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Set up during the covid-19 pandemic, Sayang Sayang Fund raised $9.7m over three years, supporting over 400,000 lives
应疫情设立 Sayang Sayang基金三年筹970万元惠及40万人
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Set up during the covid-19 pandemic, Sayang Sayang Fund raised $9.7m over three years, supporting over 400,000 lives
应疫情设立 Sayang Sayang基金三年筹970万元惠及40万人

Established in 2020 as an emergency response fund during the covid-19 pandemic, the Sayang Sayang Fund (SSF) raised $9,700,000 in three years, supporting over 276 organisations and touching over 401,000 lives.

互助团体Mum’s Collective主办康乐与交流活动,旨在为低收入家庭的母亲建立支援网络,去年获得Sayang Sayang基金的部分资助。(中南社区家庭服务中心提供)

Established in 2020 as an emergency response fund during the covid-19 pandemic, the Sayang Sayang Fund (SSF) raised $9,700,000 in three years, supporting over 276 organisations and touching over 401,000 lives. 

According to the Sayang Sayang Fund report published on CFS’s website, the fund disbursed $6,542,000 (67% of donations) in 2020, $2,060,000 (21% of donations) in between 2021-2022, and $1,11,900 (12% of donations) in 2023. 

CFS CEO Catherine Loh shared that when the pandemic started, CFS recognised the need to provide a platform to pool together resources to help those that required support, including frontline healthcare workers, students from lower-income families, rough sleepers, and migrant workers. Through collaboration with community care organisations and various agencies, CFS was able to better understand the needs of the people and allocate assistance more efficiently.

Read our Sayang Sayang Fund report.

因应冠病疫情推出的Sayang Sayang基金过去三年筹集的约970万元,支持了276家社会服务、医疗和教育机构的援助项目,惠及约40万人。

Sayang Sayang基金由新加坡社区基金会于2020年设立,已全数拨款支持各援助项目。根据社区基金会在网上发布的Sayang Sayang基金总结报告,2020年拨出的基金款项占67%,达654万2000元;2021年至2022年拨出的基金占21%,达206万元;其余的12%在2023年拨出,达111万9000元。

2020年,基金主要用来支持前线医疗人员,以及低收入家庭、年长者和客工等有需要群体应对冠病疫情。2021年至2022年,社区基金会扩大基金的使用范围,资助慈善机构提升数码能力,适应新常态。

2023年,基金着重于加强社会在后疫情时代的韧性,例如资助有关露宿街头者、最低收入标准等社会研究项目,以及社区保健计划。

新加坡社区基金会总裁罗佩仪指出,冠病疫情暴发时,基金会意识到须集合各方的专长,并提供一个平台汇集善款来帮助有需要的群体,因此设立这个新基金。通过与各社服机构的协作,基金会能更好地了解民众的需求,更有效率地拨款协助。

Sayang Sayang基金2020年2月11日正式推介时,最初的筹款目标为50万元,其间获得企业和民众的踊跃支持,同年6月就筹得690万元。

基金共资助11项计划,这些计划包括为前线医疗人员提供德士礼券和礼包、为低收入家庭的孩子提供经济援助、为街友提供住宿和经济援助、为客工填补电话卡储值等。

当中,CommunityGrants@Work计划的拨款最多,达205万7000元,旨在帮助慈善机构应付疫情期间增加的开销,并协助机构转变运作方式,推动数码化进程。其次,是获得192万2000元的SeniorsOK@Home计划,这项计划资助可惠及弱势年长者的项目,照顾乐龄的福祉与身心健康。


基金疫后侧重加强社会支援

步入2023年的后期阶段,基金侧重加强社会支援,支持人民坚韧地走出疫情。民间团体Mum’s Collective去年获得基金的部分资助。这个互助团体由居住在红山租赁组屋的妇女组成。活动由受惠者倡导并策划,中南社区家庭服务中心为团体提供所需的协助。

Mum’s Collective旨在为低收入家庭的母亲提供一个交流平台,吐露彼此面对的问题,并一起参与烘焙等休闲活动。参与者诺希达雅(33岁)说,她通过互助团体获得力量,明白自己不是唯一面对生活困难的。有了这个支援网络,她如今能更好地处理压力,也变得更加自信。

信用:联合早报©新报业媒体有限公司。复制需要许可

This article was originally published in Zaobao here. Source: Zaobao © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

Stories Of Impact

Leading youths-at-risk through a pandemic

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For charities working with youths-at-risk, engaging youths in positive activities, developing trusted relationships with social workers, and structured programmes are vital keys to success. Charities have traditionally relied heavily on face-to-face or group engagements to deliver these activities…

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National Legacy Giving initiative to inspire philanthropic culture in Singapore

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The three-year national Legacy Giving Initiative aims to make planned gifts more common and frequent as another avenue for Singaporeans to make their giving meaningful.

