KT&G Welfare Foundation
Realizing mutual prosperity of corporations and society through continuous and sincere social welfare projects
Overview of KT&G Welfare Foundation
KT&G Welfare Foundation
Support for Children from Low-income Households
KT&G Welfare Foundation is implementing initiatives with the goal of offering culture, arts, and education assistance to children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, thereby helping them enhance their self-esteem and nurture their creative capabilities. Furthermore, the Foundation provides opportunities for these children to explore and cultivate their innate talents. It is supporting culture, arts, and education activities at 450 childcare centers in the metropolitan area and providing various cultural programs to children from low-income households across the country in connection with SangSang Madang. The KT&G Welfare Foundation also runs book support projects to help them developing a reading habit and caring for the healthy development of children by providing SangSang Fruit Baskets.
Support for the Vulnerable Social Group
KT&G Welfare Foundation holds “Over the Rainbow” exhibition for artist with disabilities every year to realize art welfare and expand the scope of supporting creative works in cooperation with KT&G SangSang Madang. The exhibition’s title, “Over the Rainbow”, symbolizes the harmonious coexistence and hopeful promise captured within diversity, offering a fresh lens that exceeds the boundaries of art. True to its name, this showcase functions as a conduit for communication, where disabled artists can be acknowledged as appreciated creators. By surmounting the bias associated with disabilities, these artists can engage with the global community, fostering meaningful dialogue. Going forward, KT&G Welfare Foundation will continue supporting the exhibition to give artists with disabilities opportunities of self-reliance and exhibition of their work.
KT&G Welfare Foundation is also conducting various activities to support the underprivileged so that they can live without losing hope, such as the medical expense support project for those who are vulnerable to medicals services and the cultural experience support project for the single-parent family.
Vehicle Support for Social Welfare Centers
KT&G Welfare Foundation is striving to build welfare infrastructure that can help local communities and thus has been providing vehicles since 2004 to enable efficient operations of local social welfare institutes doing their duties at poor working conditions. The Foundation supports compact cars that can drive in narrow roads considering the characteristics of the living areas of social welfare beneficiaries and reflecting the opinions of field workers. The Foundation provided a total of 2,100 compact cars as of 2002. The donated compact cars are serving as a foot for social welfare institutions across the country and keenly utilized for local social welfare activities.
Promotion of University Students’ Volunteering Activities
KT&G Welfare Foundation is running various volunteer programs to expand the volunteer culture of college students. In 2022, it formed an environmental volunteer group, which comprised 470 college students from 50 universities to carry out volunteer activities on a regular basis, such as planting trees and removing harmful plants in the planting area of Mt. Bukhan for ecological restoration. This has enabled the youth to increase their awareness about environmental protection, and to take part in preserving the natural environment. Furthermore, the group played contributed to enhancing the visual appeal of communities by conducting environmental cleanup activities at the Han River.
Global CSR to Improve Learning Environment
The outreach of KT&G Welfare Foundation’s public services extends beyond Korea, offering assistance to individuals across the globe. In particular, the Foundation helps the future generation to grow their dreams in a better learning environment by improving education environment for children in developing countries under poor learning conditions. As of 2023, the Foundation is implementing the learning environment improvement projects for two school facilities in Vietnam and Indonesia. The Foundation is supporting Nguyen Thanh Elementary School in Vietnam with school building renovation and auxiliary facility improvement, such as rest rooms. In Indonesia, the Foundation is constructing new school buildings for Ananda Elementary and Secondary School, and when the construction is complete, the Foundation plans to provide necessary learning material and equipment.
Major Achievements in 2022
Support for children from low-income households
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Number of
beneficiaries16,149 persons
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Support amount
KRW 4.8 billion
Support to low-income households
(quarantine, heating expenses, etc.)
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Number of
beneficiaries17,740 persons
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Support amount
KRW 3.13 billion
Vehicle support for social welfare centers 1)
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Number of vehicles
supported2,100units
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Support amount
KRW 20.6 billion
Global CSR to improve learning environment
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Support amount
KRW 0.59 billion
University students’ volunteering activities
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Affiliated
volunteering clubs50
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Number of
participants470 persons
¹⁾ Cumulative basis
KT&G Scholarship Foundation
Shaping a better tomorrow by answering future generations’ questions about learning through sharing
Overview of KT&G Scholarship Foundation
KT&G Scholarship Foundation
SangSang Scholarship Program
Through the SangSang Scholarship Program, KT&G Scholarship Foundation selects and supports students of the underprivileged group every year who have excellent academic abilities even though their economic conditions are challenging. Furthermore, the Foundation employs a “total care approach” that entails sustained scholarship provisions for the chosen students, extending from middle and high school through university, unless disqualification criteria are met. The Foundation grants SangSang Scholarship of KRW 1 million for each middle school student, KRW 2 million for high school students, and KRW 3 million for college students every year. In 2022, the Foundation granted scholarship to a total of 1,497 students with excellent academic performance.
