By now, you would know that the collaborative programs and initiatives at Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) are mutually beneficial in nature, in the sense that they benefit the beneficiaries as much as the helpers. Another characteristic that makes our initiatives stand out is that they are fun and interactive, bringing people from across sectors together to create positive social impact, whether it is promoting social inclusion, facilitating intercultural understanding, or empowering under-served communities.
A good example of this is our Impact Jam, which connects corporate volunteers with our network of social impact partners and under-resourced entrepreneurs and youth by leveraging the volunteers’ skills and expertise to address organizational or individual challenges. As we have shown in our past Impact Jams, this initiative is also a great talent development and engagement solution for our corporate partners.
Gamifying Direct Business Support for Hong Kong’s Small Businesses
On 30 November, we hosted another successful Small Business City Hunt, which saw 19 Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks volunteers and seven FSI Impact Lab Course interns engaging directly with local small businesses in the vibrant neighborhoods of Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui.
The Small Business City Hunt goes beyond just visiting and engaging with small businesses owned by ethnically diverse individuals. At the briefing session held at Africa Center Hong Kong’s space in Jordan in the morning, Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks volunteers learned that the Small Business City Hunt was designed as a competitive and interactive experience, where they would work in teams to complete various tasks that directly benefitted small businesses. Each task was assigned point values, allowing teams to earn points for their efforts, and the team with the highest total points at the end of the event would win a prize.
Volunteers were then divided into teams based on the types of support they would like to provide to the entrepreneurs: market research, social media, design, and funding. Each team was tasked with completing specific objectives, including:
- Listing a Business on GuideFong Gather essential information about the businesses they visited and list them in FSI’s GuideFong directory, Hong Kong’s first-ever online directory dedicated to ethnically diverse businesses.
- Conducting “Meet the Entrepreneur” Interviews Engage with business owners to capture the stories of their businesses and themselves. The interviews will be published on the GuideFong directory website and GuideFong’s Instagram.
- Micro Business Projects Work on tailored projects to help ethnically diverse entrepreneurs or managers address their respective business challenges.
To make the friendly competition even more exciting for Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks volunteers, we included several checkpoints in the vicinity for them to stop by and complete optional activities to earn bonus points. For example, volunteers could choose to stop by the New Home Association’s Home Centre, which offers support services to disadvantaged and ethnically diverse communities; Bowring Commercial Centre, also known as “Mini-Chungking” among the Nepalese community in Hong Kong; and the Kowloon Mosque. Alternatively, volunteers could choose to leave Google reviews for the businesses they visited and follow them on their social media channels.
While it was evident that the volunteers and the student interns thoroughly enjoyed the Small Business City Hunt, the event also promoted intercultural communication and understanding. Said one Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks volunteer: “For the first time, I had the chance to talk to Hong Kong’s ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in person about their situation in Hong Kong. They enjoyed talking to local people and living in Hong Kong, and they all have an interesting life story to share.”
The sentiment is echoed by another volunteer: “Greatly curated project! I’m honored to have the opportunity to learn about diverse cultures, the community, and small businesses.”
Scrumptious Lunch at Africa Center Hong Kong
Taking a break from the lively actions in the morning, the volunteers and student interns gathered at Africa Center Hong Kong’s space for a delectable Pan-African feast, prepared by Precious Chikambura, a chef at Africa Center Hong Kong.
As Innocent Mutanga, Founder and CEO of Africa Center Hong Kong, introduced event participants to the food, he added: “You can eat it however you want, in any order. In Africa, we are pretty open about how we eat. The only thing we can’t do is to pour soup on the food – that’s taboo. We don’t waste food in Africa, so let’s eat as much as we can!”
It was also here that the volunteers shared the progress of their respective work tasks and collaborative deliverables, including:
- Listing these businesses in the GuideFong directory:
- Uncle’s Centre
- Om Nava Buddha Store
- Mama Munchies HK
- Bagaicha Restaurant & Bar
- Branto Indian Vegetarian Restaurant
- Hello Kitchen
- All volunteer groups conducted the “Meet The Entrepreneur” interview with the owners of Chinese Custom Tailor, Gill Tailor, Bagicha Bar and Restaurant & Bar, My Kitchen (Tibetan Fast Food), and The Jungle, capturing their respective entrepreneurial journeys.
