Sustainability > Social Responsibility Activities > Welfare Foundation

KT&G Welfare Foundation

Realizing mutual prosperity of corporations and society through continuous and sincere social welfare projects

KT&G Welfare Foundation is striving to find ways of sharing happiness for both corporations and society by carrying out advanced welfare activities. The Foundation provides cultural and economic support to the low-income group in need of social consideration, such as children, seniors, and persons with disabilities, and is making efforts to improve welfare institution infrastructure by providing vehicles. Furthermore, it is implementing global educational environment improvement projects, thereby expanding its scope of social value creation.

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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” 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. In addition, KT&G Welfare Foundation is promoting various welfare projects to bring hope to marginalized groups, such as medical expense support for the medically underserved and cultural experience support for single-parent families.

Vehicle Support for Social Welfare Centers

KT&G Welfare Foundation is striving to build welfare infrastructure that can help local communities, and as part of the efforts, it 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 2,200 compact cars as of 2003. 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 2023, it formed an environmental volunteer group, which comprised of 100 college students 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 public welfare projects of the KT&G Welfare Foundation have expanded beyond Korea to the global stage. Particularly, we have been improving the educational environment for children in developing countries with poor educational conditions, helping future generations to nurture their dreams in better educational settings. In 2023, we assisted in improving the educational environments of schools in Vietnam and Indonesia. At Dong Phu Primary School in Vietnam, we remodeled the school buildings and improved the facilities, including the restrooms. For Ananda Elementary School in Indonesia, we completed new school building constructions and provided educational equipment.

Major Achievements in 2023

Support for children from low-income households

Number of beneficiaries

17,120persons
Support amount

KRW 3.22billion

Support for the vulnerable social group

Number of beneficiaries

KRW 16,600persons
Support amount

KRW 1.04billion

Vehicle support for social welfare centers¹⁾

Number of vehicles supported

2,200units
Support amount

KRW 22.1billion

Global CSR to improve learning environment

Support amount

KRW 1.34billion

University students’ volunteering activities

Affiliated volunteering clubs

50
Number of participants

470persons

* As of the end of 2023
1) Cumulative basis

KT&G Scholarship Foundation

Shaping a better tomorrow by answering future generations’ questions about learning through sharing

KT&G Scholarship Foundation offers diverse scholarship programs across various domains, ensuring that the aspirations for education of all are realized. The Foundation grants scholarship to middle, high school, and college students from low-income households to provide them with opportunities to study through SangSang Scholarship Program, one of its leading projects. The Foundation is also dedicated to extending educational opportunities to students in unique learning conditions, including those pursuing cultural and artistic disciplines, young applicants, and students enrolled in overseas local universities, through the Specialized Scholarship Program. All these represent KT&G Scholarship Foundation’s desire to help talents unlock their full potential regardless of the environment they are in.

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Overview of KT&G Scholarship Foundation

Major Schoarship Programs

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 2023, we granted scholarship to a total of 1,695 students.

Specialized Scholarship Program

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 three countries – Indonesia, Türkiye, and Kazakhstan – granted scholarships to 487 college students selected based on the recommendation of local institutions.

Education Support Scholarship Program

In 2023, KT&G Scholarship Foundation launched the “Education Support Scholarship Program” to support balanced growth for “small schools” in culturally underserved areas. This includes visiting education programs such as viewing art through VR devices and experiencing cultural and arts programs at KT&G SangSang Madang Nonsan. By providing each participating school with two VR devices, we strive to offer a better educational environment and cultural benefits to elementary students in small schools. The program started in 2023 targeting small schools in the Chungnam area (Nonsan, Gumsan, Buyeo) and plans to gradually expand to more regions in the future.

On-demand/Urgent Scholarship Program

In addition to the regular SangSang Scholarship Program, KT&G Scholarship Foundation runs an ondemand scholarship program aimed at assisting adolescents facing educational marginalization as a result of social challenges. In 2023, we executed approximately KRW 200 million in project funds for the construction of libraries in juvenile detention centers in Busan and Jeonju, scholarships for cadets at the Korean National Police University, and educational support for youth with migrant backgrounds.

Talent-training Scholarship Program

This program aims to nurture outstanding talents in the fields of social innovation and science and technology at universities. In the field of social innovation, the Foundation held an idea contest to create social values by presenting solutions to social problems for university students and provided scholarships to a total of 65 students from the final 22 teams and incubation training for social innovation startups. In the field of science and technology, we selected and provided scholarship to 26 Korean and seven foreign KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) researchers in their masters and doctoral courses to foster science talents.

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. We also granted KRW 10 million to him to root for his dream as a pianist even after winning the award. Since 2021, the Foundation has been concentrating on cultivating a people of excellent talent in ballet to implement the project more efficiently. In addition to providing scholarships to selected students, we operate the “Ballet Master Class,” an educational program to foster talent more systematically, which offers professional coaching and guidance from both domestic and overseas top-tier dancers and choreographers, as well as opportunities for showcase performances. Moreover, we provide scholarships through the “Global Artist Scholarship Program” to selected students who are winners of international competitions designated by the Foundation, thereby helping them continue to grow and establish a foundation for their activities as global talents.

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 2023, we supported a total of 97 adolescents in detention centers, through tuition for college freshmen, living expenses for middle and high school students, qualification examination fees, and technical training expenses.

Connecting Hope Scholarship Program

KT&G Scholarship Foundation runs a scholarship program to provide a stable foundation for the selfreliance of “out-of-home youth.” The term “out-of-home youth” refers to at-risk adolescents who had to run away from home due to a lack of protection and support, and they often fall into welfare blind spots as they are difficult to protect within the institutional framework. In response, KT&G Scholarship Foundation collaborates with the Beautiful Foundation to provide a stable learning environment and career development for at-risk youth. In 2023, we provided educational expenses to a total of 44 scholarship recipients and supported the improvement of learning spaces within mid-to long-term youth shelters.