How Amazon delivers smiles in Singapore

Despite its challenges, 2020 was a year of learning, reflection, and coming together. As we adapted plans to serve more customers in the safety of their homes, we also sought measures to actively help those among us who have been more impacted by the pandemic than others. More than ever, we rapidly expanded our community initiatives in Singapore to help healthcare workers, migrant workers, the elderly, low-income families, and underprivileged children.

To assist those most vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19, we worked closely with 20 non-profit organisations (NPOs) to donate essentials including 50,000 face masks and 10,000 bottles of hand sanitisers. We furthered our support with over SGD 380,000 in monetary donations through this year, helping over 143,000 elderly, children, and low-income families purchase groceries, soap wash, and other necessities.

By working with organisations such as Care for the Elderly Foundation, Children’s Wishing Well, The Food Bank Singapore, Home Nursing Foundation, Kampung Senang Charity & Education Foundation, Migrant Workers’ Centre, and the Singapore Red Cross, we were able to get the much-needed products, services, and support to the people who need them most.

Additionally, we launched the COVID-19 Priority Service for the Elderly on Amazon.sg, enabling customers who are 60 years and above easier access to grocery essentials and top selling grocery items.

As we entered the circuit breaker period to curb the spread of the virus, most Singaporeans were required to stay home and limit day to day activities. Inadvertently, this also meant fewer volunteers and donations, and limited the reach of NPOs, affecting their beneficiaries’ access to daily staples.

In response, we leveraged our robust Amazon Flex delivery network to deliver 10,000 food packages for The Food Bank Singapore between May and June 2020. While The Food Bank Singapore provided, prepared, and packaged meals and grocery essentials like rice, pasta, and canned goods, Amazon Flex delivery partners collected the food packages and made “no-contact” deliveries directly to the doorsteps of homebound recipients.

With The Food Bank Singapore, we were able to provide thousands of meals and grocery staples to homebound Singaporeans amidst Singapore’s circuit breaker period.

We are humbled by the support shown by Singaporeans for local NPOs and their causes with the Amazon x Retail for Good wishlist initiative over the past year.

The wishlist initiative creates an avenue for partner NPOs to list the specific items along with the quantities they need so shoppers in Singapore can directly donate to their favourite causes in a fuss-free and transparent way, anytime.

As of today, the wishlist initiative has grown to include 11 NPOs across Singapore, namely: Arc Children’s Centre, Blessings in a Bag, Children’s Wishing Well, Club Rainbow (Singapore), The Food Bank Singapore, New Hope Community Services, The Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf), SHINE Children and Youth Services, Singapore Children’s Society, Singapore Red Cross, and SOSD.

Thanks to our shoppers, our partner NPOs in Singapore have received over 700 items to support more than 1,500 beneficiaries through the year in collaboration with Amazon Singapore. These included staples such as Bee Hoon, Canned Soup, Mosquito Repellers, and notebooks, which have gone towards supporting children, underprivileged families, and animals.

“Gifting made easy, thanks to Amazon Singapore! You can gift the Arc children an AWESOME reason to smile this season by fulfilling a Christmas wish.” – Geraldine Lee, Co-founder and Centre Manager, Arc Children’s Centre

“It is very costly to run a children’s home like Sunbeam Place @ Children’s Society. As such, every little bit of donation from Amazon and everyone goes a long way in having a direct impact on the children and youth whom we care for at the Home.” – Cayden Woo, Deputy Director/Head of Home Operations, Sunbeam Place @ Children’s Society

“Through participation in the Amazon x Retail for Good Wishlist campaign, The Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf) has benefited in several ways including being able to reach out to the masses to share our cause and services and more importantly, to secure products for our clients and operational usage. This will in term help the association to reduce expenses and we can then divert these savings towards our work and support programmes as funding and donation remain a challenge in the current economic climate. We would like to express a very big thank you to Amazon for setting up this initiative and we look forward to a successful and fruitful partnership with Amazon." – Vinnce Wu, Senior Manager, Fund Development (Corporate Affairs), The Singapore Association for the Deaf

To round off the year with a festive cheer, we have joined forces with local actor and musician Nathan Hartono to raise awareness for the Amazon x Retail for Good wishlist initiative and Amazon Playmakers.

Through our official toys and books testers, the children at Children’s Wishing Well, otherwise known as the Amazon Playmakers, we encouraged shoppers to purchase items on the charity’s holiday gift guides. For every order over S$50 comprising of items from the Children’s Wishing Well gift guides, Amazon Singapore donated S$5, totaling up to S$20,000.

As part of the Amazon Playmakers initiative, we have donated hundreds of toys and books and S$20,000 to Children’s Wishing Well to raise funds for underprivileged kids.

It is heartening to see that the most purchased items from the Children’s Wishing Well gift guides included the Learning Resources Fraction Tower Cubes Equivalency set and Educational Construction Engineering Building Block Learning Set.

While 2020 will be ending soon, our community efforts are here for the long-term and we are grateful for the opportunities to collaborate with many local NPOs to help communities across Singapore.

Amazon continues to support over one thousand NPOs around the world by donating millions of the items they need to help their communities and, deliver much-needed smiles along the way with our shoppers. A small step and our support will go a long way in helping improve the lives of those around us and we remain committed to nurturing the communities we live, work, and play in.

Customers can continue giving by shopping for good through an NPO's wishlist: amazon.sg/npowishlist and follow @Amazon.sg on Instagram for more information.