Board Director Training 2023
We’re excited to be bringing back our Board Director Training Program! 

With course content and materials applicable to both for-profit and not-for-profit companies, FSI’s Board Director Training is designed for those who wish to enhance their leadership skills by learning what it takes to sit on a company board. In fact, our training has reached young professionals and C-suite executives from multinational firms such as Credit Suisse, PwC, Macquarie, Clifford Chance, Nomura and others, as well as leaders at philanthropic organizations and their NGO beneficiaries. 

Save the date The upcoming training will take place on 2, 16, and 30 March 2023 in three live Zoom sessions, totalling 7.5 hours. It is taught by award-winning HKU professors, facilitated by an experienced FSI team, and it is a CPD/CPT training that has been accredited by The Law Society of Hong Kong. 

Seats are limited, so register here before 23 February 2023 to secure your spot (early bird discount available until 9 February)! 

Contact the FSI team at classes@shared-impact.com if you would like to learn more about our Board Director Training and board placement program, sponsoring your employees for the training, or discounts for section 88 tax-exempt charities.

If you can't attend the March round, know that we are running another round later in the year. Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can support your staff training plans!

Community Connections
Our Community Connections Program held the first in-person Connection Session in Hong Kong late last year as the city started to reopen post-COVID! 

We would like to thank Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited for offering an amazing venue for the event, and corporate professionals from not just Nomura but also Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, and PwC for taking the time to join the session and meet our Community Partners.

A big shout-out to A Plastic Ocean Foundation, Arts for Good Foundation, CantoGather, Chatteris Educational Foundation (Hong Kong), EmpowerU, InspiringHK Sports Foundation, La Violet Education, Love 21 Foundation, Migrasia Global Solutions Limited, Music Children Foundation, and Sisyphii for the impactful work they do to make the world a better place.

Interested in becoming our Corporate Partner to achieve your sustainability goals while giving your employees the opportunity to practise leadership skills in a safe environment? Get in touch with us on communityconnections@shared-impact.com 

Register to be our Community Partner to meet corporate volunteers and benefit from bespoke consultation with FSI today!

Are you a skilled professional looking to volunteer your skills and expertise for social impact organizations working to drive systems change? Register to be a Skilled Volunteer!

Community Business Support: Mentorship Program for Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs

Last year, we curated, launched, and concluded our Mentorship Program for Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs. Our goal was to build a robust and compassionate community of ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in Hong Kong, and we achieved exactly that. 

Through the promotion of broad collaboration and free sharing of knowledge and information, we created a unique community of entrepreneurs who were able to exchange knowledge in their native languages and find peers as sounding boards for their business initiatives.

A big shout-out to the Hong Kong Club Foundation for their generous support! We would also like to thank our partners and collaborators such as the certified coaches at ICF Hong Kong Charter Chapter, Jenny Au and Wilson Tai at FundFluent, marketing expert Gerard Escaler, and Nimisha Vandan at OkayMinds for making the comprehensive list of entrepreneurship workshops possible, both for our mentors and mentees.

Head over to the program webpage to learn more about the 2022 cohort of mentors and mentees, as well as how our workshops helped ethnically diverse entrepreneurs build organizational capacity, pitch their businesses, identify suitable funding opportunities, craft marketing plans, demystify ESG, and build mental resilience. 

Get in touch with us at cbs@shared-impact.com if you are interested in getting involved in our Mentorship Program, whether as participants, mentors and coaches, guest speakers, or funders.

While we have you, check out the guides and templates our Community Business Support team and Impact Lab interns have compiled in our Entrepreneur’s Toolkit to help entrepreneurs address everyday matters. If you are interested in harnessing your expertise to help us create helpful guides for entrepreneurs, get in touch with us!

Impact Lab
The Spring 2023 semester has just started for our Impact Lab Course! 

In addition to equipping university students with 21st century skills by placing them in social businesses, we also host seminars for them to build design thinking and problem-solving skills and learn from failure. In the previous semester, we gave students the opportunity to work with the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs of our Mentorship Program to identify and mitigate potential risks to their businesses. 

