Stories Of Impact
International Women’s Forum: From seeding bursaries to expanding horizons for young women
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Stories Of Impact

Stories Of Impact

International Women’s Forum: From seeding bursaries to expanding horizons for young women

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Grit. Confidence. Passion. When it comes to long-term success, these qualities matter.

For Chen Si, an awardee of the International Women’s Forum Singapore (IWF) Education Grant, her pursuit to become a psychologist was driven by a personal conviction. “Two of my close friends almost lost their lives to depression. I’m convinced mental health is a serious issue and I hope to be there for those who struggle in the dark,” says Chen.

Started in 2014 and managed by the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS), the IWF Education Fund has been supporting young women from financially-challenged backgrounds during their tertiary education. To date, the IWF Education Grant has disbursed over $150,000 to 60 young women from 12 local tertiary institutions.

But beyond affirming academic excellence, the grant has also aimed to nurture women of ‘steel’ – individuals with the character and commitment to achieve in their chosen field. Applicants for the education grant are personally screened by IWF, whose panel includes some of Singapore’s top women business leaders, to recognise young women with the potential to excel and give back to society.

For Chen Si, receiving the IWF Education grant has been a great encouragement. “It affirms the work I do and spurs me to achieve excellence in what I believe in”, she says.

With CFS’s facilitation, the IWF Education Grant has in recent years expanded to more tertiary institutions, including the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) and LASALLE College of the Arts, thus supporting women who wish to pursue alternative career paths.

The IWF Education Grant has also grown to include a mentorship programme, in collaboration with the Young Women’s Leadership Connection (YWLC). All recipients of the IWF Education Grant are eligible to apply for the IWF-YWLC Mentorship programme, which opens doors for these young women to benefit from connections to successful women mentors, whether it’s building confidence, valuable industry contacts, or a role model they can learn from.

Celeste Marie Jacob, previously an opera student at NAFA, and who now teaches voice at a local music school, received the IWF Education Grant and took part in the IWF-YWLC Mentorship Programme. She was delighted to find that her mentor, despite coming from a business background, helped her to address her career concerns as an arts practitioner.

“It was important for me to think outside my job scope and have interactions with people from different backgrounds,” says Celeste. “As an opera student, my mentor opened my eyes to see new possibilities and opportunities to use my skills.” As a result of the mentorship, Celeste began emceeing for concerts and productions, which has benefited her through the additional income.

For Chen Si, the mentorship programme has offered support in a time of transition to work life, “My mentor reminded me to stay rooted in my values and beliefs and strive for excellence with confidence. With this confidence, I am now better able to face the uncertainties of the future and take things in my stride.”

Goh Swee Chen, President of the IWF Grant Committee Singapore said, “Over the last five years, it has been a joy to see the IWF Education Grant blossom and become a catalyst for personal and professional growth for these talented young women. Empowering women is not merely about supporting them financially, but exposing them to opportunities, networks and career options as they make this critical transition from student to working life. CFS’s facilitation has played a pivotal role, helping to establish a strong foundation that has enabled us to develop collaborations and increase our impact over time.”

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The competition was organised by City Harvest Community Services Association and received support from FUN! Fund, a Community Impact Fund jointly established by the Community Foundation of Singapore and the Agency for Integrated Care, with the aim of addressing social isolation among the elderly.

Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of National Development Mr Tan Kiat How attended the event. He encouraged the elderly to stay physically and mentally well, as well as urging them to participate in community activities and enjoy their golden years together.

Learn more about FUN! Fund at https://www.cf.org.sg/fun-fund/.

 

The programme provides the children with a non-threatening platform to connect with peers and have positive conversations. In addition, it exposes them to different people who can assist to broaden their perspectives.

L.S., a volunteer with the Reading Odyssey programme @ Spooner Road

中心“常胜将军”胡锦盛:比赛限时反应要快

现年92岁的胡锦盛是最年长的参赛者。自2017年退休后,他几乎每天都到活跃乐龄中心报到,从此爱上了玩拉密,每次可玩上三个小时,在中心是“常胜将军”。

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Opinion

Teach a man to fish — and pay for the rod too

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We have all heard the popular proverb, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Everyone agrees, but few pay for the fishing rod.

Successful businesses invest in skills, people and infrastructure. In the same vein, donors need to fund these areas for charities to deliver social impact.

