The children's charity, started in 2000, gives needy primary schoolers $45 in pocket money each month, while secondary students receive $80. This year, its fund-raising target is $4.4 million, to support more than 8,000 children.

When individual donors like Mr Toh Poh Joo, 33, decide to raise money, their efforts are often original and energetic.

Mr Toh, a polytechnic lecturer and entrepreneur, ran a 'mall marathon' between five shopping malls in March this year, selling towels at each mall and raising $53,000 for the charity.

In June, 13-year-old Annabelle Teo climbed Mount Kinabalu in East Malaysia. Donations from church friends and relatives poured in, and the Secondary 1 student at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School raised more than $10,000.

Family and friends were key to both fund-raisers' projects.

Describing her exhausting hike up South-east Asia's highest peak, Annabelle said, 'I felt like giving up, but I couldn't because I'd be letting down all my donors.'

Two 'aunts' from her church coaxed her, told her jokes and cajoled her all the way up the mountain. Afterwards, Annabelle said she would do it again '70 times over'.

Mr Toh's friends helped man fund-raising booths at each of the malls he visited, while his students designed stickers for donors.

Other individuals who raised money on their own include avid cyclist Han Jok Kwang, who rode 42km along the Eastern Park Connector in June, and ophthalmologist Julian Theng, who donated the proceeds for his book on the eye condition, presbyopia.

The fund's organising chairman, Mr Peter Khoo, said: 'The School Pocket Money Fund has always been the people's fund. We're calling on fellow members of society to look at cutbacks they've made because of the economic crisis, and think of those who can't cut back.'

Smaller businesses and schools have also adopted the School Pocket Money Fund. A loyal band of schools and tertiary institutions lent their support to the charity this year, with school plays, concerts, a fashion show and sales of National Day T-shirts.

Students from the National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University even flew to Thailand and biked home from there to raise $31,000 for the fund.

Other schools which contributed were Raffles Junior College, Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institution, CHIJ Kellock, and Catholic High (Primary).

Action Hair Salon at Paragon Shopping Centre held a charity show, where hairstylists snipped and styled models' hair in the latest fashions. In all, the salon gave about $15,000 to the fund.

Mr Sonnie Tan, a partner in Action Hair Salon, said: 'If every small organisation can put in a little bit of effort, that can go a long way to help.'