Non-profit organisations (NPOs) are doing valuable work to support the needs of Lower-Income Families in Singapore. Funders – whether they’re government funding boards, corporate donors or generous individuals – enable the work that NPOs do, and thus play a similarly important role in uplifting Lower-Income Families.
However, securing funding presents a persistent challenge to NPOs. Governance and reporting requirements, whilst often necessary, sometimes limit NPOs’ ability to deliver on their work for beneficiaries. Compliance sometimes diverts resources away from vital aspects of NPOs’ work, such as programme implementation and operations. This ultimately affects the quality of the support given to Lower-Income Families.
Given these constraints, how can funders explore flexible and creative funding approaches that better drive positive change for Lower-Income Families?
(Source: Image by jcomp on Freepik)
Challenges in the funding space
Let’s begin with a few definitions. For the purposes of this article, we define Lower-Income Families as those who may not qualify for financial support but are susceptible to shocks due to lack of financial resources and support networks.[1] Funders are providers of funds for the support of charitable or non-profit organisations.
In Singapore, funders vary in size and scope. To support initiatives that help them improve Lower-Income Families’ lives, NPOs look to a few key players in the funding space: corporate donors, family foundations such as the Kewal Ramani Foundation (KRF), and grantmakers such as the Tote Board, a statutory board that supports worthy causes in the community.
Funders also collaborate with external partners to enable sustainable impact for their grants. One such instance would be the Future-Ready Society Impact Fund. Organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) from the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), and supported by the Tote Board, the fund is a joint effort between multiple sectors in society to fund solutions that make a future-ready social ecosystem possible.
Despite their close working relationship, NPOs and funders sometimes find themselves at cross-purposes. Smaller NPOs or groundups,[2] for instance, may not have enough resources (in time or training) to navigate funders’ accountability and governance requirements.
“They have to be accountable, but it takes a big chunk of work for [them] to do all this reporting,” explains Sapna Kewalramani Malhotra, Philanthropy Director for KRF. “Small organisations don’t have that luxury.”
“NPOs may find it difficult to get funding when the outcomes of their work are less visible to funders and the community. We want to support them in every way we can, and work with them on a framework to document the tangible impact of what they do.”
Tan Su-Yin, Senior Director (Grants) for the Tote Board
Unfortunately, these reporting requirements tend to be mandatory, especially for corporate funders and statutory boards. “The governance requirements are quite high, by virtue of the fact that the quantum of funding can be very, very large,” explains Tan Su-Yin, Senior Director (Grants) for the Tote Board. “We recently renewed our Tote Board Social Services Fund for five years at S$846 million. It is a large amount and necessitates a very high level of compliance and governance.”
Good governance will always be necessary in the non-profit funding space, given the funds and public interest involved. So how can funders and NPOs explore other ways of funding that better serve Lower-Income Families, without sacrificing oversight?
Flexible funding helps funders and NPOs be more responsive to needs
Funders are increasingly working with NPOs to find solutions to these issues. Some funders are selectively relaxing governance rules, or turning to more flexible funding approaches that expands the impact of their financial support.
For example, KRF grant recipients get greater discretion in allocating funds based on their immediate needs and priorities — “flexibility within boundaries,” as Sapna puts it.
“When we sign on a grant, it’s designated towards [a certain purpose],” she tells us. “If the [NPO] comes to us and says, ‘we’re facing this issue — what if we divert this fund to this place instead? We think that might be the best use of the funds.’ We’ll have a dialogue and decide the best thing to do,” Sapna explains.
“I think it comes back to making personal choices with dignity… [We take an] approach as a funder to never judge and to understand the deeper issue we’re trying to solve.”
Sapna Kewalramani Malhotra, Philanthropy Director, Kewal Ramani Foundation
This flexibility gives the last word to Lower-Income Families and their needs — trusting them to make the right decisions for their welfare, actively listening rather than assuming. “I think it comes back to making personal choices with dignity,” explains Sapna. “[We take an] approach as a funder to not jump to conclusions, and instead to understand the deeper issue we’re trying to solve.
“This is a real example: we give grants for Her Rise Above. [One beneficiary] was considering getting an aircon. Someone without the proper context might consider this unnecessary and withhold the grant. But actually, this lady has a baking business. And if she has an aircon, her chocolate sets better and she can make a lot more products, her business runs better, and she gets more income.”
