More giving to community, arts, heritage, health causes: NUS study

MORE are giving to causes involving the community, arts and heritage, as well as health, a study by the Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP) at NUS Business School has revealed.

Its study entitled Overview of the Charity Sector in Singapore showed these were the fastest growing charity subsectors. Money given by the government accounted for most of the total receipts in the charity sector at about 46 per cent in 2013, followed by "others" at 34 per cent.

Charities in the education subsector benefited the most from the grants, followed by the arts and heritage subsector and the health subsector.

"The charity sector has been growing steadily in numbers and total receipts from 2007 to 2013. A more microscopic review shows that the percentages of donations and grants in proportion to gross domestic product (GDP) were relatively stable from 2009 to 2013. More interestingly, charities appear to be growing alternative sources of funding to build sustainability," said Dr Zhang Weina, research director, ACSEP at NUS Business School.

The study showed total receipts from the charity sector as a percentage of the GDP has increased to 3.7 per cent in 2013 from 2.2 per cent in 2007. The total amount of receipts in 2013 stood at S$13.9 billion.