By ELEANOR YAP

The sheltered area where all the food is being collected.

A sheltered area which sits on Old Airport Road near a coffeeshop is often used by the coffeeshop if its area is crowded with patrons. But every Saturday morning, that area is emptied out of its plastic chairs and tables to give way to donated dry goods for elderly and disabled homes. This is all part of an on-going, 15-year project called Food & Friends by a handful of volunteers who are grassroots leaders from the Mountbatten Management Committee.

The idea was originally muted by one of the pioneers of the project, Elaine Yang, to the then Mayor Eugene Yap, previously an MP for Mountbatten. He was quick to support the initiative and erected a sign near the sheltered area in 1999 as a call for action for donations. Since a new mayor has taken over, the project continues with food donations going to eight elderly and disabled homes – Jamiyah Home for the Aged, Metta Home, Society Home, Man Fut Tong Nursing Home, MacPherson Moral Family Service Centre, Lions Nursing Home, Thong Teck Home for Senior Citizens and Moral Welfare Home. Those in the Mountbatten area, as well as others living outside the area, come before 11.30am every Saturday to drop off the dry goods. Even some of the shop owners nearby have joined in to make food donations.

The donated items include eggs, Milo, bee-hoon, oranges, rice, apples, bananas, adult diapers, oatmeal, Horlicks, instant noodles and vegetables. Each home receives a food donation worth S$400 to S$500. However, especially during Chinese New Year season, they get an overwhelming number of donations. According to Yang, some donors even go to the extent of purchasing eggs from the store nearby and asking the staff to bring them to the sheltered area or even to pass the goods to the nearby NTUC FairPrice for staff to bring to the area. For over two years in the beginning of the project, when the food supplies especially eggs were low, Yang took it upon herself to use her own money to buy them.

Elaine Yang dividing the food to the various organisations.

As the food donations arrive from the public, the volunteers help to segregate the various donations to the homes with metal signs on the ground designating the names of the homes. Some of the volunteers go into the marketplace to pick up food donations at the shops and public donations of food given to the shops. Since those who donate know the food would go to eight homes, the food is equally divided with enough supplies for each. John Goh, a real estate agent and a pioneering member of the project, added: “Most of the times we don’t know the public who give but they seem to trust us because they know that we have been doing it for a long time.”

Like clockwork

At about 11.30am, various vans from the elderly homes pull up on the side of the road and the drivers get to the sheltered area to tally up the day’s donations. After the details are recorded and Yang or a volunteer gives the go-ahead, the drivers and their assistants start loading up their vans. A little after 12pm, the food is emptied out and most of the volunteers are gone.

Self-employed Michael Leong, a volunteer for over 10 years and one of 10 regular volunteers who come down, shared: “Rain or shine except for public holidays, we will all be here. … I come down around 10 to pick up food in the nearby marketplace with a trolley. I like doing social work; it is really a passion.”

Added Goh, “When I was young, I liked to help the needy. I do it out of my interest.” He arrives on Saturdays usually at around 8am to go into the marketplace to pick up the food donations.

The homes receiving the donation are praises of the project. Shared Edmund Tan, manager of Metta Disability Care: “We are always heartened to see our clients’ sparkling eyes whenever they savour the vegetarian food, knowing it would not have been possible without our donor’s generous donation. The basketful of groceries received every Saturday help us lower the expenditure for food significantly in Metta Home. The Food & Friends project has made a huge difference in our clients’ lives by continuously providing them with quality food for many years now. Our heartfelt thanks to them.”

Yang is happy about the positive feedback both from the volunteers as well as the homes in the project and is glad to have played a hand in starting it. A previous business owner for 30 years-now-turned retiree, she noticed that people would often donate food to temples. She saw this as opportunity to bring it into the community and the initiative being “owned” by them. She persuaded the shop owners in Old Airport Road to meet up at the Mountbatten CC to discuss her project and they were readily happy to lend support. According to Yang, some 30 stop owners agreed to donate whatever dry food they could. However, the public started noticing and wanted to get into the act.

The volunteers.

So how did she select the homes? Yang went to ask the various homes if they would be keen to participate and if they could provide their own vans for the pick-up. She shared that initially, some stop owners went to the homes to see how their donations were being used and Yang sometimes makes trips down to check on them. She said she is not adding more homes for now as she worries that she might have a shortfall of supply.

“I am very happy seeing people drop by to donate. I am 66 years old and have no plans on taking a break and not being a part of this project,” said Yang. “People prefer donating food than money to the homes. Also, they find having the sheltered area an easy and convenient place for them to donate (since some live nearby) rather than go all the way to the homes. They also are concerned with a money donation as they don’t know where the money might go to.”

A community that cares

Food being loaded into the Metta Home van.

On Saturday morning as the vans were being loaded up, there were a few stragglers still bringing plastic bags of food. Nicky P and her mother, who didn’t want to be named, were the last ones that morning as they quickly went to NTUC FairPrice and bought around S$50 to S$100 worth of food including Milo, crackers and instant noodles. “We moved to the area last December and we didn’t know about this project. We only found out in January when someone told us about it and we wanted to be a part of it. Every Saturday, my mother comes down and buys food for the donation. Since we live in the area, we felt it was important to contribute,” said Nicky.

A community that binds together and cares is a community that wins in the end of the day.

By ELEANOR YAP

The National Arts Council (NAC) has launched an Arts Opportunity Fund so charities and VWOs can tap onto it to help fund arts-related projects for underprivileged children and youths. Shared Samuel Tan, manager of Corporate Communications & Marketing Services, at NAC: “The arts have proven to be able to affect positive change in one’s personal development and we hope that children and youth, who would otherwise not have an opportunity to engage in the arts, would at least have a chance to experience the arts.”