Private philanthropy has an important role to play in providing much needed support for the community. The Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) kicks off this initiative today with “A Greater Gift” campaign, to boost awareness and drive conversations for legacy giving and its value to the community.

According to a Social Pulse Survey 1, there is a disconnect between awareness and action when it comes to legacy giving. While the majority of respondents (83%) flagged awareness on what legacy giving is, only 33 per cent is considering legacy as a means of giving, but only 3 per cent would take action.

CFS’ “A Greater Gift’’ campaign, which is digitally-led, will run over the next three months, inviting individuals, professional advisors, and charities to consider ways a legacy gift can provide meaningful support and leave a lasting impact. As part of the campaign, CFS has partnered with ambassadors to highlight the causes they support, capturing what inspired their interests in a particular cause and the legacy they wish to leave.

Going forward, CFS will work with professional advisors by providing them with resources to help them ignite conversations with clients. We will support charities, especially the smaller ones, which may not be equipped to engage legacy donors.

Legacy gifts can be broadly defined as planned, future donations to charities. While up to the individual, the gift can be cash, marketable securities, insurance payouts, CPF monies and marketable assets. Individuals looking to support a cause over a period of years can establish a donor-advised fund (DAF) with CFS, to manage grant distributions

CFS was selected to lead the Legacy Giving Initiative with its strong track record and deep experience in advisory and grant making. As a neutral entity not attached to a specific cause, CFS complements the philanthropy landscape by bridging donor intentions to causes and charities.

Mr. Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law said, “Legacy giving enables Singaporeans to leave a lasting and meaningful gift to society. We hope that more Singaporeans will consider planning their donations for the future, as it can help support our charities, and spread the spirit of SG Cares across generations. Thank you to the Community Foundation of Singapore for leading the Legacy Giving Initiative, and encouraging Singaporeans to contribute to a more caring and inclusive society.”

CFS Brand Ambassadors

  • Dr. Audrey Looi and Dr. Ang Beng Ti – An eye specialist and neurosurgeon respectively, this husband and wife duo have made it their mission to equip children with low-vision with skills and resources. After personally experiencing a gap in supporting their son who has a degenerative eye disorder, they committed to supporting the visually impaired via iC2 PrepHouse.
  • Nadia Ahmad Samdin – A lawyer whose own personal journey of receiving financial assistance in school has led her to championing support for at-risk youth and their families, who will particularly benefit from having steady care.
  • Dipa Swaminathan – A lawyer and TEDx speaker, her passion to improve the welfare of migrant workers here has led her to set up social initiative ItsRainingRaincoats in 2015, which has especially increased society’s kindness and compassion for this community at the height of the pandemic.
  • Hian Goh – An entrepreneur and venture capitalist who wants to contribute to the future of society by identifying the next big game-changers and creating opportunities for innovators to reach their full potential.
  • Kris Tan – A philanthropist dedicated to empowering the arts in Singapore. She set up a charitable fund with CFS, Kris Foundation, in 2009 to support young classical musicians in Singapore and will expand it to the wider arts community.

About Legacy Giving

The legacy giving campaign is part of a three-year Legacy Giving Initiative (LGI). This campaign will highlight that everyone can contribute to the community through a legacy gift, either through CFS or directly to a charity. The LGI will build awareness by helping individuals understand the ways to give and the value of planned gifts to charity. It will also support professional advisors working with clients and charities engaging their donors in philanthropy conversations. CFS is well placed to drive this initiative.

As Singapore’s only community foundation, it is a neutral philanthropy resource with experience in grantmaking advisory. Visit legacygiving.sg

1The Social Pulse Survey was started in 2016 as an on-going survey carried out by The Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) to gather Singaporeans’ opinions and involvement with regard to matters such as sports, arts, culture and community living. Each month, about 500 interviews are conducted face-to-face with randomly selected households, and residents aged 15 and over across Singapore. The survey sample is representative of Singapore’s resident population.

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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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News

All about legacy giving

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LEGACY giving is not the prerogative of the ultra-wealthy alone. That is the mindset the Community Foundation of Singapore (CFS) wants to inculcate with its latest movement – the Legacy Giving Initiative (LGI) – which was launched by a campaign called A Greater Gift last November.

According to a Social Pulse survey, while the majority of respondents (83 per cent) flagged awareness on what legacy giving is, only 33 per cent considered legacy as a means of giving, and just 3 per cent indicated they would take action.

Legacy gifts can be broadly defined as planned, future donations to charities, which include cash, marketable securities, insurance payouts, and CPF monies. Those looking to support a cause over a period of years can establish a donor-advised fund (DAF) with organisations such as CFS to manage grant distributions. Now, about six months after the Legacy Giving Initiative was launched, CFS is shifting into the knowledge phase of its initiative.

