It is part of a series of fund-raisers it is organising after regaining its Institution of Public Character (IPC) status, which enables it to grant tax exemptions for donations, last August.

Ren Ci's interim chief executive officer, Dr Wong Yue Sie, said that the events were meant 'to regain the public awareness that Ren Ci is here, and to regain the support for the activities, services and care that Ren Ci provides for our patients'.

The charity also revealed yesterday that it had received a personal donation of an undisclosed sum from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Ren Ci's first event will be a fund-raising dinner held in the new community hospital's auditorium in March. The televised charity show, previously its biggest fund-raising event, took a two-year hiatus because of probes into the alleged irregular activities of Ren Ci's then-chief executive Ming Yi.

Without the televised show, which collected $6 million to $7 million each time, Ren Ci's takings were badly hit. In the first seven months of last year, it collected just $1.1 million compared to $9.3 million that came in over the same period in 2007.

Since November 2007, about 11 per cent of its individual donors have cancelled their monthly donations, leaving 2,500 donors. This shrank its takings from $62,000 then, to $52,000 last month.

To finish building the new community hospital, Ren Ci had to dip into its reserves, 'but this was planned at the beginning when the project was approved', Dr Wong said yesterday. It has used about $2.6 million of its reserves in the last six months, leaving about $26 million in its coffers.

The operating cost of the new hospital will amount to about $28 million, but the Health Ministry is expected to provide some subsidies for patients. In 2007, Ren Ci, which also runs two nursing facilities in Buangkok View and Moulmein and home medical services, received almost $10 million in subsidies.