‘Make volunteering more social’ to encourage others to give

AMANDA LEE Today Online 3 Dec 15;

SINGAPORE — In future, volunteering or making a donation could be more social — one could nominate someone else to take on the task, after doing so themselves, akin to the ice-bucket challenge that went viral last year.

This was a suggestion by a participant of the ongoing SGfuture engagement series, at a session held yesterday.

Sixty-two participants from various sectors, such as private companies and non-profit organisations, were invited to discuss about the “Future of Giving”. They were divided into nine groups to discuss how businesses can help make Singapore a giving nation and how technology can be used to build a giving community.

Speaking to TODAY, co-founder of social content platform “The Shiok Collective” Andrew Tan, 29, said his group suggested that the movement requires people to nominate another person on social media, such as Facebook, after volunteering at an event or donating to a charity.

“Inspired by the ice-bucket challenge, (we) want to see Singaporeans encouraging people to give,” he said.

Mr Tan added that a one-stop app for news about giving, and giving users a platform to research non-government organisations, could be created to build a giving community.

Yesterday’s session was also part of the inaugural week-long #GivingWeek which started on Tuesday and ends on Monday. So far, 150 companies have joined #GivingWeek, organised by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre. It will be held annually from this year, after the success of #GivingTuesdaySG.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu, who is leading the SGfuture engagement series with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing, said the series of SGfuture engagement sessions is to bring “like-minded” people together to talk about the kind of future Singaporeans want. She added it would be an “extensive engagement” series and cover “all areas”, such as sustainable development and caring for Singapore.

One of the #GivingWeek participants is support service company Accela, which is encouraging the public to donate an amount to a charitable cause in exchange for a cup of coffee by its in-house barista. AMANDA LEE