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CFS Receives National Award – COVID-19 Resilience Certificate

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Home Resources News CFS Receives National Award – COVID-19 Resilience Certificate

News

CFS Receives National Award – COVID-19 Resilience Certificate

John Doe

CFS has been awarded the COVID-19 Resilience Certificate, which recognises the contributions of organisations that played a vital role in addressing the challenges posed by COVID-19. Our CEO, Catherine Loh, received the award at the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) Family National Day COVID-19 Investiture on October 10, 2023.

How We Pooled Resources for Singapore

As COVID-19 cases began to rise in February 2020, a member of the CFS board was deeply disturbed by reports of mistreatment towards healthcare workers. Anticipating the imminent health and economic challenges that lay ahead, CFS quickly recognised that action was needed.

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“On February 11, 2020, we launched a Community Impact Fund which we named the “Sayang Sayang Fund”,” said Catherine Loh, CEO. “We felt this was the best and fastest way to respond to emerging needs as the crisis unfolded. It provided an easy way for donors to support those in need while CFS worked with sector partners to determine the type of support each community needed.”

The amount of support that poured in was heartening. We attained our initial target of $500,000 in just 10 days, and ultimately received $9.7 million from over 5,000 donors.

Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to collaborate with charities, ministries and social service agencies to deliver urgent assistance to those in need.

Making a Positive Impact on Affected Communities

In response to rapidly shifting circumstances, CFS acted through a wide array of initiatives and programmes, disbursing $9.7 million to aid 401,000 beneficiaries and 276 community organisations between 2020 to 2023. Here’s a glimpse into our efforts:

Healthcare Workers: Our initial action was to lift the spirits of nurses, doctors and ancillary healthcare workers by providing taxi vouchers and care packages sponsored by donations from the public and transport companies, ComfortDelGro, Gojek and Grab.

Elderly: When social distancing measures were mandated, the Sayang Sayang Fund (SSF) provided funds to several charity programmes to ensure the well-being of the elderly. These included educating them on infection control, reducing loneliness among elderly living alone, and ensuring low-income seniors had access to food despite disruptions in the supply chain.

Students: During school closure and home-based learning, students on financial assistance lost access to subsidised school meals. In partnership with the Ministry of Education, the SSF supplemented their allowances to ensure they continued to receive proper nutrition.

Migrant Workers: During the circuit breaker period, the SSF distributed mobile phone top-ups to migrant workers in lockdown who had insufficient balances in their accounts, so they could stay in contact with their families.

Rough Sleepers: Funds were disbursed to AMKFSC Community Services, Good News Community Services, Methodist Welfare Services, and New Hope Community Services to establish more shelters and assist in relocating rough sleepers to safe accommodations.

Learn more about the Sayang Sayang Fund.

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John Doe

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”。

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, AGEING WELL, AWARDS, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, COMMUNITY IMPACT FUND, DIRECT AID, DONOR STORIES, EDUCATION, FAMILIES, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, NEWS, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, PROMOTING HEALTHCARE, SAYANG SAYANG FUND, SENIORS, YOUTH

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Opinion

How Family Offices Could Shape Philanthropy

John Doe

Singapore has a long history of family philanthropy. The first family foundations were established after World War II and they donated generously to alleviate poverty, care for the vulnerable and build schools and hospitals. Today, there are over 400 foundations and trusts registered with the Commissioner of Charities but families that institutionalized big-ticket giving early on – such as the Lee Foundation and the Lien Foundation – continue to dominate philanthropic giving in Singapore.

Family offices are entities which typically manage assets for or on behalf of a family. And Singapore – well-regulated, transparent and politically stable – is rapidly becoming the region’s preferred choice for family offices. In 2020 alone, approximately 200 single family offices were set up here, doubling the total count. As wealth grows, charitable giving is likely to keep climbing.

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These high-net-worth families have the potential to shake up philanthropy in Singapore. Traditionally, the Asian family office was an extension of the family business, with a laser-sharp focus on the bottomline. “However, as founders age and younger successors take over, we expect to see greater value placed on sustainable and responsible investing as well as on strategic philanthropy,” says our CEO Catherine Loh.