He added: “Our focus is on benefitting as many children and youths as possible so we are looking at straightforward broad-based programmes like regular arts classes/workshops, art shows or performances, and any other artistic endeavours and pursuits.” Tan explained the Fund can also be used to purchase art materials, musical instruments and equipment needed for the proposed projects.

The charities can tap the Fund for the period of June 2012 to May 2013. There is a cap of S$5,000 per organisation and the applications to the Fund will be reviewed by an independent advisory committee who will assess according to the criteria below:

• Are the objectives clearly defined?
• What is the type and nature of the project to be funded?
• How effective is the project in achieving the targeted and desired outcomes?
• What would be the impact on beneficiaries?
• Would there be any spill-over benefits on the community and other stakeholders?
• Are funds used effectively?

Currently, the Arts Opportunity Fund has not received any applications. The Arts Opportunity Fund is supported by the Arts & Culture Development Fund (ACDF), an IPC charity fund administered by NAC to support arts and cultural projects that benefit the general public, raise the professionalism of the arts and cultural sector, and/or strengthen public engagement in arts and culture. Donations came from the public via give2arts.sg.

The closing date for applications is April 30, 2012. To apply, charities and VWOs need to use the application form (which can be obtained on the website link above) and e-mail it to: samuel_tan@nac.gov.sg or mail to: National Arts Council, 90 Goodman Rd, #01-01 Blk A Goodman Arts Centre, Singapore 439053. On whether the Fund may be offered again next year? NAC’s Tan said it would depend on the donation amount raised from the public.

By ELEANOR YAP

Masami Sato has had many careers. Originally educated to become an architect in Japan, she has spent time as a teacher, a translator, an entrepreneur of commercial enterprises, and even a natural food chef and a farmer! But now, she’s found her real purpose in life by creating B1G1 (Buy 1, Give 1), a Singapore-based social enterprise which transforms the way businesses give.

Sato started the company in 2007 and on top of that, has authored two books, ‘JOY – The gift of acceptance’ and ‘ONE – Sharing the joy of giving’. SALT Online chats with her about B1G1 and why she focuses on SME business giving in this new way:

Can you explain the B1G1 model?

We focus almost totally on SME businesses. We recognised that SME business owners wanted to give back. However, they tend to do nothing, probably because they don’t know how to start or maybe they just don’t have the time.

Of course, the bigger companies with their larger teams can create CSR departments to create and run CSR programmes. But SMEs simply don’t have that ability — and yet, SMEs power 70 percent of our economy!

We came up with a simple idea – why not, we thought, make business giving a habit by making it possible for every business transaction to give back in some well-defined and impactful way. So, powered by that simple thought, we developed systems and processes for SMEs to give back effectively and easily.

Now, SMEs join B1G1 as business members and they can link a tiny portion of each sale to a wide-range of projects in 30 countries. In this way, the companies are ‘embedding’ giving into their everyday activities. Each company can decide how much they want to give as well as which projects to give it to. Our system makes it really easy for them so that giving really becomes a habit and an integral part of their business.

This model also keeps in mind those SMEs who offer consulting or accounting services, where they may not have fixed products. B1G1 gives every business a chance to give back regardless of their business model, often involving their employees and customers in the giving process and make the most impact out of their giving. We don’t focus on one-off giving; we focus on habitual and impactful giving.

So how do you choose the projects?

Members of B1G1 can recommend new projects to the B1G1 board. Every two months, we have a board meeting to assess new applications against our criteria and requirements. Our focus is to find the right type of organisations rather than having more and more projects.

We tend to partner with smaller organisations who work with local communities and leaders in order to really find the long-term solutions. Those smaller grassroots organisations may not have great marketing expertise, yet they are experts in creating positive impacts in the communities around the world. We then work with these approved charity organisations to list some of their focused projects such as giving clean water or improving literacy — there is a vast range of options; we list all the projects in terms of the tangible impact – we never focus on the monetary giving. So in B1G1, it’s never about a company saying, “We gave $xxxxxx to charity”. It’s always about “Our giving gave 1,300 children access to water,” or similar highly focused outcomes.

And how do you work with businesses?

We help businesses to ‘embed’ giving into their everyday business activities. For example, we have a unique widget for each company so the companies’ giving through B1G1 can embed it on their websites so their stakeholders can also see the companies’ giving. It shows the real-time, live impact statistics. SMEs can also mention their giving in their marketing collaterals to their clients, engaging the customers in the giving mission. We currently work with nearly 650 SMEs in different countries.

However, we weren’t always blessed with that number. When we started B1G1, for the first three years, introducing the brand new idea was not very easy and we didn’t know how to implement our idea in reality. It was a lot of trial-and-error.

For example, we consulted every business and manually created giving agreement documents. As a result, we didn’t have the capacity to work with too many businesses as we had a small team. Now, things are different – we are still improving our processes and systems but as a result of the systematic approach we’ve developed, we can now deal with many more businesses and giving transactions easily. Our activities are now much more scalable.

B1G1 is still run by a small team based in Singapore working with many volunteers and international supporters. We speak and present at various SME events around the world to bring awareness about B1G1. Now five years after the original launch, we have more than 600 projects from over 30 countries listed on our site. We continue to do regular reviews on existing projects and refresh our listing to ensure the effectiveness.

What about individual giving? Any new things on B1G1?

We also want to bring individuals into the B1G1 model mainly to encourage more businesses to join the cause as a result. The personal giving platform was launched in January this year. However, B1G1’s focus is still firmly on business giving.

Where are SMEs from that are on B1G1?

They currently are from 28 countries around the world including places like South Korea. But most are from Western countries like Australia, New Zealand, UK and later this year, we are expanding into US.

