An Advocate For Volunteerism | Carol Wong, Swire Trust Go-Givers of 2022

Together with Time Auction, the Swire Trust Go-Givers Program encourages skilled volunteers for Swire Trust NGO partners from 2020 to 2022. 10 outstanding volunteers will be selected annually as the “Swire Trust Go-Givers of the Year” with special rewards & recognition. Meet our 10 Go-Givers of 2022!

Meet Carol

A recent Hong Kong survey found that 70% of people want to volunteer, but only 26% actually did. Undoubtedly, it is already outstanding in making it to the proactive quarter, but Carol Wong has gone a step further: she has sought to turn that quarter into a full one.

Volunteering as a Lifestyle Choice

Carol has been part of the community of active volunteers since high school. From regularly volunteering for ImpactHK’s Kindness Walks, rescuing food waste, and cleaning up beaches to translating texts and publishing books — Her volunteer work has varied in nature. It extends across a wide range of causes.

Being such an open-minded individual, Carol has also taken on many positions in her professional career path, including app development, event planning, and heritage preservation. When asked to describe herself, Carol joked, “I’m like a salad platter where you could find a combo of different things inside!”

With the wide range of knowledge gained and skills developed throughout these years, she applied them to her latest volunteer commitment at Time Auction.

Being an Advocate for Volunteerism

As the Partnership Lead for Time Auction, Carol’s primary goal is to solicit appealing experiences for volunteers to redeem. Specifically, her duties include reaching out to potential organizations, developing strategic business partnerships, and coordinating efficiently with reward donors. Ultimately, her work contributes to the Incentives Program, where volunteer hours could be used to redeem unique learning, cultural or wellness experiences.

Since February 2022, Carol has volunteered 100 hours to Time Auction - and her work is still ongoing! “We were so lucky to recruit Carol through the platform,” praised Ivy Wong, the Senior Program Manager at Time Auction. “In just 6 months, she has onboarded 16 new reward sponsors, which donated 141 spots of experiences and incentivized 1,670 volunteer hours at nonprofits. She even went the extra mile to help us onboard more corporate partners, volunteer consultants, and NGO partners!”

So what motivated Carol to work so enthusiastically in this position?

“I think social issues could not be solved by the government or a few individuals alone. Instead, we must rely on the power of NGOs, I really want to get more people to volunteer.”

Undoubtedly, Time Auction is the perfect NGO for Carol. As a charity that promotes volunteerism, Time Auction matches volunteers with different NGOs, whether it is for hands-on or skill-based tasks. Furthermore, Time Auction incentivizes volunteering by offering the redemption of inspiring experiences, such as learning to cook from Michelin-starred chefs and dining with successful entrepreneurs. For Carol, it is a golden opportunity to encourage more people to volunteer. Better yet, she is being a volunteer for volunteerism!

Words of Advice

What would such an experienced volunteer say to those still looking from the sidelines? For students or fresh graduates, she thinks they could utilize the practical experience from volunteering to try different types of work and see what they enjoy doing. This could help them narrow down their future career paths and simultaneously build a competitive portfolio. While some people may consider students to be inexperienced, Carol thinks that young people are actually uniquely valuable as they can contribute modern skills - like navigating the world of social media - to NGOs that were founded much earlier.

For established professionals like herself, Carol believes that volunteering offers various benefits. It can provide a chance to test and sharpen your skills before using them in the workplace. It can allow you to develop new interests and learn new things. It can become a venue for you to meet new friends from different walks of life. It can generate satisfaction as you make a positive change in the world. It can draw a complete picture of our society and broaden your horizons.

Perhaps another point on this long list of pros is being nominated as one of Swire Trust Go-Givers of the Year. Surprisingly, Carol doesn’t consider this benefit as a personal one. “While I often encourage people to volunteer, their habits cannot be formed just because they heard me say it a couple of times,” Carol shared. “Receiving this award makes me a good example to show people that volunteering can produce actual impact and be widely recognized.” For Carol, this is not merely an award for herself as a volunteer; more importantly, it is a milestone for volunteerism.

Thank you so much to Carol for contributing 100 volunteer hours & beyond at Time Auction!

To see details of the Swire Trust Go-Givers Program and support their NGO partners, head over to Time Auction website.

Written by Margaret Ng, Volunteer Copywriter