The challenge for charities
Donors often prefer funding programmes that support individual recipients directly over charitable overhead* expenses. This leads to negotiations for lower overhead costs or unwillingness to support programmes with high overhead costs. Many charities cave in to such expectations for fear of losing a potential funder.

Understandably, all donors want to achieve maximum impact for their gift, but reducing overheads is only good up to a point where the sustainability of the charity is not affected. All organisations incur manpower, training, rental and administrative costs at the very least. If charities are pressured to keep overhead costs unsustainably low, they will operate at sub-par levels and enter a vicious cycle of starvation.

At the Community Foundation of Singapore, we have learnt that when charities receive limited funding to cover overhead, service delivery is affected because charities have to divert resources to fundraise for the shortfall.

Honest conversations
There is growing recognition that efficiency is not determined by low overhead costs alone. Depending on the type of services or programmes, overhead can vary greatly across charities. For instance, a charity that distributes food rations via volunteers will have far lower overhead than a nursing home that hires skilled staff round-the-clock to provide care.

CFS works with its charity partners to present the true programme costs needed for social impact. With that in mind, we also work with donors to map out sustainable and impactful ways of giving.

We need to continue to have such conversations about true costs; the funding of overhead is just the tip of the iceberg in our search for sustainable social solutions.

Joyce Teo
Deputy CEO
Community Foundation of Singapore

*Overhead typically includes manpower, training, rental and administrative expenses.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

The competition was organised by City Harvest Community Services Association and received support from FUN! Fund, a Community Impact Fund jointly established by the Community Foundation of Singapore and the Agency for Integrated Care, with the aim of addressing social isolation among the elderly.

Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of National Development Mr Tan Kiat How attended the event. He encouraged the elderly to stay physically and mentally well, as well as urging them to participate in community activities and enjoy their golden years together.

Learn more about FUN! Fund at https://www.cf.org.sg/fun-fund/.

 

The programme provides the children with a non-threatening platform to connect with peers and have positive conversations. In addition, it exposes them to different people who can assist to broaden their perspectives.

L.S., a volunteer with the Reading Odyssey programme @ Spooner Road

中心“常胜将军”胡锦盛:比赛限时反应要快

现年92岁的胡锦盛是最年长的参赛者。自2017年退休后,他几乎每天都到活跃乐龄中心报到,从此爱上了玩拉密,每次可玩上三个小时,在中心是“常胜将军”。

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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Opinion

A turning point for community philanthropy

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John Doe
Woman delivering a speech at a podium, inspiring the audience with her words.

In the life of any organisation, there are special moments that will be remembered as being turning points.

Last month, CFS held our Philanthropy Forum 2019, where we were extremely privileged to have keynote speaker Ms Eileen Heisman share with us several crucial moments in her career that fueled the growth of National Philanthropic Trust (NPT). As its President and CEO, Eileen has been responsible for steering NPT to raising an incredible US$13 billion in charitable contributions over the last 22 years.

Some of you might know Eileen was a founding member of CFS’s international advisory committee 10 years ago. As we come full circle, Eileen was once again in town to encourage, challenge and inspire us with a vision of what CFS can achieve.

Stepping into a new phase of growing philanthropy in Singapore, I believe this time will be remembered as a turning point in CFS’s history, in more ways than one.

We know that community philanthropy is poised for exponential growth in the next decade. The past year has been a phenomenal year for CFS– in financial year 2018, CFS achieved a year-on-year, four-fold increase in donations amounting to S$35 million. A big thank you to our donors, community partners and collaborators for helping to make this possible.

But what else is needed to create lasting social change? How can we grow from smaller, ad hoc and fragmented giving to bigger, better and smarter giving? Donor advised funds are the way to go as they enable smarter, better giving by helping donors give more thought to the purpose of their charitable dollars.

To take CFS into the future, CFS also welcomed our new Chairman Christine Ong on 1 April, taking over the reins from Laurence Lien. I am deeply honoured to have worked closely with Laurence to build a strong foundation for CFS and confident Christine’s extensive experience in banking and finance, corporate social responsibility and the community will usher CFS into a new phase of growth.

It may be another 10 or 20 years before we look back again at this moment, but I’m sure it will be one we will all be proud of.

