Way forward for Swire Trust’s Philanthropic Effort

Since Swire began operating in Hong Kong 150 years ago, the Group has been both a long-term investor and a supportive and caring corporate citizen. The Swire Group Charitable Trust was established in 1983 as the philanthropic arm of Swire Group. It is a Hong Kong charity registered under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance, and is overseen by a Philanthropy Council, which comprises senior directors of the company. Guided by the Swire family motto – Esse Quam Videri (meaning “to be, rather than to seem to be”) – the Trust is motivated by altruism and aims to act for the direct benefit of society and greater good.

In late 2020, Swire Trust launched a 3-year, HK$150 million funding initiative, TrustTomorrow, to celebrate Swire’s 150th anniversary in Hong Kong. TrustTomorrow supports a wide range of community projects that aim to motivate positive change in the areas of Education, Marine Conservation and the Arts, as well as supporting vulnerable groups in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 3-year period of its running, large scale publicity and promotion events have been organised, together with strong social media presence and engagement with the community, staff and NGOs. All these PR and communication efforts have been part of the overall Swire 150th anniversary celebration, telling the public about Swire’s journey of commitment to Hong Kong over the last one and a half centuries.

As the 150th anniversary milestone has passed and the 3-year TrustTomorrow funding is coming to a close by the end of 2023, the associated communication programmes, including media publicity and social media channels will also be wrapped up.

With the exception of TrustTomorrow, Swire Trust, guided by altruism, has always been low-profile in its communication. After the TrustTomorrow initiative comes to a close, Swire Trust plans to return to its relatively low-profile, “business-as-usual” mode of operation.

The Challenge

Propose a two-part business case to the Swire Trust team on upcoming communication strategies:

1) To come up with a communication campaign for 2023 that celebrates and records the success of TrustTomorrow, and serves as a finale to wrap up the 3-year initiative; and

2) To recommend to Swire Trust team the strategy on how to raise public awareness of the importance of Marine Conservation, and how Swire Trust-funded programmes / projects on the cause of Marine Conservation can create impact on the community without deploying intensive marketing and communication campaign.