BY JILL CHIN
With increasing levels of wealth across Asia-Pacific, there is great potential to address pressing humanitarian needs by increasing funding flows between countries in the region. However, potential donors face a range of challenges: from varying tax incentives to vastly different regulations and restrictions on sending donations across borders—these hinder the growth of effective and sustained philanthropic giving within the region.
Given an increasingly complex and diverse landscape of international philanthropy in the region, Asia Philanthropy Circle, Give2Asia and the King Baudouin Foundation have embarked on Transnational Giving Asia (TGA), a 1-year Feasibility Study to assess the appetite and feasibility for setting up an effecting cross-border giving network and platform in the Asia-Pacific region.
The study is in part inspired by Transnational Giving Europe (TGE) network, which enables donors in 21 European countries to financially support qualified non-profits in other jurisdictions, while receiving tax benefits in their home country.
To date, APC and its partners have interviewed some 80 donor organisations, philanthropists, and recipients on various issues in transnational giving: from understanding the motivation for giving, conditions and challenges around existing infrastructure, legal and fiscal regulations, donor appetite, to political environment that enable or hinder giving across countries.
The study is currently being conducted across 13 countries—Australia, China (including Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. The findings will help chart out opportunities and future directions for cross-border philanthropy in the region in the post-COVID-19 era.
Get involved
The TGA Feasibility Study will run until June 2021, with the results expected to be released to the public by Q3 of 2021. APC welcomes involvement from the Asia-Pacific philanthropy stakeholders—including donor groups, recipient groups, intermediaries and advisors—to have your voices be heard in enabling giving across borders for Asia and beyond.
To participate in interviews, get in touch with Jill Chin at [email protected]