Community wellness

Supporting communities to live healthier lives and increase lifetime financial security.

We are focused on investing in community programs that improve health and financial outcomes in the countries where we operate. Our partnerships supporting type 2 diabetes prevention, improved access to health care, and increasing financial literacy allow us to translate our Purpose into meaningful impact for communities around the world.

Our approach

Ensuring wellness and financial opportunities are accessible to everyone is important to Sun Life. Through focused philanthropic investments, we can help bridge gaps and contribute to stronger, healthier and more financially resilient communities. By focusing on the needs of underserved communities, we can create impact in the space in which we operate and help deliver on our Purpose.

Sun Life has a long-standing commitment to community health and wellness. Guided by our Purpose, we invest in initiatives and partnerships that encourage physical activity and promote healthy lifestyle choices.

For example, in partnership with global sport for change foundation Beyond Sport, the Hoops + Health program encourages active and healthy lifestyles among young people across Asia through basketball. The program improves access to physical activity, deepens engagement with local communities, coaches and Sun Life employees and inspires young people to lead more active lifestyles through free, regular basketball sessions.

Diabetes is a global epidemic that is estimated to affect 1.3 billion people by 20501. That’s why Sun Life has committed to helping slow the advance of diabetes and its related complications. We're increasing access to the products, solutions, and resources people need to prevent type 2 diabetes, support remission and live healthier lives.

Since we announced our commitment in 2012, we have contributed $64.9 million to diabetes programs and organizations across our markets for diabetes awareness and prevention. Examples of our support include the Sun Life Diabetes Prevention and Remission Clinic with the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation in Canada, the Sun Life Health Access Heroes Program and #SunLifeDunk4Diabetes in the U.S., and the Hoops + Health program in our markets across Asia.

In addition to our focus on diabetes awareness and prevention, Sun Life is also deeply committed to improving mental health and well-being, and in particular, supporting those underserved communities who are often disproportionately affected by mental health challenges. We recognize the importance of investing in mental health support and improving access to mental health care. Our employees, our Clients and the communities we support all benefit from these investments.

Brighter Financial Futures is a regional philanthropy program in Asia created in partnership with the NGO, Aflatoun International to improve financial literacy among local and foreign domestic workers across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. The program focuses on providing access to financial education through a digital interactive toolkit, engaging facilitators with appropriate training and empowering domestic workers in their financial journey by organizing free in-person workshops. The partnership agreement and donation were finalized in 2025 with program activities set to begin in January 2026.This program is part of Sun Life Asia’s sustainability ambition to empower members of the sandwich generation – people supporting both their children and aging parents, grandparents or other elderly relatives – with knowledge and solutions to achieve lasting financial well-being.

Sun Life employees and advisors generously volunteer, donate to, and participate in causes that they are passionate about. These include initiatives that contribute to the health and well-being of communities.

Sun Life supports employees’ community work, tailored to locally relevant health causes within our markets. In North America and Ireland, for example, our You Give We Give program provides donation matching when employees contribute their time or money to registered charitable organizations.

Learn more about our employee giving program in our annual Public Accountability Statement.

We require that all charitable donations and philanthropic spending are reported to our Donations Committee and go through our donations approval framework. The Executive team and the Governance Committee of the Board of Directors review this reporting annually. Refer to our Sustainability Report for more details on the initiatives we support.

Goal

Donate $75 million to causes that support underserved groups2,3 by 2030

In progress - $33.1 million donated (FY2)

2025 Highlights

  • Total corporate giving4 $29.6 million.
  • Committed to the fight against diabetes across our markets since 2012 including $7.0 million in 2025 $64.9 million.
  • Total number of people impacted through Sun Life-funded programming across our markets 182,964.
  • 87% of survey respondents who participated in Sun Life-sponsored community programs believe they’re living healthier lives as a result of their involvement.

Learn more about our progress and performance in our 2025 Sustainability Report.

Recognition

Singapore Community Chest Awards

For the 3rd consecutive year, Sun Life Singapore was recognized at the Singapore Community Chest Awards. In 2025, we received the Charity Platinum Award following a Charity Gold Award in 2024. The award recognizes companies with an unwavering dedication to creating sustainable social impact with Community Chest.

Indonesia Corporate Sustainability Initiatives Award

Indonesia Corporate Sustainability Initiatives Award 2025 - (Editor Assessment) for Employee Volunteering Hoops+Health Program from SWA Magazine at the Indonesia Corporate Sustainability Initiatives Award. This recognition highlights the company’s commitment to sustainability through employee-led programs that champion health, well-being, and community development, reinforcing Sun Life’s Purpose of helping Indonesians achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives.

More resources

Explore more sustainability topics

Sustainability topics

We’re focused on taking action on 16 priority sustainability topics that our stakeholders identify as most important and that we believe have the biggest impact on our business.

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Employee well-being

When employees feel supported, we can maintain high performance, deliver excellent service to Clients and strengthen the resilience of our company.

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1 The Lancet. “Global, regional, and national burden of diabetes from 1990 to 2021, with projections of prevalence to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021”. 2023.

2 Includes Asia Joint Ventures (Malaysia and India).

3 Underserved groups are groups of people that have been historically excluded from or deprioritized in the financial industry, including underinsured or uninsured populations. Underserved groups will differ across countries but generally include low-income individuals, the emerging middle-class in developing economies, people with chronic health issues and disabilities, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, underrepresented ethnicities, religious groups, immigrants, and those living in rural communities.

4 Corporate giving amounts reflect giving towards registered charities and non-profit organizations. Includes MFS Investment Management, asset management affiliates (BGO and Crescent) and Dialogue.