University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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In October 2008, NVPC launched a New Initiative Grant worth up to US$140,000
for each new initiative involving a strong and sustainable volunteerism and/or
philanthropy component which will benefit the community at large in Singapore.
The Singapore government plays a pivotal role in encouraging and supporting
philanthropy. According to Tan (2008), “the state prefers to use persuasion in accord
with Singapore’s political and cultural values which emphasize ethical leadership
and the promotion of social responsibility, cohesion and stability in a multiracial and
multilingual society”. Hence, the government encourages private organizations to
return a fair share of their profits back to society.
In Singapore, corporate philanthropy involving private sector organizations and
publicly-funded educational institutions is often limited to charitable donations. The
three local universities, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang
Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU),
accept all forms of donations from both individuals and organizations. In 1991, the
government established a University Endowment Fund to attract donations as an
alternative source of funding for the universities instead of government grants and
tuition fees. For every S$1 raised by the universities, the government pledged S$1.
The matching fund proved to be very effective in cultivating a culture of
philanthropy for university education in the local community (Lee 2002; Lee &
Gopinathan 2003).
Until December 1996, the universities drew from the Universities Endowment Fund,
but this was dissolved to create separate fund-raising programs. In 1997, the third
university, Singapore Management University (SMU) was set-up and the
government announced that it would contribute S$3 for every S$1 raised for SMU.
At present, the government has adjusted its priorities and gifts to universities and
donations are now being matched on the basis of dollar for dollar. One reason for
this change could be that donations to non-profit organizations (including IPC and
non-IPC) by individuals have been increasing, from US$226 million in 2006 to
US$636 million in 2008 (Individual Giving Survey 2008). The survey also indicated
that donor participation increased to 91% in 2008 from 89% in 2006. Since the
whole purpose of the University Endowment Fund was to cultivate a culture of
philanthropy for university education, it would seem that this has served its purpose
well. Moreover, as highlighted by Lee & Gopinathan (2003), the Singapore
government’s intention is to take a preventive approach to avoid the over reliance of
universities on the government as the sole source of its funding needs.
In 2004, the combined figure for all three universities was about US$1.3 billion in
endowment funds. The donations are for the pursuit of academic excellence and
research purposes are mainly channeled to fund scholarships, professorships, student
bursaries, research grants and also for building-expansion projects. As a further boost
to encourage donations to support charitable entities, the government announced in
January 2005, that all Singapore tax residents(both individuals and companies)
qualify for a double tax deduction on all such donations from their assessable income
(These apply to donations to Institutions of a Public Character (IPC) which includes
the universities). Moreover, if the allowable tax deduction exceeds the assessable
income, then the unused deductions can be carried forward for up to five years
(Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) Circular 2006).