SINGAPORE – A Sustainable Philanthropy Framework to guide corporates to measure and monitor the social impact of their donations, volunteering and inclusive hiring practices will be launched in the first quarter of 2024.
It will be accompanied by a playbook to help corporates to strengthen partnerships with social service agencies (SSAs).
This was announced by Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli on Tuesday at the annual Social Service Summit, organised by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS).
The framework aims to help businesses better shape and track the “social” aspect of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts. It was co-developed by NCSS and the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), together with other partners.
NCSS also plans to roll out a series of guides for SSAs, including a fund-raising playbook to help them identify areas of improvement and how they can better partner corporates to support their services.
“We need to continue increasing the avenues for cross-sector partnerships where both corporates and SSAs leverage each other’s strengths to amplify impact on those we serve,” said Mr Masagos at the event held at the Raffles City Convention Centre.
Mr Masagos, who is also Second Minister for Health, observed that many companies based here want to contribute meaningfully to Singapore and that more are committing to regular donations and volunteerism and weaving social impact into their corporate purpose and DNA.
“We, as a sector, need to harness this interest by providing more enabling platforms,” he said.
He invited corporates to share their views and feedback as they continue to engage stakeholders to foster “sustainable philanthropy”, and to adopt the framework when it is launched.
Themed “Strengthening Connections, Partnering for Impact”, the two-day Social Service Summit attracted about 700 representatives from SSAs, corporates and public agencies.
To enable more partnerships, NCSS collaborated with NVPC to bring more than 80 corporates to the inaugural “State of Play”, a specially curated programme on the second day of the summit on Wednesday to give them a deeper understanding of the sector’s work. It will also allow SSAs to better understand the goals of corporates and how they can best work together.
Speaking at the summit, NCSS president Anita Fam affirmed the council’s commitment to help SSAs and support social service professionals, and to attract, develop and retain talents. The initiatives include an online Wellness Resource Hub, launched at the summit, to provide sector professionals with resources and practical tips on self-care and managing employees’ mental well-being.
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