Role of philanthropy in the post-COVID era: Busting Boundaries to be Change Agents

BY LAURENCE LIEN FIVE YEARS AGO, when APC was first established, we began with a shared aspiration – that we need change agents to address Asia’s social challenges and that strategic and engaged philanthropists can be them. Today amidst the greatest health and humanitarian challenge of our generation, the urgency for philanthropists to step up is even more pressing. The study of boundaries is a critical one today. Problems are deeply interrelated. For example, COVID-19, a zoonotic disease, is a virus that jumped the boundary from nonhuman to human. And the impact of the disease spread has gone well beyond…

COVID-19 is changing the way the world does Philanthropy

BY BILL AND MELINDA GATES 2020 has been a hard year to be an optimist. Both of us have spent the past several months looking at alarming charts and datasets. COVID-19, in addition to claiming millions of lives and crashing the global economy, has reversed the progress the world has made in the fight against poverty and disease—a fight in which our foundation is deeply involved. Humankind now must contend with all sorts of numbers that are heading in the wrong direction: Vaccine coverage has dropped to levels not seen since the 1990s. The extreme poverty rate has shot up…

How APC Is Adjusting To COVID-19: Events And Projects

Dear fellow members, These are unprecedented times. We probably all hoped that the COVID-19 situation will be contained, but it is now a global pandemic that will continue to disrupt our lives for probably quite a while more. With this, APC has to review our plans for the year, and postpone/cancel a number of our activities. But we also recognise that philanthropy can make the biggest difference during a crisis. Hence, we very much want to be able to support any work that addresses COVID-19, either directly or indirectly.  Travel For your reference, APC will not be planning any travel until at…

Funding Collaboratives: What makes it a Success?

By Lam Sze Ching Collaboration is one of the founding pillars of how APC members conduct their philanthropy. A 2019 study of 25 funding collaboratives conducted by The Bridgespan Group and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation found that 10 were successful and 15 met with challenges. The report highlighted the benefits and disadvantages faced by funders and the hope is that the study will inspire funding collaborations to adopt an investment thesis, the common factor amongst all 10 successful collaborations. Through this insight, we hope to further our philanthropy reach by applying it in our projects. The Study Since…

Advocating for our Planet: Turn the Tide

By Bradley Wo and Kathlyn Tan One of the biggest hurdles for sharing information on environmental crises or solutions is a lack of awareness. As the severity of global environmental issues becomes clearer, more initiatives and innovations to make us better stewards of nature have been emerging. After watching the environmental films at the Turn the Tide Film Tour, APC left with a better understanding of some of the challenges we face – and ways that we can address them together. On September 14, APC attended an ocean film screening organised by Coastal Natives, an environmental conservation organisation founded by…

Bringing youths out of poverty through sports development with Magic Bus!

By Stacey Choe What is the best way to get a child engaged? Through play. Through sports. That is how Matthew Spacie through Magic Bus has reached out to over 900,000 children, in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, and worked with them on their values, their aspirations and their communities to lift them out of poverty and to obtain jobs. On 7th March, APC hosted Matthew for a lunch roundtable with members in Singapore. The Magic Bus programme works with adolescents from age 12 over a 7-year period, providing them with mentors, working with industry partners to right-match them with…

WINGS & Asia Philanthropy Circle Webinar: Giving to Myanmar

APC has partnered with Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support (WINGS) to launch and disseminate the findings of our guide on Giving to Myanmar to a wider audience via a webinar on 14 February 2019, 5-6pm (Singapore time). Register via the link below: After re-engaging with the international community for the last eight years, Myanmar has been through many ups and downs. In recent times, media attention has focused on its Rohingya crisis, resulting in diplomatic condemnation and continued controversy. Despite all these, the country continues to be a point of attraction for foreign investment and development. With a young population…

Launch of The Givers Network in Bangkok

On 15 September 2018, The Givers Network was launched in Bangkok at Centara Grand.  Co-founded by APC member Thippaporn under her DT Families Foundation, with APC, Khon Thai Foundation and Thai Young Philanthropist Network, the event and network aims to encourage everyone from all walks of life to give, in their own ways, as they can. The morning session was truly inspirational – the featured speakers included APC’s very own Stanley Tan, who recounted his own childhood experience when he made the decision to give up taking the bus from school in order to save enough money to donate to…

APC promotes Social Entrepreneurship with Ashoka

By Valentina Ko APC members gathered together at *SCAPE on 18 August for the second meeting of the social entrepreneurship member interest group (MIG).  The meeting was held at *SCAPE, a non-profit organisation with its mission and vision rooted in support of youth, talent and leadership development. Members first met at Pope Jai Thai, a food and beverage social enterprise that works with different beneficiary groups.  Owner of Pope Jai Thai, Daniel Teh introduced himself to members and gave an overview of his journey from a previously incarcerated individual to owning his own restaurant now and working with vulnerable communities…