CFS chairperson Christine Ong said the foundation “will drive this phase by engaging with prospects and partners, conducting targeted research to gather data insights, and building formal alliances with multipliers”.

“The digitally-led campaign, A Greater Gift, has introduced people from different walks in life in Singapore to legacy giving,” she said.

CFS’ microsite on legacy giving has reached out to three key audiences – individuals, professional advisers and charities – receiving over 33,000 page views from 19,000 visitors since its launch and offering information on legacy giving.

Radio spots were also featured in the campaign, reaching over 1.3 million people.

Gregory Vijayendran, the president of The Law Society of Singapore, said that for the gift-giver, legacy giving has four advantages.

First, it allows the donor to give their own voice to their unique personality, values and beliefs for a cherished cause. Secondly, it creates a meaningful memorial to perpetuate the legacy of the donor, he said. Thirdly, it positively impacts subsequent generations through sustained giving. And, lastly, he said it deepens and lengthens the connection between the charity and the donor.

Ms Ong is keen to build on the momentum gained so far. She said that donors’ profiles with CFS have evolved over the last 12 years since it was set up.

“The younger generation is more interested to identify problems, or be more involved with understanding the issues and identifying the cause before they decide to set up a fund,” she said.

CFS is looking into ways to measure the social impact of the research programme.

“We hope to see how this can be done on a more standardised national level. We want donors to be more focused on the impact of their giving and, at the same time, allow charities to upscale, to make them better stewards to their donors,” said Ms Ong.

“CFS will be sharing knowledge on legacy giving, to empower and enable more individuals to plan and make legacy gifts. In addition, we will work with professional advisers by providing them with resources to help them ignite conversations with clients, and share its knowledge on legacy giving, as well as the potential of DAF, to empower and enable more individuals to plan and make legacy gifts.”

To date, CFS has cultivated over 400 professional advisers and charity representatives, through online events, seeding a network of conversation starters and multipliers for legacy giving.

Ms Ong said the aim is to send the broader message that “everyone can give”.

“Giving is not about the amount and you can start at any stage of your life. For those who can set up their own DAF, they can make a pledge – we will take pledges of S$200,000 and create funds for them,” she said.

“Regardless of one’s background and lifestyle, everyone can play a part in the shared ambition for a fairer and more sustainable Singapore.”

This article was originally published in The Business Times here. Source: The Business Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction

To find out more about Legacy Giving, kindly visit our Legacy Giving website or contact us here.

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Events

Colabs launches Seniors series to tackle the question ‘How can our seniors live more happily in the community?’

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A gathering of individuals seated at tables within a room, engaged in conversation and activities.

In October 2018, 55 representatives from the government, corporate and non-profit sectors together with a group of senior citizens, gathered to deliberate the answers to one question: How can our seniors live more happily in the community? 

For everyone in the room, the inaugural session of Seniors Colabs marked the start of a new collaborative journey, with participants expected to meet regularly over a six-month period to share knowledge, build insights and find practical ways to help seniors age well. As the third and final run of a three-part Colabs series, Seniors Colabs brings people with a common desire to tackle issues around growing old in Singapore.

The Lien Foundation kicked off the session with an overview of the senior care landscape. Research showed that while Singaporeans were ageing from a position of strength in terms of health and financial outcomes, higher life expectancies and declining fertility rates will mean fewer caregivers for a fast-ageing population. Given this, families will have to increasingly depend on the community for support and care in the long run.

Moving away from the broader perspective, participants at the second session in November took a human-centered approach to understand the needs of the elderly. Insights were shared by the National Council of Social Services’ “Understanding the Quality of Life for Seniors” – a study that surveyed over 1,000 seniors living in Singapore on their perceived well-being.

Results showed that in line with global trends, seniors in Singapore have a significantly lower quality of life compared with the general population. The elderly in Singapore were most keen to see improvements in their physical and psychological well-being; as well as an increase in their level of independence.

During discussions that followed, Colabs participants acknowledged that seniors in Singapore are a diverse group. Thus, having the right mindsets and assumptions determined whether services would be relevant. Most participants took a practical stance and spoke about issues around social support, caregiving, healthcare, finance and mobility. “Empathy alone does not pay the bills,” summed up a Colabs participant from a non-profit organisation.

Invigorated by passionate conversations, the Seniors Colabs community closed the year by taking the opportunity to establish connections with like-minded people across sectors.

Colabs is a philanthropic initiative by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre and the Community Foundation of Singapore. It drives collaboration by bringing together the public, private and social sectors to tackle complex social issues. It enables philanthropists, businesses, non-profits and sector experts to collectively build insights and co-create solutions for lasting change.

The next session of Seniors Colabs will take place in January 2019. If you’re interested in Colabs, visit here or write to colabs@cf.org.sg.

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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”。

Picture of admin bluecube
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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.

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