In terms of the social businesses we partner with for the Course, we’re happy to welcome back Myanmar Youth Empowerment Opportunities (MYEO), an impact-driven edtech that works to equip all of Myanmar’s graduates with the skills to become valuable members of the workforce and community. Visit MYEO’s website to find out how you can support their work in addressing Myanmar’s human capital challenges.

Do you share our passion for youth empowerment and nurturing the next generation of socially conscious business leaders? Get in touch with us to discuss how we can work together.

Soap Cycling 
To Soap Cycling’s founding members and first cohort of student interns, it seems only yesterday that Asia’s first and only youth-led soap recycling charity was born, with a mission to reduce waste, empower communities, and provide equitable hygiene for all. Check out Soap Cycling’s 10 years of impact in this impact report, produced by FSI. 

Visit Soap Cycling’s website to learn how you can support their work on promoting resource circularity while creating long-term social, economic, and environmental impact.

Soap Cycling is looking to hire a Project Assistant. Click this LinkedIn post to learn more about the position and apply!

Gowld Art Centre
If expressing your thoughts through drawing is your idea of fun on a Friday night, do check out Gowld Art Centre’s art jamming sessions every Friday, open to all 5:30-9:30pm. Come by yourself or bring some friends! GAC offers flexible time slots for group sessions and guidance by an instructor, available at a fee. 

GAC is also bringing back its signature Drink and Draw on the last Saturday night every month at 7-10pm! For just HK$200, you’ll get a 20 x 20cm canvas, glow-in-the-dark neon acrylic paint and body paint, free flow of cocktails, and your own artistic creation to take home. 

If you’re looking to develop a new physical fitness routine involving combat sports, GAC’s weekly Sparring Night may just be what you need every Thursday. Register to spar with boxers from various levels!

Visit GAC’s website to learn more about and register for the regular courses.

GREEN Hospitality 
In the Christmas just past, GREEN Hospitality was invited by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to join the Hong Kong Winter Fest at the West Kowloon Cultural District, with its own Christmas-themed lodge at the Christmas Wonderland. From 23 to 27 December 2022, GREEN Hospitality joined hands with Soap Cycling and CHOMP to host fun and informational workshops for visitors to learn more about sustainability issues and simple behavioral changes to lead a sustainable lifestyle. 

Check out the event highlights in this LinkedIn post. If you’re interested in learning the tips and hacks for upcycling food waste, download the Guidebook to a Sustainable Feast, compiled by GREEN Hospitality and CHOMP! 

On food waste management and reduction, if you’re a restaurateur, chef, or F&B manager looking for practical solutions, download the F&B Playbook, produced by GREEN Hospitality and TREEHOUSE, a pioneer in healthy and sustainable food businesses in Hong Kong. 

24 Hour Race
24 Hour Race is bringing back its signature anti-slavery running event to Hong Kong! Tomorrow, hundreds of Hong Kong students will be running for 12 hours round a 400-metre track at Hong Kong International School to raise awareness and money for charities that work to end modern slavery. Although the race time is cut in half due to permit issues, the organizers are hoping the resume the full length of the race in November this year. 

Read this SCMP article to find out how the first 24 Hour Race in 2010 grew into a global movement involving 400 student committee members who are in charge of 14 events all over the world.

Visit 24 Hour Race’s website to learn more about the largest student-run global movement to end slavery and how you can support them.

Box of Hope
Through its 2022 Campaign, Box of Hope has successfully mobilized school pupils, volunteers, and its corporate and NGO partners to pack and deliver 31,129 boxes of hygiene items, educational toys, and stationeries to the children and teens in impoverished communities. Check out the faces of joy and happiness of Box of Hope’s beneficiaries in Cambodia in this video.

Visit Box of Hope’s website to learn more about its work and how you can get involved in its 2023 Campaign!