Lee Bo-ra, a 39-year-old housewife with three kids in Seoul, volunteered to read tales for children at a community cultural center in her neighborhood every Saturday for about a year.

“I didn’t know that what I was doing was donating my ‘talent’ at the time, because I thought I was simply doing some community service,” said Lee, a professional narrator with a private license for fairy tale reading. “Now I recognize it can be a good way of serving my neighbors with my skill.”

“Serving the people with my talent makes me feel like I care more about them than when I give them material things like money, because I dedicate my time and efforts,” Lee said.

Like Lee, a growing number of Koreans are donating their talents to their communities, setting a new trend of making donations and serving the community.

Those who have intangible talents, like actors, musicians, artists, lawyers, accountants and architects, are taking the lead in the new donation trend.

Talent donation is widely defined as an act of contributing to society through physical activities. Not only individuals and nonprofit organizations, but also some companies are taking part in related projects.

An online community named “Bright Blue Nanum” has about 2,500 members, all of whom are willing to serve their communities by donating their skills, divided into 10 teams. 

The community takes volunteers who can donate their time and efforts to various projects that take place every weekend in the fields of beauty treatment, medical and legal consultation, housing maintenance, cooking, education, wall painting and performing arts.

When the community operator posts a project with a time and venue, for example for a wall painting project, available team members apply to participate.

“The trend of doing community services has changed from offering money to talents,” said Hwang Seung-il, the operator of the online community.

The community members are largely ordinary corporate employees, university students and some professionals like doctors and lawyers, according to Hwang.

“Doctors offer medical consultations for people who suffer from illnesses in accordance with their profession,” he said. “We pursue something that is sustainable, instead of a one-time event.” 

Seog Seong-won, director of nonprofit Korea Talent Donation Corps, said, “Talent donation is to serve the community with what an individual or organization excels in.”

Seog, who is currently running a content production firm, garnered public attention with his new concept of donation as he organized flash mob events aimed at defending the Dokdo islets in February 2012.

“I was thinking about how I could contribute to my country and society, and I thought I should do what I do better than others,” he said. “As a media professional, I decided to create some content that can widely promote that the Dokdo islets belong to Korea by editing the Dokdo song and adding some choreography.”

KTDC is currently recruiting talent donators under 41 categories on its website. As of this month, about 300 people had applied to donate. Applicants can choose categories where their talents belong, ranging from performing arts, education and babysitting to house chores.

The organization’s goal is to recruit around 20,000 donators from various sectors and start officially matching the donators with needed individuals and organizations like orphanages and welfare centers next year.

“We are running the matching service in trial at the moment,” Seog said. “There are a lot more beneficiaries in need of such talents than who are willing to donate. We hope more people join us.”

The talent donation trend is also helping diversify corporate social responsibility activities by large businesses.

Entry-level employees of the Industrial Bank of Korea provide mentoring for students from low-income families seeking careers in the financial sector once a month. They share their know-how on job interviews and help resolve the students’ issues.

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance helps connect amateur artists with professionals by offering a talent-sharing program.

About 50 artist wannabes from universities, including students majoring in fine arts, classical music, photography and dancing, are currently planning performances with professional artists in each sector and to stage the works for free in February next year.

“It is noticeable that companies become more caring about raising young artists by giving them chances to perform for the community,” said a spokeswoman at the nonprofit Korea Mecenat Association.


By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)