Giving circles in action
Another concept, the Giving Circles piloted by NVPC and the Future-Ready Society team, represents a more community-focused funding model.
Giving Circles are groups of people that come together to support a Lower-Income Family, providing them with funding as well as other social and informal help. By supporting these families over a period of time, Giving Circles aim to make a lasting difference in the lives of those who are facing challenging times.
Compared to conventional methods of receiving funds or support through NPOs, the Giving Circles concept “democratises philanthropy — anybody can do this, even if you only have a little spare cash,” explains Justin Lee, Head of the Policy Lab at IPS. The concept empowers Lower-Income Families as well: participating families are told very early on “what you give is what you give,” Justin explains. “The [beneficiary] family has full discretion to use it as they please.”
The Giving Circles is just one of a series of pilots run under the auspices of the Future-Ready Society Impact Fund. The Fund is dedicated to promoting innovative social solutions that, as Justin describes, “have embedded within a seed of systemic change”.
For the Tote Board’s Su-Yin, the Giving Circles model points to a future where funding can create a positive impact at the community level: “Our funds can be applied to rally the community [and provide] longer-term support for families in need.”
Trust-based funding improves flexibility and responsiveness
None of these flexible approaches are workable without building trust between all parties. It’s a tough balance to strike: while strict oversight mitigates risk, it also reduces NPOs’ responsiveness to their beneficiaries’ changing needs.
“It all comes down to trust, [to be] able to change your funding [objectives],” explains KRF’s Sapna. “If you’ve done your upfront work of creating a strong relationship with who you’re funding, once that trust is enabled, then flexibility is quite easy.”
We either start with an interesting concept and find a partner to drive it, or we find a partner that’s already doing something on the ground and work out how to make their project more impactful… Intermediaries like us cook those ideas together with partners to make sure that the ideas become strong and interesting.”
Justin Lee, Head of Policy Lab, Institute of Policy Studies
That’s easier said than done for government funding bodies such as the Tote Board: “We’re stewards of public funding,” explains the Tote Board’s Su-Yin. “All of us are committed towards ensuring governance and accountability, even as we try to be flexible and allow our grantees to be autonomous.”
Smaller pilot projects can provide an experimental basis for trust-based funding, where flexibility can supplant regulation to a certain degree. “Within a small controlled pilot, we can take more risks. We need to learn what works and what doesn’t, so we can make things better,” Su-Yin explains.
This risk-management approach gives leeway to NPOs to be flexible with their approach — but still requires NPOs to measure the impact of their efforts, to help funders retain oversight. “Impact measurement is crucial to us,” Su-Yin says. “We need to make sure that projects’ outcomes are evidence-based… When there is a rigorous process to measure impact and outcomes, more funding, more support can be obtained from the private and public sectors.”
Trust-based funding to build a more resilient society
The financial support of funders is essential to the work of NPOs in Singapore. By extension, funders play a key role in supporting NPOs to uplift Lower-Income Families’ standard of living, and promote their equitable access to resources and opportunities.
Singapore’s diverse funding ecosystem is now developing alternative approaches that supplement rules-based oversight with thoughtful, trust-based management that better responds to Lower-Income Families’ changing needs and grants them agency.
By promoting innovative approaches, building trust among stakeholders, and scaling up pilot projects such as Giving Circles, funders can empower communities to help the Lower-Income Families in their midst, without wasted resources or effort.
Giving Circles is brought to you by NVPC, in partnership with MINDS and SHINE Children & Youth Services, and supported by the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, and the Tote Board.
Visit the Giving Circles webpage and find out how you can make a difference in the lives of families in need.
This piece is part of a series of three articles that delves into insights gained from the Lower-Income Families Colabs series run by NVPC from 2022 to 2023.
[1] “Who Are Lower-Income Families?”, National Volunteer And Philanthropy Centre, 2023, https://nvpc.org.sg/colabs-sg/lower-income-families-colabs/who-are-lower-income-families/
[2] “A groundup is a group of individuals who voluntarily come together to carry out a self-organised project or initiative to benefit the community. Groundups are not-for-profit and are not registered organisations.” Groundup Central, “About Us,” NVPC