- All volunteer groups engaged in micro business projects to help under-resourced entrepreneurs and managers address different business challenges:
- Chinese Custom Tailor: Volunteers reviewed their marketing materials and made suggestions on language and design improvements.
- Uncle’s Centre: Volunteers created a Google Form for Uncle’s Centre to gauge customer feedback from the students who frequent its halal tuck shop at the Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College. The purpose is to improve and incorporate the student customers’ feedback to revamp the tuck shop’s offerings.
- AK BARBERS Hair Salon Ltd.: Volunteers reviewed their Google Business Profile and Instagram page and made suggestions for enhancements.
- My Kitchen (Tibetan Fast Food): Volunteers researched funding options to assist them with their expansion plans for transitioning from a takeaway outlet to a sit-down restaurant.
- One Stop Car Beauty Services: Volunteers helped them create a price list to improve social media engagement.
Building Camaraderie and Uplifting Under-resourced Entrepreneurs
The event concluded with an announcement of the winners of the day, a fitting recognition for their creativity and hard work.
The sharing session that followed highlighted the profound impact of the event. As the Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks volunteers reflected on their experiences, they also expressed how meaningful it was to connect with entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and learn about their unique stories.
Said Uday Sharma: “It was a good experience and insight into what entrepreneurs are trying to do in Hong Kong, especially when they bring their cultures into it. Anyone who likes Hong Kong for its diversity would love this experience. It’s great to learn how the small businesses survived challenges like the protests and the pandemic.”
“Listening to the story of the business owners was meaningful for us,” said Sam Ko, another volunteer. “It was a good experience to explore the Jordan area, which I haven’t had the chance to look around before.”
“It was also my first time to go deep into the Chungking Mansions,” said Shibo Zhang: “I was very impressed by how dedicated the owners of the shops were in their work. One of the owners said, ‘You need to connect with yourself and do what you truly believe in.’ I find that insightful.”
The volunteers’ support meant a lot to the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs. Said Tirshana Rai of Bagaicha Restaurant & Bar: “It feels good knowing there are people who are actually doing something for small business owners, especially ethnically diverse-owned businesses.”
“The volunteers from Goldman Sachs showed genuine interest in my small business and conducted a very fruitful interview,” said Rustam Khan of Chinese Custom Tailor. “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to engage with corporate volunteers who visit small local businesses. Their support and engagement have been incredibly helpful.”
For FSI’s Impact Lab Course student interns, the Small Business City Hunt was the last collaborative project for the Fall 2024 semester. Said Adriel Heng, a Community Business Support intern: “The collaborative effort of the Goldman Sachs volunteers during the Small Business City Hunt was simply the highlight of the day for me. Despite the volunteers not knowing each other as they came from different departments, they were united by one goal in mind: to explore the city and fulfill all the tasks available at hand to enrich their experience in the culture and diversity in Jordan. It was especially insightful to witness how they dissected the tasks and discussed the most efficient strategy to tackle the problem.”
“During the City Hunt, I was inspired by the entrepreneurs’ enthusiasm in sharing their stories and how the volunteers not only completed the tasks but expressed genuine interest to engage with everyone,” said Hyewon Lee, FSI Communications and Marketing intern. “The whole Impact Lab experience really taught me that ‘community building’ is much deeper than just knowing more people.”
The Small Business City Hunt is another example of FSI’s Impact Jam, effectively fostering connections between corporate volunteers and under-resourced ethnically diverse entrepreneurs to facilitate intercultural communication and understanding in Hong Kong. Through incorporating other FSI initiatives like Project GuideFong, this Impact Jam was successful due to the enthusiasm shown by the volunteers and also the event’s mutually beneficial nature: the entrepreneurs received essential support to enhance the visibility and operations of their businesses, while the volunteers gained invaluable insights about the realities of running a small business and the stories of the entrepreneurs and business managers, who are migrants or descendants of migrants in Hong Kong.
If you share our vision of a truly diverse, inclusive, and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem for Hong Kong, reach out to us at cbs@shared-impact.com to find out how FSI can create bespoke initiatives to leverage your skills, expertise, and corporate philanthropic resources to drive sustained impact!
