Shining a ray of hope through COVID-19

• Main Authors: GOH, Kenneth, ANG, Jovina
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: pivots; managing people; crowdfunding; fund raising; COVID-19; pandemics; Asian Studies; Nonprofit Administration and Management
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/325; https://smu.sharepoint.com/sites/admin/CMP/cases/SMU-20-BATCH%20%5BPDF-Pic%5D/SMU-20-0037%20%5BRay%20of%20Hope%5D/SMU-20-0037%20%5BRay%20of%20Hope%5D.pdf?CT=1614660807306&OR=ItemsView
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This case is set in November 2020. Despite COVID-19, Ray of Hope (ROH), a crowdfunding charity in Singapore had grown crowdfunded donations for their clients (individuals requiring financial assistance) six-fold from S$500,000 (US$400,000) in 2019 to S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in the period April to September 2020, without an increase in headcount. The nationwide circuit breaker – Singapore’s version of a lockdown, further hampered the work at ROH as no face-to-face meetings could be held with its clients in the two-month period from 7 April 2020 to 1 June 2020. Tan En, ROH’s General Manager, was quick to pivot ROH’s strategy from focusing on fundraising campaigns that helped individual clients directly (individual campaigns) to serving as the intermediary that raised and administered public donations for the volunteer groups (group campaigns). What were the reasons why ROH could pivot so quickly? Students will be able to 1) apply the concepts of managing a lean organisation, 2) learn the principles for leading agile teams, and 3) evaluate how to build trust and an effective organisational culture.