(Hong Kong, 7 July 2011) The Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF) is happy to announce that over 376,000 citizens of Hong Kong casted more than one million votes in support of 250 projects that they believe are accretive to their communities. Round 2 of the “Love Ideas, Love HK” programme received enthusiastic support both in number of registered voters and votes.
Mr Li Ka-shing, Chairman of LKSF thanked all the applicants who put their heart and soul into the planning, designing and campaigning for all the creative and caring projects.
“Your participation demonstrated a love and commitment to our community. Hopefully through this voting mechanism, you have widened interest and gained more support for your different missions and causes,” Mr Li said.
The 230 projects voted in by the public reflect the needs and concerns of different communities, covering a wide spectrum of community services, from medical care for diabetic and renal patients, social services for single parents and ethnic minorities, an array of cultural activities to the caring of animals. Projects relating to the education of teenagers, elderly care, social welfare to the disabled and community care received the majority of votes.
As in Round 1, in addition to the HK$34 million awarded to the 230 projects voted in by the public, an extra grant of HK$2.3 million will be awarded to 20 ideas that Mr Li found impressive and moving and has himself voted for.
Table 1: Statistics of elected projects and grant amount
| Round 2 | Round 1 | |||
| No of projects | Grant amount(HK$) | No of projects | Grant amount(HK$) | |
| Voted by public | 230 | $34,404,049 | 169 | $25,858,979 |
| Mr Li’s personal award | 20 | $2,349,536 | 12 | $2,155,401 |
| Total | $36,753,585 | $28,014,380 | ||
Elected projects in this round included a number of smaller scale projects put forward by district branches of large charitable organisations. Mr Cliff Choi, Business Director (Sector Development & Partnership) of Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), said, “I am glad to see a lot of projects from district branches being elected. This reflected the emphasis in local needs is getting more appeal to the public. ‘Love Ideas, Love HK’ helps deepen the development of district projects, especially those that are in need but lack funding support.”
Ms Josephine Lee, Senior Manager, Corporate Venture (Partnership & Alliance) of St James’ Settlement, congratulated the personal applications elected. She said, “Most charity programmes accept organisational applications only, ‘Love Ideas, Love HK’ welcomes individual applications, empowering the individuals and giving them the courage and confidence to serve their community.”
HKCSS and St James’ Settlement continue their support in this round as the consulting organisation and supporting organisation respectively.
Voted-in applicants will be emailed details of grant formalities and following verification, grants will be awarded within one month. A full list of the elected projects is available at www.loveideas.hk.
The voting mechanism of the Round 2 offered both online and telephone access. During the three-week voting session, 376,488 registered voters cast a total of 1,098,134 votes, a big leap over its first round.
Table 2: Voting statistics
| Round 2 | Round 1 | |||
| No. of registered voters | No. of votes | No. of registered voters | No of votes | |
| Online | 135,423 | 620,475 | 74,061 | 210,959 |
| Telephone | 241,065 | 477,659 | NA | NA |
| Total | 376,488 | 1,098,134 | 74,061 | 210,959 |
