Collective Philanthropy: The strength of giving together

• Main Author: John, Rob
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: Place and Environment; Social Welfare
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lien_research/151; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lien_research/article/1152/viewcontent/collective.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Giving to charity has never been a solitary activity in any culture. People have joined together to give for millennia. In Asia, clan associations, religious groups or just friends have enjoyed the benefits of giving as a group. But there appears to be a renaissance of collective giving with the advent of more organised, strategic and outcome-focused philanthropy. At the Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP) where I am presently based, our research team’s curiosity about giving circles was first piqued when investigating the nature of innovation in Asian philanthropy in 2012.1 In that study, we reported several initiatives where individuals pooled their resources and jointly selected a non-profit organisation to fund. Since then, the number and variety of giving circle models have increased across the region, leading me to believe that giving circles will contribute significantly to the development of philanthropy in Asia over the coming decade.