So, are you saying SMEs are not giving enough?

Well actually the statistics say that businesses as a whole are not giving enough! One well-respected survey says that all business giving taken together represents only five percent of the giving that goes into our world. I think when businesses start out, they focus on profits and they tend to forget the element of giving and why they started in the first place. Giving is an important part of business and our life – through giving and caring activities, employees can feel more connected to the company and the company can also connect to its customers more deeply. But there is no doubt that that view is changing rapidly. And on B1G1 right now, we have many start-up businesses who make B1G1 a fundamental part of the way they do business.

We believe that business giving in the SME space is very important. In fact, more than 70 percent of businesses around the world are small- to medium-size businesses. We believe everyone cares and wants to give back if it fits into their beliefs and doesn’t take much time and effort. We all love to give, why not embed giving in everything we do so we can care and give more?

It is interesting that your company is registered in Singapore but your giving is all overseas. Can you explain?

When we first came to Singapore, we chose to come here because of the location, efficient Government approach, etc. And we knew that Singapore was striving to become what many referred to as ‘a Giving Nation’. What we didn’t know until we moved was the focus and encouragement towards local giving within Singapore.

B1G1 is focused in a very specific giving model that is ‘impact-based’ giving for SMEs around the world. And naturally, the causes we work with are also global. So for that reason, we haven’t been promoting B1G1 initiatives within Singapore to-date. But that’s not because we don’t want to. The B1G1 model does not fit in perfectly with some of the ‘rules’ in Singapore right now. But of course, we hope that will change over time.

We love being here for all sorts of reasons and we feel very blessed. Singapore is a great hub for business and expertise, and it’s a wonderful place too for my two children to go to school! Plus we work a lot here with young people — people who are doing great things, for example, in the social entrepreneurship space.

Have you seen any giving trends?

I have noticed a lot of young people interested in giving back. We also work with students from universities on some of our projects. For example, we work frequently with teams from SMU (Singapore Management University) in their final-year projects — the young people are very inspired by B1G1 and we love working with them.

Of course, that connection also means that we are frequently invited to speak at various student events in Singapore. And not surprisingly, we also see more interest towards entrepreneurship especially social entrepreneurship among the youth.

Any challenges?

Our operation and activities are becoming stable now. When we first started, we didn’t have the right funding model. We initially considered various funding models that other organisations were implementing that included a model to take transaction fees from giving as well. Yet we’ve decided not to go on that path.

Instead, we came up with a membership programme whereby the businesses join B1G1 as members or partners and receive membership privileges. And our model today ensures 100 percent of giving gets to go to the projects the B1G1 member businesses choose for them.

We are continuously coming up with ways to add more value such as the impact reports, marketing resources and online widgets. The SME programme starts from one dollar a day and it makes giving simple, easy and impactful for any type and size of company.

How do you ensure the integrity of your initiatives while working with many other charity organisations?

We have very strict criteria for approving our Worthy Cause Partners who, of course, are already subject to strict process reviews by Government agencies. We also conduct regular assessments.

However, there’s also a limit to how much we can or should invest our time and focus on the due diligence area. Our view is simply that if we all focused on doubting and never did anything as we could no longer trust, we would not be able to create the world we want to see.

At B1G1, we believe in the world of trust and generosity. We believe in a reward system where we highlight and encourage good behaviour and effective approaches.

We see that every organisation and every individual has the potential to do good and yet we also have the potential to occasionally make mistakes and improve what we do and how we do it as a result. When we create the culture of learning and improving, we can all do so much more with the same amount of resources.

We also believe that there is no single solution to the issues we face in our world. Each organisation can learn from each other to make their activities ever more sustainable and empowering so that we are not simply handing out aid, yet utilising the resources available to create lasting change in each community encouraging local people to take ownership for their own effort. We’re hanging UP as opposed to handing out.

So, we’d like to share more of these great stories and ideas among our Worthy Cause community to maintain and enhance the culture of giving. We’ve identified that it is important to dedicate our effort more toward creating positive and lasting impact.

We believe that when we come together through genuine sense of caring, trust and an open mind, our world can truly change for the good. And we’re really thrilled to be playing a part in making that happen in such a positive, transformative way.

A. There is an increasing trend of International Non-Profit Organisations (INPOs) setting up offices in Singapore to manage their work globally or in Asia-Pacific. Currently, there are 135 INPOs in Singapore, which include intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, philanthropic foundations and industry associations. Some of the INPOs in Singapore include the World Bank, Save the Children International, WWF International, World Vision International, SymAsia Foundation and the International Air Transport Association.

Some of the factors that draw INPOs to Singapore include:

• Geographical proximity: Singapore is well-positioned geographically for INPOs to address the pressing concerns across Asia. These concerns include environmental, humanitarian, health, developmental, etc. 
• Neutrality, transparency, stability, accessibility and ease of setting up: The systems in place that have made Singapore a good place for doing business are proving beneficial for the work of INPOs as well. For them, Singapore offers the rare combination of neutrality, transparency, stability and accessibility required to effectively coordinate, manage and implement projects in the region. INPOs in general have also commented that one of the things that they appreciate most about Singapore is the regulatory framework here. For example, the efficient system that the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA) has put in place for companies has made legal registration a simple and straightforward process for INPOs as well. With increasing financial challenges and professionalisation, many INPOs are therefore prioritising efficiency and effectiveness and applying business approaches to their strategy and operations. 
• Social capital: INPOs can tap into the many forms of social capital available in Singapore to better enable their work. This includes: Financial capital in the form of rising Asian philanthropy, corporate responsibility and increasingly impact investments, human capital in the form of a diverse international talent pool and strong volunteer base, and knowledge capital in the form of research and private sector partnerships.
• Affordable office space: Singapore also provides INPOs with the option of locating their offices at the Tanglin International Centre (TIC), a physical cluster of INPOs. The idea behind this was to allow proximity to give rise to opportunities for collaboration. Instead of travelling from one part of the country (or the world) to another to explore collaboration opportunities with one another, INPOs in Singapore can choose to be located just footsteps away from each other.

