The Community Chest (ComChest) kicked off its annual fund-raising drive on Wednesday by announcing another record fund-raising target of $85.9 million for this year.

This goal is up from the $72.3 million it aimed to raise last year, and $55.7 million the year before.

This year's fund-raising drive will benefit an additional 16 social service programmes run by Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) under the ComChest umbrella. A large portion of the newly funded programmes cater to children and youths.

ComChest, which was founded in 1983, aims to support a total of 83 VWOs and over 300,000 beneficiaries this year.