In the quest to tackle social mobility, philanthropists have a unique role to play that goes beyond dollars and cents

Beyond whipping out the cheque book to fund specific service delivery programmes, how else can philanthropists add to the landscape and contribute to the shared goal of social mobility? This was one of the salient questions posed during the Access Social Mobility Summit at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore on April 5.

The event marked the fifth anniversary of Access Singapore, a social mobility charity founded in 2019 that aims to provide career exposure opportunities for disadvantaged students in Singapore.  Panellists at the event spoke about the state of social mobility in Singapore, and how stakeholders like businesses and philanthropists can play a part in advancing the cause. 

Drawing on the perspectives of experienced philanthropists, one panel highlighted the many opportunities and challenges facing those who seek to drive positive change in this area, including the need for effective partnerships and sustained investment. Moderating the panel was Laurence Lien, Asia Philanthropy Circle’s co-founder and founding chief executive officer.

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An infrastructure of philanthropy

Beyond funding specific programmes, philanthropists can invest in building the infrastructure of social sector agencies which are trying to solve the complex issue of social mobility, said Clement Lee, Quantedge Foundation’s deputy chief executive officer.

Through this, social service agencies get to experiment with different ideas, test out their hypotheses and develop solutions. Through this sandboxing process, they glean ideas of which community-run programmes might or might not work and this evidence-based approach can be useful to the government.

Knowledge capital can also go a long way, added Kate Shieh, deputy chief executive officer of Tri-Sector Associates, a non-profit social impact advisory firm. “There's a lot of wisdom available in the philanthropic sector in terms of the data available and impact assessment. So this is an evidence based approach, which, when collectively shared, creates a lot of potential in moulding how policies are made in the future,” she said.

An example of this is when Tri-Sector Associates partnered with AWWA social service agency to design an intervention and funding model to tackle the root causes of chronic poverty that its clients face. 17 different indicators were developed and tracked to measure the education, skills training and employment outcomes. “These are useful data points to make better interventions and can be used to advocate for policy change,” said Shieh.

For Octava Foundation’s chief executive officer Raman Sidhu, philanthropists have to get creative and very intentional in how they deploy the suite of tools within their disposal. “Depending on how sticky or complex the issue is,” Sidhu shared. She also stewards the foundation’s investment in education, technology in education and social innovation.

Help beyond finance

Sidhu went on to highlight how the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated educational inequities, where many children were impacted by school closures in the region. The pandemic also dramatically transformed the delivery of education through remote learning and accelerated the demand for edtech capabilities — from e-learning apps to language and digital collaboration tools.

On this front, her team opted for a prize philanthropy model through a social innovation challenge. They cast the net wide to source accessible and affordable edtech solutions operating in at least one of Octava Foundation’s target countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

On the other end of the spectrum, when funders specifically know the organisation and type of programme they want to develop, they can pursue a venture philanthropy model, she said.

This means going beyond funding just the programme, but “the core of the organisation, so that they have the right capabilities, capacities and technical assistance, to be able to co-develop the programme with you,” she added.

“A small percentage of the population might not be thriving and have the ability to exercise choices or opportunities. What we need is to start thinking of the last-mile solution, which needs a lot of experimentation. That’s where philanthropists can come in,” said Sidhu.

Echoing her views, Boon-Ngee Sebastian, senior director of Temasek Foundation said that they see its role as complementary to the government and private sector. Another advantage is that they also have a “higher risk appetite” to deploy capital to fund innovative projects and actively find partners who can amplify impact.

Opportunities and challenges

The panellists also shared tips on success and how they navigate challenges. For instance, many of the community based training programmes for parents are centre-based. But that limits access because according to Sidhu, the reality is that many parents are “time-poor” and have little bandwidth to attend such sessions.

She cited the example of its pilot project with Shine Children and Youth Services, a professional mentoring programme for children from low-income families to help them maximise their potential and break the cycle of poverty. Each child is assigned a full-time professional mentor, who will visit the child in their home regularly for educational support and mentoring to develop social-emotional competencies. 
This, Sidhu adds, helps with giving “additional bandwidth” to the parent, who can learn parenting skills strategies in a non-judgemental space too.

Still, Quantedge’s Lee reminds us that “before embarking on academic programmes for disadvantaged communities, there is also a need to establish ‘a baseline of psychological readiness’.”

“Children need to feel like they are in an environment where they feel like they have trusted adults, they feel the motivation, and have something to aspire towards. This is needed before we talk about access to opportunities,” he explained. The onus, he added, is on organisations to do deep analysis and critically look at other factors and gaps that could affect the success of their programmes.

What’s also pivotal in these pay for success projects is for different partners to align on their objectives, design success metrics and agree on the best way to tackle the challenge collectively as a group, added Shieh of Tri-Sector Associates. 

In another example, Boon-Ngee Sebastian, Senior Director of Temasek Foundation, highlighted how the Temasek Foundation Cares KIDS 0-3 programme looks to optimise the developmental potential of young children from vulnerable families through a multi-layered and integrated community health and social care support system.

“There’s no way any of us can solve the complex issue all at once. That’s what philanthropy is good for, we chisel it one pilot (programme) at a time,” she said.