KT&G (CEO Min Young-jin) announced that it would introduce a “Donation Petition System” in which the beneficiaries of the Sangsang Fund, created voluntarily by officers and employees of KT&G, are directly recommended.

In the system, officers and employees post stories about needy neighbors to a donation request forum on the intranet, and if the number of comments that recommend donation exceeds 200, the details of the request are adopted. For the story adopted, the Sangsang Fund Management Committee determines various matters relating to the amount of donation according to the prescribed standards.

A KT&G official said, “Officers and employees themselves will heighten the feeling of self-fulfillment and the sense of belonging through sharing by appealing for donations and making comments of recommendation,” adding that “this is expected to be taken as an opportunity to contribute to fostering a desirable corporate culture of community service and to developing a sound organizational culture.”

An elementary school student in the sixth grade named Kim living in Okcheon, Chungcheongbuk-do, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor was selected as the first beneficiary through this Donation Petition System, and will be given ₩6 million. When the story about Kim was posted on the donation request forum, the comments exceeded 200 in just one day, reflecting the passionate interest of officers and employees.

The Sangsang Fund is a social contribution fund that was created with the amount of voluntary donations by KT&G officers and employees from their paychecks matched by the same amount from the company, plus the voluntary work done by officers and employees being converted into ₩10,000 per hour. The Fund was set up in March, 2011 through the development of a bond of sympathy between labor and management with respect to the practice of genuine sharing. The annual operational budget scale for this year is expected to reach approximately ₩3.5 billion.