National Youth Council, NVPC launch initiatives encouraging youths to give back to the community

[SINGAPORE] The National Youth Council (NYC) and National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) launched two initiatives to encourage youths to start ground-up initiatives and give back to the community.

These were announced at the inaugural Impact, IRL event on Saturday (Oct 31), which brought together nearly 2,500 youths and representatives from community organisations, government agencies, and corporate and philanthropic partners.

The first initiative is NYC’s Microgrant, in which youths will receive up to S$1,000 in funding to start a ground-up initiative or community project. NYC set aside around S$150,000 to award Microgrants onsite.

There is increasing interest among youths to start ground-up initiatives. NYC noted that the number of youth-led ground-up projects it supported rose from 154 projects in 2021 to 306 in 2025, with causes spanning arts, community services and education.

Tony Soh, CEO of NVPC, said that more than half of ground-up founders were aged 18 to 34, based on the centre’s past surveys.

The Microgrants are part of a wider commitment under the SG Youth Plan to provide up to S$20 million from the National Youth Fund to support up to 3,000 youth-led projects over the next five years.

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David Chua, CEO of NYC, said: “Youths have shared that they can face barriers such as doubts about their impact, knowledge gaps and limited opportunities, and are looking for more resources, connections and guidance to get started.

“The Microgrant is therefore designed to lower these barriers and make it easier for youths to turn an idea into action.”

Besides funding, NYC will also provide consultancy, mentorship, networking opportunities and capacity-building programmes to support youths.

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Soh added: “Through Bagus (Building All Groundups for Success) Together, a tripartite collaboration between NVPC, Temasek Foundation and Tote Board, we support ground-ups in starting and sustaining their initiatives by facilitating access to resources, networks and opportunities for collaboration.”

At Impact, IRL, 147 projects were awarded grants – including Microgrants – onsite. Applications for Microgrants are open all year round.

The second initiative launched on Saturday was NVPC’s Micro-giving initiative, which allows youths to donate from as little as S$1 to their chosen cause on giving.sg.

Nineteen charities are participating in the Micro-giving initiative, supporting causes such as environment, health, social support and inclusivity, and youth.

“By lowering the entry point, we hope to encourage more young people to support causes they care about,” Soh said. “Ultimately, our aim is to nurture a culture where giving becomes a natural part of everyday life.”