Some of the things that INPOs could keep in mind when setting up in Singapore include:

1) Ecosystem in Singapore: Despite being a relatively small country, the increasingly strong cluster of both local and international non-profit organisations in Singapore addresses many key issues related to health, development, environment, humanitarian, industry and etc. INPOs could survey the landscape in Singapore to explore potential collaborative opportunities with existing players and bring key differentiating activities to value add to the non-profit landscape in Singapore and the region.

2) Importance of having a team that understands Asia: With rising Asian wealth and increasingly challenging issues to be addressed in Asia, an increasing number of INPOs are using Singapore as a base to fundraise in Asia for their projects in Asia. Understanding the modus operandi of fundraising and operating in Asia is key to having successful operations in Singapore and Asia as a whole. INPOs should consider having a strong team that understands Asia (in the Board of Directors and the management and staff levels) in Singapore, thus maximising the potential to do good for the region. Although many INPOs start operations here by relocating key staff from the HQs to the office in Singapore, they tend to ‘localise’ over time. Examples of INPOs that have successfully done so include the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Kelvin Wong is the executive director of the International Organisations Programme Office at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

By SUSAN J ELLIS 

Volunteering is a vital element in what is called “civil society”. Private citizens willing to contribute their time, thinking, hands and minds to improving the communities in which they live can often accomplish as much as or more than Government, businesses or established institutions can. This is the essence of participatory democracy and the root of social change. 

Volunteers are always on the cutting-edge of change because they see things that should be done before anyone else addresses those needs. The first individuals who recognised the enormity of AIDS, child abuse, how we treat dying people, and other critical problems were community leaders who mobilised other early volunteers to create care centres, hospices and other types of services now fully funded by Government and non-profit foundations. Volunteers have been and still are pioneers, mavericks and visionaries.

Volunteering is often mutual aid. People with common characteristics or shared needs will find ways to work together towards common goals. When voluntary action moves beyond personal, familial or neighbourhood networks, and begins to have an impact on the larger community, new organisations are formed, new legislation is championed, and the effort becomes far more inclusive than exclusive.

Note that volunteering is not inherently right or good. People support causes that are controversial or adversarial. Volunteers can be found on both sides of issues, pro and con, of all political parties, with different religious convictions, and with a range of self-interests. This too is part of a functioning democracy. Volunteering is a methodology for accomplishing end results, not an end unto itself.

Cheap labour?

When the economy is bad, politicians and agency executives re-discover volunteering as “free labour”. This is frustrating because the community needs both sufficient funding and dedicated volunteers. Those who think volunteers are a cheap workforce soon discover that having volunteers cost real money and time to coordinate them effectively (and volunteering certainly costs volunteers in time and, often indirectly, money). Even in the best of times, engagement of volunteers is too often invisible at the executive level and too few people have formal training in successful volunteer management. Non-profit leaders want to learn how to raise money, create a strong and meaningful brand, and manage employees. It is just as important to learn the best practices of working with volunteers on a day-to-day basis. 

Successful volunteering does not come from spontaneous combustion. Most organisations are complex and, unless organisations develop clear ways for volunteers to participate in activities, people really do not know how they can contribute. Or worse, they start doing all sorts of things that are not helpful at all. Involving volunteers in the right way offers endless opportunities for accomplishing many things, while inattention to volunteer involvement can waste everyone’s time and energy. It is a form of volunteer recognition to establish standards for volunteer accomplishments but the best volunteer management serves to enable volunteer achievement, not limit it.

Executives must have the conviction that volunteers are important. They must understand that volunteers are:

• Part of the human resources team that makes the organisation work.

• Part of the organisation’s “brain”. While common symbols of volunteering are hearts and hands, the most effective volunteers also offer their minds and voices, adding both skills and ideas to those of the paid staff.

• “Time donors”, whose contributions parallel those of money donors. It makes great sense to approach both fundraising and volunteer development as people-raising or friend-raising. The same people may give both funds and time, either simultaneously or alternating their engagement as their life cycle permits. The overall goal is a wide circle of continuing supporters, of which volunteers are an active, hands-on corps.

• Unique in enabling an organisation to experiment with or test new service/programme ideas before attempting to raise funds to enlarge and maintain them.

• A source of vital input from the community, offering points of view quite different from that of the paid staff and often more informed about the perspective of the people served. Conversely, volunteers are enthusiastic ambassadors for the organisation back to the community, if they are satisfied with their work (another reason to make sure of that satisfaction!). 

Organisations that look at volunteer involvement in these ways will develop the management infrastructure to assure the potential is unleashed.

The benefits of volunteering

Finally, volunteers deserve to benefit from their contributed services. Altruism and selflessness are attributes of old-fashioned charity or noblesse oblige. The best volunteer situation is one of an exchange, in which both the giver and the receiver gain something that they each value. At different times throughout our lives, we all need help of some sort; at other times, we all discover we can assist someone else. Volunteering is a way to:

• Make a difference and campaign for causes that matter to us.
• Learn new skills or apply what we already know in new ways.
• Make new friends.
• Explore careers and build a resume.
• Expand our world view.
• Use free time productively (for those few who have free time, of course).
• Enjoy ourselves.
• Be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

The list of benefits is much longer than this, but it is clear that volunteering is a choice to use our time in ways that we often cannot do through our paid jobs, family obligations or other avenues. 

