ChickenSoup Foundation was founded by a hands-on investment professional with a global experience, who has decided to pay-forward with his skills to the resources-deprived world of charitable industry in Hong Kong.
We make continuous investments in our operating model with constant upgrades based on our learning and one over-riding goal in mind: make lasting changes for the neediest beneficiary group in Hong Kong with the most practical solution.
ChickenSoup Foundation started with sponsoring after-school tutorial services at various community service centers in 2013. We have then gone through several phases of “soul searching” as shown in “Milestones” below.
All resources of CSF are realigned to focus on one single program in family empowerment, serving 20 more families for a total of 40.
As reported by the SCMP, CSF was one of the first charities responding to the pandemic in a year-long campaign. A total of $6.5 million was raised from 50+ corporate entities and 250+ individuals with a diversified relief offering.
Funded by Operation Santa Claus, this family program empowered 20 families living in crisis mode with stability and hopefulness.
Funded by UBS Optimus Foundation, free medical treatments benefitted over 200 at-risk patients with SEN, mental illnesses, or heart & cancer diseases.
Curated a youth coaching program and role-model sharing sessions to foster entrepreneurship and job placements.
Expanded coverage to ten districts with services to the family: home improvement, supplies and food, family bonding, parenting skills and vocational training.
Our first corporate donation funded a team of local university graduates to engage with the donor and NGO communities.
Expanded services to all-round educational support: tutorial, interest pursuits, scholarships and field trips.
Funded tutorial services at a children community center in Chai Wan.
We invest in a team of people who collectively contribute to the skills required by our current operating model: counselling, western medicine, naturopathy, social work, program management, partnership and social media. Overall management is full-time volunteered by our founder, while the administrative functions of finance and HR management is limited to one headcount.
Our Ambassadors, who are our spoke-persons, donors and volunteers, lead by examples in the field of their expertise to share their resources with our families. Our Advisory Board are our key donors, who also leaders in philanthropic narratives in Hong Kong.
We invest in partnerships to deliver solutions that are high-specialized and voluminous in nature.
Our target beneficiaries are families who meet ALL four criteria:
Our families are mostly led by full-time single mothers, as their breadwinning husbands became absent due to: escaping parenting responsibility of children with special needs; gambling, drugs or alcohol addiction; extramarital affairs or prison terms; or death from chronic illnesses or work-related accidents.
Typically, children have conditions of special educational needs such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia, while their parents suffer from major depressive disorder to suicidal ideation.
With no saving and often in debt, our families are socially-isolated in their tiny, worn-out and unsafe flats in various districts in Hong Kong.
Despite living in a crisis mode, our families are highly-motivated in making a positive change, are appreciate of our help, and are eager to give back to other families-in-crisis.
Our district coverage and medical program revealed many children raised by single parents require immediate support – it is the most urgent and critical social cause.
Curing the root cause result in long-term impact. When all members of the family are being served, the process is more effective and efficient in both time and cost.
To foster long-term empowerment and sustainability, a tailored package of solutions is essential for each member of the family.
Our solutions are designed to mitigate the extent of each of the many burning issues to a more manageable level, so the issues collectively no longer stress the families into a crisis mode.
Our three solution sets are sequential in nature: Relief Solutions bring a state of Stableness for the Empowerment Solutions to build upon; and further a state of Hopefulness for the Paying Forward Solutions to feel a sense of Proud.
Each holistic solution set is uniquely tailored to cure the root cause of the many issues of each family at each stage. The solution sets collectively are delivered to our families with a lot of patience, care and love. As a result, our core team is assisted by corporate volunteers, mentors, coaches, and case social workers, who believe in our mission and theory of change.
Beyond producing outcomes and generating impacts, we focus on enabling Changes: from a state of Crisis to Stable with our Relief Solutions, further to Hopefulness with our Empowerment Solutions, and ideally Proud with our Paying Forward Solutions.
Change can be directly and objectively measured in a step-change in their behavior and reality, as a result of our empowerment work on their mindset, i.e. their belief system (limiting vs creating) or state of psychology (positive vs negative).
Changes require proactive effort of our families. Hence our culture is built around an empowering partnership in problem-solving of their temporary issues, as opposed to the traditional mindset of need-based beneficiary-servicing under an on-going charitable mission.
