Giving Compass' Take:

• In Singapore, skills-based giving effectively complements traditional giving and help strengthen the investing sector as a whole. 

• How is skills-based different? What makes this model productive? 

•  Read about skills-based volunteerism. 

Volunteerism used to be just about contributing time. Many of us have a memory from school of cleaning beaches or planting trees. In recent years, there has been a growing realisation that time can be even more impactful if we also contributed skills. In Singapore, there are now skills-based volunteer organisations that enable consultants, accountants, engineers and data scientists to contribute their professional talents to good causes.

What about our giving? Well, around the world, a growing number of philanthropists are infusing giving with their investment skills. It enables them to give more meaningfully, which keeps them engaged and increases their impact. This trend could play a critical role in helping us find new ways of solving problems fit for our country’s next 50 years.

Traditional giving focuses on providing grant funding for a specific program, and usually on a one- to three-year basis. In effect, traditional givers are “buying” social services for beneficiaries who cannot pay for such services themselves. We need buyers. But we also need builders, who are focused on bettering the capability of the social agencies themselves.

In the for-profit world, different types of hands-on investors play this “builder” role at various stages in order to take a company from idea to scale. Skills-based givers, many with investment backgrounds themselves, are adapting lessons from investing to play a “builder” role in their giving.

We are evolving as a country, and skills-based giving can play an important part. It ensures a more cohesive society in a way that complements traditional giving. Skills-based volunteering has not led to the downfall of traditional volunteering. Instead, it has raised the profile of volunteering as a whole, drawing in new sources of giving, getting more out of current giving, and making giving more widespread.

Read the full article about skills-based giving by Kevin Tan at The Peak.