Inspire. Unite. Enable.
What do these words have in common?
For many, they evoke empowerment and motivation. But for Caritas Humanitarian Aid & Relief Initiatives Singapore (CHARIS), these three words symbolize the ethos of an organization dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance. However, before finding this identity, CHARIS experienced a period that compelled them to find out what really it is that they, as an organization, stood for.
“As we were going through our strategy meetings, we were reflecting on our mission and our vision and wondering whether there was still relevance given that CHARIS was getting into the second decade of its existence,” recalled Stephen Raj, Chairman of the Board of CHARIS from June 2017 to December 2023. “We were either thinking of refreshing the mission and vision or perhaps replacing it with something else.”
CHARIS wanted to forge a partnership with a team that would address this need. The people behind the organization, however, knew that this would be challenging as not everyone understands the Catholic social mission of uniting people towards answering the call of the poor to help the organization address their needs.
Inspired by visionaries like Chiara Lubich, Consulus set out to offer its services driven by the goal of bringing unity among people and promoting the concept of a universal family.
“I’ve known Lawrence [Chong] for a while and I thought that he had a good background on how the Catholic Church works as well as in the corporate world. I reached out to him [and] we met [other members of] Consulus. I think my board members were quite impressed as well,” Stephen said.
Together, CHARIS and Consulus engaged in an in-depth collaboration utilizing the latter’s expertise, which involves examining and showcasing various ideas to formulate business strategies.
CHARIS Board Strategy Meeting
Stephen explained, “Once we were clear on the words like ‘inspire’, ‘unite’, and ‘enable’, then we started asking ourselves the question of what? What do we need to do so that we achieve these three objectives? And from there, I think it gave us some clarity that we [can now] think very clearly about how we inspire, how [we] unite, [and] how we unite all our member organizations to be more effective than they are.”
He describes the outcome of this process as the ‘North Star’ or guiding light that illuminated the trajectory of CHARIS saying, “I think the previous mission and vision statements were quite generic [and] not too specific on any specific elements. So I think for me, it’s very useful like guardrails or North Stars for me to communicate ‘why do we exist?’ and ‘what do we need to do as CHARIS?’ So, it was very useful to me because now [in] everything that we do, we can go back to these three words.”
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About CHARIS
Launched in 2010, Caritas Humanitarian Aid & Relief Initiatives, Singapore (CHARIS) is the primary organization overseeing overseas humanitarian aid and disaster relief activities for the Archdiocese of Singapore. As an operating member of Caritas Internationalis, CHARIS has played a vital role in supporting relief efforts across Asia and other regions.
About Consulus
Consulus is a global creative change firm serving persons, companies, and cities in their transfiguration for an Economy of Communion. Consulus believes that purpose and unity are essential for innovation and inclusive growth. Since 2004, Consulus has implemented systemic innovation solutions with multidisciplinary business and design capabilities throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. With a presence in 23 nations globally, Consulus believes in shaping an inclusive socio-economic system and is a member of the Economy of Communion (EoC) network.