Susan J Ellis is the president of Energize, Inc in the US. She will be in Singapore on May 22 to 24 as a guest speaker for the three-day Volunteerism Conference organised by NVPC.

(** PHOTO CREDITS: SG Cares)

Eric Khoo of social enterprise OMnire pitching at the SEDC Conference 2011.

Social enterprises are registered organisations that apply business strategies to achieving social, cultural and/or environmental goals. Like any non-profit organisation, pitching for funding, resources and most importantly, support, is something that social enterprises have to master in order to be successful.

However, the social enterprise sector scene in Singapore is a young one, characterised by energy and passion, but also by under-developed institutional models and systems of financial support. To address this gap, Bain & Company, a global business consulting firm that serves clients on issues of strategy, operations, technology, organisation, and mergers and acquisitions, held a workshop for the members of the Social Enterprise Association, an organisation tasked with the role of promoting social entrepreneurship and social enterprise in Singapore, to hone their pitching skills. Here are the key takeaways:

Four elements to improve your business plan pitch:

1. Know your audience –

• What is their background and expertise?
• Which points would they need to be convinced on?
• What are their personal interests?
• What is their preferred engagement style?
• Why are they willing to hear my pitch?
• What would they be interested to hear?
• What do they want from the discussion.

2. Structure well –

• Set up the presentation: Do a time-check, thank audience and introduce the structure of the presentation and when to do Q&A.
• Given an overview of your plan: Provide a quick summary – similar to the ‘elevator pitch’ – that gives the audience an overview of your business idea and gets them interested.
• Go through each of the elements: Market demand, business model, social impact, economics, team, risks and objectives (investment and advisory).
• Leave time for Q&A, have backups for fact base, strategy, financial plan, operating model, organisation plan, success factors and risks.

 3. Cover key messages –

• Highlight evidence that the idea is viable and attractive (economically/socially).

-        Primary research test idea with customers

-        Market size model to estimate total opportunity

-        Estimated investment requirements and returns

-        Pilot launch to validate social impact potential

-        Expert interviews on growth and exit opportunities

• Highlight evidence that you are well-prepared to succeed in this venture.

-        Secondary research on market trends/dynamics

-        Point of view on success factors and risks based on a thorough study

-        Background expertise on key capability areas needed to execute the business plan

-        Passion for business concept and social impact

-        Access to expertise and networks

4. Prepare, prepare, prepare –

• Prepare meeting logistics – venue, space and materials (e.g. printouts, projector, flipchart, markers, etc).
• Conduct preliminary discussions with the people you are pitching to learn more about their background and incentives as well as to test and refine elements of your plan.
• Practice delivering your pitch and make speaker’s notes or comments to aid you in the actual presentation.
• Analyse your pitch to identify strengths and weaknesses.
• Prepare for Q&A.

Shared Eric Khoo, one of the four social entrepreneurs who pitched to an audience of funders, corporations and capacity builders during SEDC Conference 2011 in December 2011, for his social enterprise startup, OMnire: “Make sure the idea is novice and sustainable. Ask what the value proposition of the offer and the emotional touch-points. Also, know your numbers and work from the audience’s perspective. Lastly, practice and practice.”

After all, a pitch is more of a conviction than anything else.

** Special thanks to Amy Lim from Social Enterprise Association for all her help.

By TAN ENG TONG

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2006, Muhammad Yunus (left), is often heard saying: “A charity dollar has only one life”. That dollar, once it is used up, is gone. The organisation that collected that dollar now has to find another one to do more good. Otherwise it cannot continue in its social cause, however, meaningful it is.

How it all started

It was with that in mind that Yunus considered the problem facing him as he visited the village of Jobra near Chittagong University in 1976. Returning recently from the US, he wanted to find a practical way to help his fellow countrymen, rather than in front of a blackboard. In that village he discovered that the basket weavers there had to borrow money from the local money lender to buy the bamboo – but with the condition that they sold the baskets back to him, making a mere US$0.02 (S$0.025) on each basket! Altogether the 42 women weavers in the village had owed US$27 (S$33.98). Out of his own pocket, he gave them US$27 (S$33.98) to repay the loan and ‘liberated’ the women from ‘slave labour’.

He realised that his noble act was not sustainable – there must be a better way. He, as a professor of economics, cannot continually give money to exploited villagers wherever he met them. It obviously had to be a loan of some sort. Normal banks do not lend such small amounts. 

Bank for villagers

He eventually found a way in December 1976 and proceeded to test it using his students and within six years, the project had 28,000 members. So on October 1, 1983, he formed the Grameen Bank (or “Village Bank” in Bangladeshi) and the idea became known in business schools as ‘micro-finance’.  

By 2011, Grameen Bank had loaned out US$130 million (S$164 million) a month without any need for collateral, legal paperwork nor any group guarantees with 97 percent of their loans repaid. Of the staggering 8.35 million borrowers, 96 percent of them are women. Since its formation, the Bank has loaned out US$11.35 billion (S$14.27 billion).

Grameen Bank has helped change the lives of everyone of them through loans, raising their standard of living and improving their health – without receiving any donations or taking out any loans itself. The Bank had been profitable every year except for 1983, 1991 and 1992.

In 2002, Grameen Bank created a special programme exclusively to assist beggars. As a result, nearly 20,000 beggars have left begging and are making a living as door-to-door salespersons.  Some have even opened personal savings accounts and become mainstream borrowers. 

Muhammad Yunus had achieved his goal – the dollar he had started with has spawned a life of its own. There is no need for charity. 

Improving village life

To further illustrate the methodology deployed by Yunus in avoiding the ‘charitable dollar’, consider the basic issue of electricity supply in Bangladesh. Over 60 percent of the country have no access to electricity.

