Our Mission

We are helping to eliminate global poverty and increase empathy by bridging the gap between people with resources and those who need them.

In a practical sense we:
1) offer simulations to help people step into the shoes of people facing global challenges, like poverty, war and HIV. Over 190,000 people have taken part, including some at World Economic Forum.

2) support organizations that help those in poverty access jobs with reliable incomes. We support over 62 fair trade producers at present in our Global Handicrafts market.

3) operate a warehouse and distribution service where individuals and organizations in Hong Kong can donate high quality surplus goods to those in need. Approx. 50% of our goods are distributed locally and 50% are distributed internationally.

4) offer a platform where people and companies from anywhere in the world can partner with our network of charities to distribute goods to where they are needed. In 2018 people in over 54 nations were impacted by our work.

Our journey so far

We are the charity that never meant to become a charity. Initially the founders of Crossroads wanted to offer their professional skills to charitable organizations that needed them. Our journey into goods distribution and poverty alleviation, began in 1995, when we received a request for help. Floods in northern China had devastated the countryside and left 2 million people without anything. We packaged up and sent off 19 boxes of textiles in what we thought would be a one off event.

Needless to say it wasn’t. No one was more surprised than us at how things grew from there.

Fast forward to 2018, when we:
1. shipped over 699,000 kgs of surplus goods to people in need,
2. delivered simulations to more than 15,000 people and
3. provided assistance worth more than $72 million Hong Kong dollars.

And we are still growing. Last year there was a 61% increase in the amount of the amount of assistance provided through our online global operations.

Our biggest achievement

There have been so many achievements, but what we are really excited about are the Good City Apps. These apps will make it faster and easier for goods donations to travel from donors to beneficiaries in Hong Kong. Importantly the Good City App for Charities will help social workers to make even more impact for their clients.

Why you should donate your skills to us

You are in safe hands.

We are volunteers ourselves. We know how to treat volunteers well and how use the talents of individual volunteers to make an outsized impact. Last year our core team of only 70 volunteers coordinated over 79,000 hours of volunteering from other members of the Hong Kong community.