Research firm Wealth-X estimates that $1.9 trillion worth of wealth in Asia will be passed on to the next generation in the coming decade. For many heirs, giving back is emerging as an integral part of doing business. For them, philanthropic activities are an optimal way to build and sustain a family’s legacy, strengthen family cohesion and better engage family members.

But here’s where it gets interesting. “Family offices have the power to shake up traditional philanthropy as they tend to be more agile and responsive compared to large foundations or corporate foundations, which are answerable to multiple stakeholders and layers of decision makers. Secondly, family businesses tend to be built by entrepreneurs and disruptors, making them more open to new ways of doing things,” says Catherine.

What this means is that the new wave of family-driven philanthropy could fund untested, possibly radical new approaches to problems. It could find innovative ways of harnessing capital for social impact. It could move away from cheque book charity to a more engaged approach which could lean towards social enterprises or private-public initiatives.

However, while most family offices across the globe are engaged in some form of giving back, only 41% of them have a philanthropic strategy in place, notes the Milken Institute. Few family offices have the in-house expertise to evaluate nonprofits, deploy philanthropic dollars optimally, or monitor and measure impact.

“At CFS, we believe giving should be thoughtfully planned and driven by evidence-based insights,” says Catherine. As a cause-neutral philanthropy advisor, CFS offers unparalleled access to over 400 charities in Singapore, across a diverse range of sectors. We conduct due diligence to ensure the giving is accountable and creating a social impact.

For family offices, a cost-effective and flexible way to embark on philanthropy is to set up a donor-advised fund (DAF). Since 2008, CFS has set up close to 200 DAFs: of these, almost half have been for families. We pool donor funds for investment management and with over $90 million in assets at any one time, smaller individual funds can reap the economies of scale that large foundations enjoy. Beyond this, as the country’s largest convener of philanthropic activities, we mobilise donor capital through collaborations and collective models to scale up impact and generate more empowering solutions.

If you would like to find out more about how CFS can help you achieve your giving goals, please click here.

References:

June Lee (January 2019) Exploring Family Philanthropy in Singapore – Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy, National University of Singapore https://wings.issuelab.org/resources/34346/34346.pdf
EDB Singapore (February 2022) How Singapore is Becoming Asia’s Family Office Hub https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/business-insights/insights/how-singapore-is-becoming-asia-s-family-office-hub.html
Richard Newell (March 2022) New study sees Singapore as top family office hub – Asian Investor https://www.asianinvestor.net/article/new-study-sees-singapore-as-top-family-office-hub/476226
Milken Institute (June 2021) Philanthropy in a Family Office https://milkeninstitute.org/article/philanthropy-family-office

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, AGEING WELL, AWARDS, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, COMMUNITY IMPACT FUND, DIRECT AID, DONOR STORIES, EDUCATION, FAMILIES, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, NEWS, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, PROMOTING HEALTHCARE, SAYANG SAYANG FUND, SENIORS, YOUTH

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News

The New Age Parents: Interview With Leading Foundation Teacher Award Winners Jenny Tan And Chen Yit Toun

John Doe

One has been an early childhood educator for over a decade, while the other works with children with special needs. TNAP speaks to two early childhood educators on the biggest misconception people have about their jobs and what inspires them. Read more.

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Events

Colabs: doing more for persons with disabilities

John Doe

As persons with disabilities reach age 18 and exit the school system, they face new life challenges, including living their desired life and gaining access to care and support. With a keen eye on identifying opportunities to improve the lives of these individuals, we kicked off the Colabs Disability series which focused on engagement pathways and employment through catalysing cross-sector collaboration.

As part of the series, participants were recently invited to the MINDS’ Idea Employment Development Centre to understand what a sheltered employment workshop in Singapore would look like. Made up of a diverse group, including social enterprises, corporates, philanthropic institutions, government agencies and non-profits, the group bonded over a common desire to learn and do more for persons with disabilities.