Villagers are too poor to buy generators and the country’s electric infrastructure do not reach them.  Even the cost of the most basic home solar system costing around US$200 (S$251.74) is beyond their means. 

Donations, in the form of cash or installation, can be done by those charities rich enough, but Yunus came up with a better way. In 1996, he created a new business to promote, develop and supply renewable energy as a social business. He formed Grameen Shakti. 

This company buys the components necessary to construct a home solar system appropriate for Bangladesh and trains villagers to assemble and install them. Training centres were set up to train how to assemble the systems, install and repair them. Most of those who signed up were women. They now earn up to US$150 (S$188.81) per month. 

Yunus with Tan Eng Tong, the author of this article.

With a steady income, households can now afford to buy the solar lighting systems for home improvement. For those who need it, loans are also available through Grameen Bank. 

Grameen Shakti was so successful that by the end of 2009, more than 300,000 solar home systems had been installed, bringing electricity to more than two million people. By 2010, they were installing 1,100 systems per day by over 1,000 women. 

Since then the company has ventured into producing improved earthern cooking stoves (for use in rural village homes), and installing methane plants for producing bio-gas. By 2015, Grameen Shakti aims to have installed a million solar-home-systems, 10 million improved stoves, and half a million bio-gas plants. This could possibly make the company the largest solar installer in the world.

Today, Grameen Shakti has 12 divisional offices, 110 regional offices, 726 branch offices and 45 technology centres staffed by approximately 5,000.

Yunus has not stopped with renewal energy. He has since helped the formation of over two dozen other such companies, ranging from mobile phones to healthcare, food and fashion – each with a social mandate, and each one separately sustainable by itself. 

For example, Grameen-Adidas was formed in March 2010 with the objective to make sure that no one child or adult, goes without shoes. And to make that affordable, he has set the company with a goal of selling the shoes for one Euro!

The basic principles

Yunus calls this type of business a “social business”. It has to be a business, first and foremost, and to be managed and staffed by people paid at market-rate salaries, or as near as possible – and for it to be sustainable, it has to make a profit. 

Normal businesses are profit-maximising, for the benefit of its shareholders. Social businesses are different. Its purpose and business goal will be to overcome poverty or some other social issue such as education, health, access to technology or environment. To achieve such lofty objectives, everyone – founders, management, staff and investors – must be aligned to the same goals.

The primary characteristic for a social business is its creativity. Its founders and management have to be very resourceful in addressing the social problem in a way that achieves both its profitability and social goals. As a comparison, normal businesses typically already find it a challenge to make a decent profit; a social business has the added challenge of having to solve a social problem as well.

One main reason for the distraction in a normal business is due to investors of the business – they expect dividends, which comes from a share of the profits. The management cannot focus only on the social mission. It is therefore a requirement by Yunus that investors in a social business not take any additional dividend after they have gotten back their initial investment, leaving management to be able to be creative in expanding the business, and thereby its social impact. This condition makes a social business different from other ‘social enterprises’.

It also means the return on investment to the investors is only exactly one, and no more. This requires a very special kind of investor – those who truly want to see social change happen. Often philanthropists, on understanding the concept, prefer to channel their charitable dollar into social businesses so their single dollar can radically have more than one life. They have become entrepreneurs and investors – investing in improving the social condition sustainably.

** To promote the creation of more social businesses around the world and the help others understand its principles, Grameen Creative Lab was formed. In Singapore, NUS has partnered with Grameen Creative Lab to help startups understand more about social business.

Tan Eng Tong is an executive advisor at the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, a division of NUS Enterprise. He is also the managing director of Alphatech.sg, which advises companies on how to create and build new businesses based on their areas of strength.

By ELEANOR YAP

Singapore-based company Newton Circus believes “doing good is good business”. On February 28, 2012, it launched a network of do-gooders called Do Good Network where membership is free, and members can share their do-good news with other like-minded individuals, come up with solutions, collaborate and get funding.  

SALT Online speaks with Daryl Arnold, CEO of Newton Circus to find out more:

Can you share why you decided to start Do Good Network?

Do Good Network was started by Newton Circus because we can all do more good when we work together. We noticed individuals with great ideas, social enterprises with innovative business models, non-profit organisations with deep understanding of problems, and companies with resources to implement solutions. They just needed an integrated platform to collaborate so we created the Do Good Network, an online community where good ideas are inspired and turned into real-world solutions.

What other do-gooder networks are there in Singapore, Asia and/or international? How does this site differ from others?

There are a number of networks and websites which focus on positive ideas and actions. Good.is is a feel-good online newspaper. Innocentive encourages online collaboration. Eventbrite helps bring people together for events. Various impact investors and collaborative funding websites, such as Indiegogo, help fund new projects. But only the Do Good Network integrates these platforms into a single seamless experience.

Why do you think such a site is important? Do you feel people nowadays are doing good more?

The Do Good Network is at the crest of a growing wave of changing perception – doing good for others is also good for us. Individuals are beginning to realise that doing good makes you a happier and healthier person and companies are beginning to realise that doing good is good business.

What are the site’s main goals?

The goal of the Do Good Network is to spur collaboration between diverse groups of individuals and organisations. By fostering these unlikely partnerships, we are helping to generate innovative opportunities and create solutions to the world’s most pressing issues.

Can you explain how Do Good Network works and the different platforms?

The Do Good Network has four platforms to spur collaboration:

1) POST – This is a powerful new way for you to get the latest news, broadcast your stories to an expanded audience, and monetise your blog/site (content) with integrity.

2) CoLAB – This brings together individuals and organisations in order to find innovative solutions to your thorniest problems – big and small.

3) MeetUP – This takes collaboration to a whole new level by connecting you with passionate new partners at festivals, conferences, ‘hackathons’ and more.

