOB highlighted client participation in its account of the drive, saying, “In a strong show of support for UOB’s annual Lunar New Year fundraiser, the Bank’s Commercial Banking clients charged ahead with their donations, contributing to the bulk of the amount raised.” UOB’s release also states that “The total funds raised will go to four organisations supporting art, education and children, namely the The Business Times Budding Artists Fund, The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund, the UOB-Singapore Management University Asian Enterprise Institute and SPD.”

Media reporting and the bank’s materials align on some beneficiaries but differ on others. Straits Times explicitly lists The Business Times Budding Artists Fund, The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund and Central Singapore Community Development Council as recipients and notes that Singapore enterprises can tap the fund to support innovation efforts under the UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute. UOB’s release names SPD and the UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute alongside the two funds but does not list Central Singapore CDC in the excerpted materials.

Auction highlights reported from the Feb 24 dinner include Neo Kah Kiat, founder and chairman of Neo Group, winning Leo Liu’s Galloping Towards Greatness with a bid of SGD 258,888; Straits Times also reported Kelvin Lim, executive chairman of LHN, as a winning bidder of SGD 188,000 for Aaron Gan’s Prosperous Harmony. Separately, UOB’s press images and caption show Mr Wee Ee Cheong, UOB Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, presenting a bamboo art piece that UOB records as sold to Kelvin Lim for SGD 100,888. The two sources therefore assign different winning-bid amounts and items to the same named bidder in their respective accounts.

UOB’s materials additionally frame a subset of the campaign’s proceeds, stating that “more than $1.2 million was raised for multiple charities this festive season” in relation to handcrafted bamboo artworks and e-hongbaos. Straits Times presents the SGD 1,868,888 figure as the aggregate total from the fundraising dinner, bonsai appreciation workshop and associated activities. The differing line items and auction assignments appear in both sets of materials; UOB’s statement lists the four organisations that will receive the funds.