Laurence Lien on a mission to empower those with wealth to give back

HE HAS spent two decades in the philanthropic community, but Laurence Lien has more to give.

He has just co-founded the Asia Community Foundation (ACF), which bills itself as the first community foundation aimed at “catalysing change in the region, through and from Singapore”.

This is on top of his already full plate chairing the non-profit Lien Foundation founded by his father, and running the Asia Philanthropy Circle (APC) as its founding chief executive.

His latest endeavour, set up in September this year, connects donors with regional non-profit organisations.

Unlike APC, which is a membership-based platform for experienced donors in the region to collaborate on philanthropic activities, ACF wants to help new donors looking for a way to kickstart their philanthropic efforts.

Speaking to The Business Times, Lien likened ACF to a consultancy that conducts due diligence for donors who are keen to donate locally or within the region. This includes establishing if a donor’s preferred organisation is a bona fide charity and whether the organisation can make a difference with the donations.

“ACF provides that platform where we have grant-making professionals with many years of experience in doing this, who can do the due diligence and the grant-making processes so that you are assured (the grants) are being given in a safe and efficient way,” he said.

Targeting ultra-high-net-worth individuals

Lien said there has been an uptick in the number of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals in Singapore, and consequently a rising desire among such individuals and family offices to contribute to philanthropic causes regionally.

“Many do want to give, (but) when they find it a bit too challenging, they don’t do it,” said Lien, who is a former Nominated Member of Parliament and ex-CEO of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre.

ACF’s objective is to make it easy for such individuals to donate, he added. They can also tap the experience and knowledge of the members in APC.

ACF has seen “very good interest” from UHNW individuals since its launch, said Lien.

It has brought on board 10 active donors, putting it well on its way to hit its target of 25 donors by end-2024.

It is also engaging 50 prospective donors, although Lien said it will take time to understand how and in which areas donors want to contribute.

The foundation aims to support 200 active donors and administer S$150 million of funds annually towards philanthropic causes across the region by 2030.

Asked if the recent high-profile money-laundering case would affect ACF’s operations, given that the suspects involved in the cases had donated to local charities, Lien said the group already has in place standard procedures to ensure donors are legitimate, such as checking their names against sanctioned lists.

“But I think now we all need to drill in a bit more thoroughly into sources of funds and where they come from. And if there are too many unknowns about that, then we have to pause (the donations),” he added.

Rising interest in giving

Lien has been active in the philanthropic landscape for a little over 20 years. But it is only in the last decade that he has seen greater interest in philanthropy locally and regionally, he said.

He attributed this to ageing family business patriarchs who want to leave behind a legacy. At the same time, the younger generation of business owners are also more socially conscious and want their family businesses to have a corporate purpose beyond making money.

However, while mindsets are changing, Lien said “action is still lagging”.

Latest figures show Singapore’s donations to charities at 0.7 per cent of national gross domestic product. In the United States, the figure is 2 per cent.

Lien is pushing for Singapore to hit at least 1 per cent, and believes initiatives by ACF could help.

He also hopes to grow the non-profit sector, as he noted that regional and local charities are not always able to grow their programmes fast enough to keep up with donations.

This could be due to a lack of talent and innovation capacity within the non-profit sector.

As ACF grows, he said: “We now have to make sure all our systems are up and ready to serve all these prospective donors.”