4) FUND – This helps bring great ideas to life by funding start-up projects and helps successful social enterprises expand with additional financing.

The Do Good Network also offers to additional services via Do Good POST to connect people who are sharing their do good stories (bloggers and other Web publishers) with companies that are working to do good:

1) POST Contract Publishing – This connects Web publishers with companies so they can both tell their sustainability stories more effectively. Bloggers can get paid for creating bespoke content and syndicating their most intriguing articles in publications and company social media pages (like Facebook and Twitter) around the world. Companies can educate their customers about making the world a better place by purchasing and publishing this bespoke content.

2) POST Affiliate Links – This provides an exiting way to easily transform ordinary hyperlinks into affiliate marketing links. Although these links look and feel like ordinary links, the Web publisher earns a commission when one of their readers follows the link and makes a purchase. And because the Web publisher chooses which companies to advertise, the Web publisher is sure to only promote those companies he or she believes do good.

How specifically can a company benefit from your site? What about a non-profit/social enterprise?

As I said earlier, doing good for others is also good for us. So everyone has something to gain by joining the Do Good Network and collaborating with others. Individuals can network and apply their skills on creative solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Bloggers can increase their visibility and improve their SEO. Social and sustainable enterpreneurs can refine their business models and get the connections, resources and funding they need to launch their ventures. Non-profit organisations can identify new opportunities, partners and funding sources. Companies can engage their stakeholders and learn how to conduct business responsibly and sustainably.

How do you plan to market the site?

We’re looking to reach out to new members using an organic grassroots approach. The Do Good Network will engage people and organisations in existing grassroots networks and encourage them to share their ideas using social media.

How many members do you hope to garner by end of this year? Since your launch, how many members do you already have?

The Do Good Network already has over 500 members on the Do Good Network, mostly bloggers and social entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia, the US and Europe. By the end of the year, we hope to have over 10,000 members from all over the world.

I understand that it will continue being a work in progress as you will be adding new features along the way?

The Do Good Network is itself a collaborative project. Our members are constantly generating new ideas and providing suggestions on how we can better spur collaboration. We have launched the Do Good Network in beta-test phase, but we continue to evolve and grow.

How does your company Newton Circus gain monetarily from the site?

Our main goal is to inspire and support innovative solutions through collaboration. Of course, as a social and sustainable enterprise, Newton Circus seeks to be financially-sustainable as well. So it will generate revenue from the Do Good Network in three ways. First, we will be hosting advertisements from organisations and companies. Second, we earn a commission when we connect bloggers and other Web publishers with companies via POST Contract Publishing and POST Affiliate Links. Third, we will using our impact investment arm, NC Venture Partners, to invest the new social and sustainable enterprises generated from the website.

By ANDREW PHUA

Foundations are an often overlooked, yet they play an integral part in the non-profit sector in Singapore. Besides notables like the Lee and Lien foundations, there are many other foundations in Singapore, each rallying their own cause (currently there is no empirical data on the number of foundations in Singapore which includes both corporate and family foundations). For instance, one such foundation, The Silent Foundation, is carving a niche for itself by supporting causes that have no voice, that includes animals and the environment.

SALT Online speaks to the project manager of the Foundation, Tan En, to find out more about the new-kid-on-the-block, its work as well as its challenges:

Could you share briefly about The Silent Foundation and your founder’s motivation on setting it up?

The Silent Foundation was started by Teng Ngiek Lian in July 2010. He came from a humble background; over the years he has worked his way through various corporations to finally set up his own fund management business. He feels that he has benefitted from various people in his life and from society; therefore, he has a strong urge to give back.

As a fund manager, Teng invests in many companies that are overlooked and unloved by investors and this has influenced the way he conducts his philanthropy. He wants to devote his time to help those who are voiceless and overlooked by society. These people tend to be unable to speak up for themselves and suffer in silence, such as foreign workers, the insane, and dementia patients. He figures that causes which are able to shout for help and get attention are able to garner help from others. Hence, he chose the name “The Silent Foundation”.

Why choose a foundation, as opposed to a VWO or charity?

With a foundation, we are able to institutionalise the giving process and are also able to channel and redirect our resources to various organisations from time to time. Eventually, we can also attract talent to further the cause of the Foundation beyond the founder’s lifetime.

How does the Foundation function logistically? For e.g. staff size, source of funding, disbursement of funding and to whom, etc.

The Foundation was set up recently, in July 2010, and other than having me as the Foundation’s first full-time staff, we also harness resources from people who have expressed interest in helping the Foundation with tasks such as research, data mining or ad hoc assignments. As of now, we are not doing any fundraising and all donations are made by Teng. Thus far, he has donated S$11 million to the Foundation. He wants to start the ball rolling and to ensure the Foundation has proper evaluation processes, key performance measurements and monitoring channels. Eventually, when we have a track record, the Foundation may open to donations from the public.

Confucius has a saying that “Charity begins at home”. Therefore, as a registered charity in Singapore, we want to begin our work helping causes that are close to Singaporeans’ hearts. That being said, we would also like to help causes in our neighbouring ASEAN countries. Singapore being a more affluent country, we want to be able to extend our helping hands to poorer countries around the region. Additionally, many environmental issues are inter-linked; by playing a part in these causes, Singapore also benefits indirectly.

How do non-profits tap your resources? Do they need to write a grant proposal? Can you share about some organisations you have funded so far and their programmes?

We are looking for charities whose causes are in line with our Foundation’s goals, transparent with their accounts, comfortable with corporate governance and measurable with reasonable key performance indices. Once we have established that their project is worth considering, they can proceed to work together with the project manager on the grant proposal.