Specialized Scholarship Program
On-demand Scholarship Program
In addition to the regular SangSang Scholarship Program, KT&G Scholarship Foundation runs a on-demand scholarship program aimed at assisting adolescents facing educational marginalization as a result of social challenges. The Foundation also donated KRW 180 million to the Korean Red Cross for safety education support projects in order to help the youth obtain a proper sense of safety. The donation will be used in 2023 for youth safety education, distribution of teaching aids, and first aid contests among the youth at the national level.
Culture & Art Scholarship Program
In 2016, the Foundation launched the Culture & Arts Scholarship Program through which it identifies individuals displaying exceptional talent in the domains of arts and sports and bestows them with scholarships. Among the beneficiaries of this support, pianist Yunchan Lim won the world-renowned classical music competition “Van Cliburn International Piano Competition” in 2022 as the youngest ever winner. In 2017, pianist Lim was chosen as a scholarship recipient of KT&G Scholarship Foundation, and he was granted scholarships until 2019 to enhance his artistic abilities and further. The Foundation also granted KRW 10 million to him to root for his dream as a pianist. Since 2021, the Foundation has been concentrating on cultivating a people of excellent talent in ballet to implement the project more efficiently. The Foundation also runs a “master class”, a dance education program in which that ballet dancers and choreographers provide professional coaching guidance and showcase performance opportunities to selected talents for more systematic talent development.
Major Achievements in 2022
SangSang Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
1,497 persons
(483 middle school,
796 high school, 218 college students) -
Support amount
KRW 2,850 million
(KRW 480 million for middle school,
KRW 1,770 million for high school,
KRW 600 million for college students)
On-demand Scholarship Program
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Support amount
KRW 200 million
Culture and Art Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
KRW 62 persons
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Support amount
KRW 300 million
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For Talent-training Scholarship Program
In 2022, the Foundation launched a new scholarship program aimed at fostering outstanding talents in the fields of social innovation and science and technology. In the field of social innovation, the Foundation held an idea contest to create social values by presenting solutions to social problems for college students and provided scholarships to a total of 59 students from the final 21 teams and incubation training for social innovation startups. In the field of science and technology, the Foundation selected 25 Korean and eight foreign KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) researchers in their masters and doctoral courses to foster science talents.
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Restart Scholarship Program
Since 2016, KT&G Scholarship Foundation has been operating the Restart Scholarship Program designed to provide academic assistance to adolescents with commendable lifestyles, aiding in their social reintegration during their time in juvenile detention centers or upon their departure from such facilities. In collaboration with the Korea Juvenile Protection Association, a public institution under the Ministry of Justice, the Foundation identifies recipients and offers educational expenses. This partnership aims to empower adolescents at risk in their journey towards self-reliance, enabling them to discover and realize their dream. In 2022, the Foundation supported a total of 87 adolescents in detention centers, through tuition for college freshmen, living expenses for middle and high school students, qualification examination fees, and technical training expenses.
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New Start Scholarship Project
In 2022, KT&G Scholarship Foundation launched the New Start Scholarship Project to grant scholarships to runaway adolescents who left their homes due to a lack of protection and support within their domestic environment. These youth are often placed in a blind spot of welfare system because it is difficult to receive protection from institutional authority. In response, the Foundation selected 100 runaway adolescents upon the recommendation of related agencies, such as the Korea Youth Shelter Association, and provided scholarships worth KRW 200 million, so that they can continue to study in a stable learning environment.
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Digital Literacy Scholarship Project
KT&G Scholarship Foundation has been providing IT learning material and equipment to elementary school students since 2021 to support digital literacy education in order to narrow the gap in digital education by creating a stable online learning environment. In 2022, the Foundation contributed to the establishment of an online learning environment by providing tablet PCs to 106 elementary school students at local children’s centers and social welfare institutions across the country. The Foundation also provided digital literacy education with 24 college student volunteers playing their role as mentors so that beneficiary students can quickly utilize the infrastructure.
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Global Scholarship Program
This is a global project that has been implemented for overseas students since 2018. In 2022, the Foundation held a startup contest in two countries, Indonesia and Turkey, and granted scholarships to 383 college students selected based on the recommendation of local institutions.
Major Achievements in 2022
For Talent-training Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
59 persons
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Support amount
KRW 100 million
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Number of recipients
33 persons
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Support amount
KRW 100 million
Restart Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
87 persons
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Support amount
KRW 100 million
New Start Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
100 persons
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Support amount
KRW 100 million
Digital Literacy Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
130 persons
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Support amount
KRW 200 million
Global Scholarship Program
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Number of recipients
383 persons
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Support amount
KRW 190 million