2018 marks Singapore Pools' golden jubilee. Over the past 50 years since its inception in 1968, Singapore Pools has been channelling all of its surpluses from its legal betting operations as a not-for-profit organisation, totalling $7.1 billion to fund a wide range of causes in social service, community development, sports, the arts, education and health sector.

In this same spirit of giving, Singapore Pools is continuously looking for ways to engage the community and create meaningful impact with our partners. We started to give back to the community in kind, by volunteering staff time in a structured manner to children and elderly homes under our iShine staff community programme since 2003.

iShine, which stands for "I Shine in Serving from the Heart and In Nurturing Everyone", was launched with the beliefs that having an emotional connection to good causes and a caring heart for the community will strengthen one's positive values; and staff who are committed to doing good will naturally care for the people they serve — our customers. One of the core composition of the iShine spirit is staff volunteerism. For the past 15 years, our staff volunteers have joyfully given their time to help disadvantaged children, bring cheer to frail and needy elderly persons, conserve the environment, as well as organize many meaningful fund-raising activities. Partnerships are also forged with grassroots organisations to reach out to the less privileged, such as delivering of food hampers to the elderly living in rental flats or families with budget constraints.

Besides volunteering their time, our staff volunteers have also been strong supporters of many fund-raising initiatives. These staff volunteers collaborate with our business partners, retailers and other stakeholders in various fund-raising projects to benefit a variety of worthy causes. Since 2007, more than $7.7 million has been raised through the "With-A-Heart" fund-raising series. Some of these includes, but not limited to, Football With A Heart, Concert With A Heart, and Breakfast With A Heart etc.

Some of iShine's adopted charities include Metta Welfare Association, Singapore Environment Council, Society for the Aged Sick, SHINE Children and Youth Services, and Sunbeam Place under the Singapore Children's Society.