Only 14% of companies engage in volunteerism in Singapore, 26% donate: NVPC study
It finds that the most significant barrier that companies face when it comes to giving back is a lack of leadership interest
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[SINGAPORE] Only 14 per cent of the 1,100 companies surveyed by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) engage in corporate volunteering, while 26 per cent of them donate.
However, among these companies, there is a median employee participation rate of 70 per cent for volunteering and a median donation value of S$10,000 – reflecting a high level of commitment. This compares to a participation rate of 50 per cent and value of S$1,000 in 2021.
Lin Sufei, director of corporate and industry partnerships at NVPC, said: “(The findings) signal that there’s still a lot of room for us to work with companies and share with them about social impact, and how it shouldn’t be divorced from their business goals and strengths.”
These findings were revealed in NVPC’s inaugural National Corporate Purpose & Impact Study 2025, released on Friday (Feb 6). It surveyed 699 small and medium-sized enterprises and 401 large enterprises across nine industries in Singapore.
Cash was the primary form of donation activities, cited by 78 per cent of firms.
The top three causes chosen by companies for volunteering efforts were social services (36 per cent), community (25 per cent) and religion (16 per cent).
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Meanwhile, contributions to arts and culture and sports remained limited, with 5 per cent and 2 per cent of companies volunteering and donating towards these causes, respectively.
Barriers to giving
NVPC found that the most significant barrier that companies face when it comes to giving back is a lack of leadership interest.
Other barriers are financial constraints, having too few employees, and companies being unsure of how to reach out to charities as well as unsure of which charities to engage.
The study suggested that attitudinal factors outweigh resource limitations, pointing to future efforts to foster a more supportive leadership culture to engage in sustained efforts to give back.
Lin said NVPC will continue running programmes to promote volunteerism and donation efforts to middle management and senior management – such as the Company of Good Fellowship, a 10-session programme over six months that trains leaders in driving social impact.
As 2026 marks the 10th year of Company of Good, an award that recognises organisations for their social impact, NVPC will be ramping up its efforts to engage leaders in giving back.
“We feel that it’s important for senior management folks to see other best practices from other firms… and then they can think about the possibilities or the kind of support they can render their colleagues in bringing those initiatives to life,” Lin said.
For example, NVPC will have a series of luncheons and master classes to highlight case studies on how other companies and business leaders have sustained their giving-back efforts.
She added: “These will help to strengthen their understanding of why there’s a business case for giving back. It will encourage them to align these initiatives with their business strengths and goals. When that happens, they see that they are actually creating impact.”
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