Charity Groups - Are they Relevant Today ?

The Executive Board

I have been serving as the 2nd Vice President at a small charity for the last 6 months.There are a total of over 2,000 charities in Singapore and the short experience I have had has led me to question a) the relevance and b) the objective of not just this charity but for the bigger picture, the charity landscape in Singapore.

'Charity begins at Home' is a common proverb which is very apt, even in today's times. There are record levels of unemployment all over the world and countries are becoming very clever at reporting statistics which would cast them in bad light, so underemployment - a situation whereby there are a group of people, many over 40, without the proper skill sets,education, with health issues who have been unemployed for over 18 months and have given up looking for a job. They would NOT be classified as unemployed, so do not fall into the category of unemployed.So, categorically, there are many people who are 'semi-working' or providing useful time as semivolunteers, especially after they have lost the will to look for a full time job,in charities.

I have several questions which are similar to those first raised by my friend Roland Teo in his blog post.

a) Is there is a pressing need to serve the niche of for example, wayward youth, whereby our own Government has ably provided many programmes under the Minstry of Community Development,Youth and Sports such that a charity be set up solely to address this niche ? The answer is YES and NO. Depends on who you ask - basically.

b) Will charities solve the social problems of our society ? Again the answer is YES and NO. YES to a certain extent, they do help and NO they only provide the basic support structure which their meagre funds from wellwishers and donations from
corporates (eg. MNCs)can support. Charities can never replace the Government in terms of funding, infrastructure and organisational capabilities.

As Roland had aptly put it, if the Multi Natinal Company really wants to be charitable it should look after its interests of its staff and not fire or downsize the company whenever their profits are dwindling. What they are doing now is doing both, that is downsizing or rightsizing their business and also donating a sum of money through its Corporate Social Responsibility CSR programmes. This helps to improve its 'good corporate citizen' image and also show the public that they are a'caring' employer.

If MNCs were so 'caring' they would do their best not to retrench or downsize. That would itself be a charitable act for their loyal serving staff, rather than focus always on productivity.

So in the end, why are charities existing ?

They are for the greater part, self serving, and also providing the small niche services which the Government should be handling. Instead these organisations fill the small role which the Governnent should be taking more direct involvement in.