Our first project was the setting up of The Silent Environmental Bursary at the National University of Singapore (NUS). We are very glad that NUS has recognised the importance of environmental causes and created a new course – the Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Studies. Therefore, we want to lend our support in the form of a bursary which will provide financial assistance to students who are passionate about the environment and wish to pursue the new degree. The Foundation has pledged S$1 million and this will be matched by a S$1.5 million grant by the Government. The bursary will be managed by NUS.

Teng is very passionate about the environment as it affects all forms of life. Many plants and creatures have suffered in silence as they cannot speak out. Some have even gone extinct. This ecological effect will eventually affect us human beings. Environmental problems constitute a global issue. They transcend political and geographical boundaries. Though a small country, Singapore should play a part and show a good example to other countries.

We also feel that it will be catalytic to the cause if we can cultivate more young people to aspire to become future change-makers in the environmental sector. We are currently looking into funding environmental groups along the lines of education and outreach.

What are some tips for non-profits in writing a good grant proposal?

Before a charity embarks on the long and often frustrating road of writing a grant proposal, it is important to speak to the grant officer at the foundation for guidance. How much detail is needed for each grant differs from foundation to foundation. Be open about your expectations and even if your proposal is not approved, learn from any feedback given by the grant officer. Always customise; never copy and paste wholesale from a previous proposal written for another foundation.

What challenges has your organisation faced since conception?

We face two main challenges. Firstly, we have some transparency issues where we have problems getting information from organisations that wish to seek funding. Some of these charities might not understand the need for due diligence and are not as forthcoming with their information as necessary.

Secondly, many charities have a lot of “heart” for the cause at hand, but lack the skills to run their organisation effectively. Therefore, they sometimes have difficulties adhering to performance indices that measure their impact in the sector.

How do you envision The Silent Foundation in the future?

We want to make a difference and create an impact on causes that are overlooked by society. We also want to be professional in our giving, and help our recipients in the way they are organised and improve their transparency. This way, we are not only giving them resources, but also laying the groundwork and teaching them how to work with potential grant-makers in the future.

We hope the Foundation can create a good track record that is properly institutionalised so that others will be interested to take over the task after the passing of its founder.

Can your founder share some thoughts on foundations and the non-profit sector?

It is encouraging to see that the Government is giving strong support in infrastructure and to organisations like the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), which has been instrumental in helping young foundations like ours with capacity building.

It is also good to know that there are grants available for charities to tap into to be more effective. One example is the VCF Shared Service Grant that provides subsidies allowing charities to streamline their operations by outsourcing their administrative processes.

Teng is glad to see more foundations being incorporated in Singapore and an increasing awareness of many issues that affect our society. Even in an uncertain economic climate, people are still forthcoming in their donations to different causes.

The Foundation plans to make grants of about S$1 million per year in the near foreseeable future.

 (* PHOTO CREDITS: Photo on this page – Leonardini, stock.xchng; while slider image picture – flavioloka, stock.xchng)

If you’re thinking about volunteering overseas over a weekend or a few months, here are 10 top tips by our friends at the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) before you make that trip that could be your adventure of a lifetime:

Enhancing new-born services - SIF volunteers training medical personnel at the Intensive Care Unit for newborns at Chengalpattu Medical College and Hospital in India.

1) Passport validity ­­– Many may think this is a ‘no-brainer’, but it is often overlooked. Before you apply for any volunteer trip, do ensure that your passport is valid for at least another six months or more (depending on the length of your volunteer stint).

2) Visa requirements ­­– The organisation that you will be volunteering with should be able to advise. However, it is always a good practice to check with the destination country’s consulate or embassy for accuracy. Do give yourself ample time for visa applications.

3) Travel insurance ­­– Need we say more? Insure thyself!

4) Medication & vaccination ­­– Ask your doctor about the country you will be visiting and what vaccination you should take prior. Ensure that you bring along sufficient dosages of medication (i.e. those that you are prescribed on, as well as the generic paracetamol, anti-diarrhoea pills, mosquito spray, etc) as medical services or supplies may not be easily available in the areas you volunteer in.

5) Cultural sensitivities ­­– Equipping yourself with some basic knowledge of cultural sensitivities (i.e. the do’s and don’ts) could save you a whole lot of hassle. For example, in Laos where an encounter with a monk on the street is a regular event, it is considered inappropriate to have any form of physical contact with him. This is especially so for women.

6) Register with foreign missions ­­– In today’s unpredictable world, you never know when a natural disaster may strike, or riots may break. In the event of emergency or crisis, the foreign missions will be able to locate you and provide necessary assistance. If you’re a Singapore citizen, you can e-register at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website.

Water for Life - SIF volunteers building water filters in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

7) Learn basic foreign language terms ­­– Don’t assume English is the primary language of communication in your volunteer destination. Learn local words like, “hello”, “toilet”, “restaurant”, “hotel”, “hospital” and “thank you”. They will come in very handy and may also score you some brownie points with the locals.

8) Business card of your hotel/lodging ­­– In line with the previous tip, always bring along a business card of your selected accommodation for directions. The locals will be less bewildered, and you may save on unnecessary taxi fare!

9) Food & water conditions­­ – Avoid tap water and uncooked foods in developing countries. Our sanitised stomachs don’t usually take very well to local water and food conditions. Go with bottled water and ensure that your food is always thoroughly cooked.

10) Local currency ­­– Some local currencies may not be available for exchange in Singapore. Always check with your host organisation on foreign currency matters.

Above all, volunteer with a trusted organisation that has a strong track record in overseas work.  Keeping an opened mind is key to a satisfying volunteering experience. Enjoy the adventure!

** The SIF has been sending volunteers overseas since 1991, and has since sent more than 2,000 volunteers to 17 countries across the world.