SINGAPORE

Corporations provided the majority of Singapore’s million dollar gifts in 2013.

Corporations and corporate foundations were the main source of million dollar donations in 2013, accounting for over three quarters (77%) of the total value.

Higher education was the most popular destination for big donations. Capacity building for social sector organisations (broadly speaking, helping to develop their management and organisational capacity, rather than funding the projects they run) also featured prominently, although the numbers were influenced by one large grant for this purpose.

Donations of a million dollars or more by individuals were relatively few and far between, but this may be because giving continues to be a family affair in Singapore and many individuals choose to give through their family foundations. 

The largest of 2013’s million dollar donations came from a corporation.

The biggest corporate donor over the year was the Tote Board, with a donation of $336m (as well as regulating gaming, the Tote Board channels some of the revenues from gaming into social causes).

The Yong Loo Lin Trust gave the largest private/family foundation gift, with $20m donated to cancer research and education.

The biggest individual donation was $9.7m, nearly 16% of the total value of all individual donations. This was for the establishment of the Margaret Lien Centre for Professional Success at the Nanyang Technological University which will offer training in career development skills. 

Over three quarters of the value of million dollar donations in 2013 came from corporations.

A total of 28 gifts came from corporations and corporate foundations. This amounted to $547m and accounted for 74% of the total number of million dollar donations and 77% of the total value. Foundations and individual donors contributed $104m and $62m respectively, or 14.5% and 8.5% of the total value of million dollar gifts.

Conspicuous among the corporate donors were statutory boards (‘statboards’), which are organisations mandated by the government to perform a particular function on its behalf. Statboards are not part of the formal government structure, and typically have greater autonomy and flexibility than government departments. Statboards provided 72% of the value of the million dollar gifts from corporations and corporate foundations. 

All donors were either domiciled or based in Singapore.

Because Singapore is small, no analysis of the location of donors was undertaken. However, as far as the research was able to ascertain, all donors either lived, were headquartered or otherwise had a significant presence in Singapore. 

Higher education was the most popular destination for million dollar donations.

In 2013, the largest portion of million dollar giving went to higher education institutions (HEIs), accounting for 43% ($306m) of the total value of gifts. Strikingly, almost all of the donations made by foundations and individuals went to this sub-sector.

The second most popular cause, receiving 34.5% of the total value of million dollar donations, was public and societal benefit programmes. This was almost entirely the result of a $244m social service fund from the Tote Board to support social service programmes for disadvantaged communities, capability building initiatives to raise social service standards, and capital projects of voluntary welfare organisations (not-for-profit welfare organisations).