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The Funding Network (TFN)

The group took part in various work stations at MINDS, where they interacted and worked alongside their clients. On a daily basis, clients were engaged in a wide range of activities, from seeding, retail, craft and kitchen work, to the packing of edible gifts, bottled water, and disposable earphones.

Next, participants gathered to share their aspirations for persons with disabilities, and their ideas on how the current model of sheltered employment could be improved. For many in the room, it was an eye-opening experience and a great chance to explore opportunities to contribute and collaborate.

Within the context of the sheltered workshop, companies and philanthropists can:

Create greater variety in jobs in workshops, or increase the number of jobs available, by connecting sheltered workshops with potential employers to explore and implement job re-design matched to the abilities of persons with disabilities, or encouraging companies to outsource certain tasks to persons with disabilities (e.g. event decoration, gift preparation, logistics). Much of this can be enabled by education and outreach to potential partners.

Provide a variety of social activities outside of work tasks in sheltered employment workshops, through partnerships with existing non-profits.

Improve the financial sustainability of running sheltered workshops by funding wages or subsidies, providing pro-bono services or skill-based volunteering to sheltered workshops in the marketing of existing products such as bottled water, food and gifts.

Companies and philanthropists interested in understanding how to work together with MINDS can contact the Idea Employment Development Centre to explore possibilities.

If you’re interested in what can be done to support persons with disabilities and their caregivers, the DesignSingapore Council has published an ethnographic study documenting how persons with disabilities live, work and interact with society, along with an illustrated overview of services supporting persons with disabilities.

Some suggestions for collaborative solutions – based on the collective feedback of over 80 participants in the series – are outlined in the Colabs publication ‘A Call for Collaborative Giving: Bridging the Divide for Persons with Disabilities’ which can be downloaded here.

Related Topics For You: ACCESSING QUALITY EDUCATION, AGEING WELL, AWARDS, CHARITY STORIES, CHILDREN, COMMUNITY IMPACT FUND, DIRECT AID, DONOR STORIES, EDUCATION, FAMILIES, HEALTH, INCLUSIVITY & INTEGRATION, MENTAL WELLBEING, NEWS, PARTNERSHIP STORIES, PROMOTING HEALTHCARE, SAYANG SAYANG FUND, SENIORS, YOUTH

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Stories Of Impact

LEAD Academy – Empowering youths to lead and influence

John Doe

The LEAD Academy was set up in 2014 as a collaboration between CampVision, UBS Singapore and the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) to impact marginalised youths in neighbourhood schools.

LEAD provides a platform that partners youths with professional volunteers to develop self-leadership abilities and cultivate effective communication skills. The aim is to empower youths to be an effective leader of their peers and a positive influence on others. This unique programme puts youths on a shared journey of equals guided by executive leadership coaches who create an engaging and transformational learning experience for them and their mentors.

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Through a series of structured facilitated sessions by the coaches, youths and volunteers learn to own their personal feelings and manage their individual confidence physiology. They also learn verbal and non-verbal communication skills and how to engage with other adult volunteers. Both youths and volunteers set personal goals – relating to leadership and communication – that need to be achieved when they graduate in six months’ time. At every session, they meet in small groups to hold one another accountable for their actions.

During the journey, youths have been observed to increasingly gain confidence in themselves. They take on opportunities to lead games, speak in front of their peers and practise small talk with adult strangers. The youths also interact and engage with different working professional volunteers who represent a broad range of professions including banking, sales, legal, marketing, technology, HR and the military.

“CFS has been instrumental in facilitating the partnership between CampVision and UBS. We would not have been able to achieve the impact with LEAD without the support of CFS. They have also been helpful in helping us to better understand the youth landscape so we can focus our efforts on the relevant youth population,” said Yeo Suan Wei, Co-founder of CampVision.

LEAD is an affirming, safe and empowering community of youths and professionals who find the courage to be vulnerable in their efforts to be better individuals. The connections that are built through the LEAD journey broaden the youths’ exposure and their world view. These connections also contribute towards the building of social capital between two groups of people who may otherwise not cross paths and be personally impacted by each other. LEAD aims to continue its impactful run by engaging and empowering 70 youths and 70 volunteers each year.

Photos: CampVision