South Korea’s petroleum and refinery company Hyundai Oilbank has been actively promoting a culture of philanthropy through its “1% Nanum Foundation,” which is funded through a portion of the employees’ monthly salary, the firm said Thursday.

The foundation, which was established in 2011, has been serving as a means for more than 95 percent of the firm’s employees and executives to donate a portion or 1 percent of their salary for charitable work.
 

Nanum means “sharing” in Korean.

The foundation was able to raise about 11.2 billion won ($9.4 million) in the last seven years and has been expanding the scope of its charitable projects.

The “1% Nanum Lunch Room” is one its most stable projects, which selects senior welfare centers across the nation to provide them with an annual meal plan of 50 million won. The center must accommodate more than 300 daily visitors in the age range of over 65, in order to be selected for the aid.

It also provides an annual 400 million won worth of heating oil for low-income families during winter, while building educational facilities and infrastructure for overseas students in developing countries. It has so far built schools and libraries in Vietnam and Nepal.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)