Catherine Loh
CEO
Community Foundation of Singapore

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

The competition was organised by City Harvest Community Services Association and received support from FUN! Fund, a Community Impact Fund jointly established by the Community Foundation of Singapore and the Agency for Integrated Care, with the aim of addressing social isolation among the elderly.

Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of National Development Mr Tan Kiat How attended the event. He encouraged the elderly to stay physically and mentally well, as well as urging them to participate in community activities and enjoy their golden years together.

Learn more about FUN! Fund at https://www.cf.org.sg/fun-fund/.

 

The programme provides the children with a non-threatening platform to connect with peers and have positive conversations. In addition, it exposes them to different people who can assist to broaden their perspectives.

L.S., a volunteer with the Reading Odyssey programme @ Spooner Road

中心“常胜将军”胡锦盛:比赛限时反应要快

现年92岁的胡锦盛是最年长的参赛者。自2017年退休后,他几乎每天都到活跃乐龄中心报到,从此爱上了玩拉密,每次可玩上三个小时,在中心是“常胜将军”。

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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Stories Of Impact

#MyGivingJourney x Stefanie Yuen Thio: Maximising impact with her purpose-driven philanthropy 

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#MyGivingJourney is a series where CFS features extraordinary women in Singapore and their efforts in philanthropy. This story features Stefanie Yuen Thio, Joint Managing Partner, TSMP Law Corporation and Board of Director at CFS. 

When COVID-19 first hit in early 2020, Stefanie Yuen Thio was appalled that healthcare workers had trouble getting a taxi or a Grab. It didn’t seem fair: front liners in our fight against the pandemic were shunned because people were afraid, they would transmit the virus. So Stefanie decided to do something about it.  

Through her family’s #GivingBack Foundation, she donated $20,000 to start the Sayang Sayang Fund (SSF). One of the fund’s first initiatives was to give out taxi vouchers to nurses and hospital staff. SSF has since ballooned to over $9.6 million thanks to the generosity of Singaporeans and financially helped close to 360,000 people hard hit by the pandemic. But the outreach that remains closest to Stefanie’s heart is helping weary essential workers get a ride home.   

SSF is one of several community impact funds under the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS), designed to tackle unmet needs on the ground. Stefanie’s #GivingBack Foundation, meanwhile, is one of a growing number of personal foundations that CFS has facilitated. “CFS provides a guiding hand to people starting on their journey of giving, or those who want to be more purposeful and effective in their donations,” notes Stefanie, who is joint managing partner at TSMP Law Corporation.  

Stefanie chose CFS as it is a cause-neutral, one-stop philanthropy advisory platform. It can set up funds quickly and cost-effectively. It works with over 400 registered charities in Singapore and can enlighten and match donors with the causes they are most passionate about — as well as highlight charities that have the greatest needs. Moreover, it conducts due diligence, which builds trust in giving. As Stefanie sees it, “CFS helps donors to structure their giving for maximum impact and sustainability.”  

The #GivingBack Foundation has centred on children, the elderly and foreign workers. Among the charities, it has funded is Smile Asia, which provides free cleft operations to disadvantaged children in the region. And while Stefanie donates a tenth of her income to charity and the church, she believes writing a cheque is not the only way to contribute. 

She makes an effort to volunteer in person and has involved her son Jonathan from an early age. When he was in primary school, she brought him along on all of her law firm’s charity events. This included learning to cook with intellectually disabled kids and a day out at the Outward Bound School with boys from Boys’ Town. When he was 15, Jonathan accompanied her on a trip to Uzbekistan to serve on a Smile Asia trip. “Now that he’s older, we involve him in discussions on how to allocate funds from the foundation,” she adds. 

Exposing the next generation to philanthropy early will help institutionalise giving, making it less ad hoc and more strategic, she believes. “I would like giving to be a default. So that the question of “can I afford to give?” or “why should I donate when I already pay taxes?” is no longer a legitimate response,” she says.  

She is already seeing this in Singapore. “It’s in the young people. They may not yet have built up a hefty bank balance but they give their time and with their hearts. I see it in older folks who want to leave some of their assets to charity when they pass because they are thinking about their legacy. And for the others, they want to invest in a better world for their children.”   

Begin your own journey of giving with CFS. Read more about the #MyGivingJourney series here. 

This article was written by Sunita Sue Leng, a former financial analyst and journalist, who believes that the written word can be a force for good. She hopes to someday write something worth plagiarising. 

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