For financial institutions in Singapore, giving is no longer optional. As the city positions itself as a hub for sustainable finance and impact capital, the harder question is how to contribute credibly without turning philanthropy into a branding exercise.
In some corners of the industry, giving remains quiet by design. Elsewhere, it is being formalised, measured and embedded into governance — often in response to scale rather than sentiment. Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), frames the issue against a widening regional funding shortfall. “As the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) draws near, Asia faces an urgent need to bridge a US$1.5 trillion ($1.9 trillion) funding gap,” she says, citing a 2025 UN report that finds no SDG is on track to be fully achieved in Asia-Pacific by 2030 and warns timelines could slip to 2062 if trends persist.
In that context, she argues that the divide between markets and community outcomes is artificial. “Markets and community-building are not two separate conversations; these are deeply interdependent,” she says. Gaps in education, healthcare or climate resilience eventually surface on balance sheets as volatility, stranded assets and political instability.
On the other hand, Lin Sufei, director of corporate and industry partnerships at National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), makes a similar point from a local lens, where corporate purpose is increasingly linked to trust and long-term stability. “In today’s landscape, business success is increasingly measured not only by financial performance, but by the value companies create for the societies they are part of,” she says.
“Trust is also the core currency for businesses today,” Lin adds, arguing that companies that show up consistently for communities signal their commitment to “shared progress and long-term value creation.”
NVPC sees evidence of this shift in the data. Through its Company of Good Recognition System, NVPC says conferred companies from the 2024 and 2025 cohorts collectively contributed more than $350 million in donations, over $72 million in in-kind support and more than one million volunteer hours in 2024–2025. Financial institutions alone accounted for $262 million, or 73% of total donations, and 741,000 volunteer hours, or 69% of total hours.
The more difficult task is separating sustained impact from optics, particularly in finance, where reputation risk and public scrutiny can distort incentives. Batra’s test is blunt: “A good corporate giver is defined less by the size of its cheque, and more by how strategically and collaboratively it aligns giving with real needs on the ground,” she says. A company that gives well starts from “What is our responsibility to this community?” rather than “What story do we want to tell in our annual report?”
Long-term partnerships
Both NVPC and AVPN argue for corporate giving that goes beyond episodic corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and one-off donations. Lin says: “Effective corporate philanthropy today goes beyond one-off donations to how a company embeds purpose into its core business,” including through skills-based volunteering, purpose-driven products, inclusive workforce practices and long-term community partnerships. NVPC encourages adoption of a national Corporate Purpose framework that shapes strategy, operations and people practices.
On the ground, NVPC points to initiatives designed to make contributions sustained rather than seasonal. Project V is intended to support long-term volunteering, while Giving Circles pool resources for families in need. NVPC says 11 financial institutions have taken part in Project V, with several continuing and scaling up their efforts beyond the first year. Some institutions also share capabilities with other businesses through NVPC’s Queen Bee programmes, an approach intended to multiply impact across the wider ecosystem.
Batra also argues that the next step is to treat philanthropic capital as part of a broader framework alongside impact investing and sustainable finance. “Effective corporate philanthropy is about mobilising financial, human and intellectual capital together,” she says, so it becomes part of a continuum of change rather than an isolated corporate donation function. In her view, the most effective corporate philanthropists combine funding with operational strengths, such as governance and analytics, that strengthen partners’ capacity to deliver at scale.
She also makes the case for flexible, multi-year funding, which requires donors to trust frontline organisations to deploy resources where they are needed most. AVPN, she says, has advocated for “flexible funding, both one-year and multi-year funding” because impact organisations need strong core capacities, not just reporting frameworks. Batra adds that multi-year funding lets grantees cover core costs, deliver programme impact and pilot or pivot initiatives as needed.
Singapore’s status as a financial hub gives financial institutions structural advantages — and leaves less room to opt out of social responsibility. “Banks, asset managers and insurers have a unique opportunity and responsibility to move beyond compliance and become genuine ecosystem partners in solving social and environmental challenges at scale,” says Batra. She points to platforms such as AVPN’s ImpactCollab as one example of outcomes-focused infrastructure intended to help capital flow more transparently towards measurable social outcomes.
NVPC echoes the point that sustainable finance, ESG (environmental, social and governance) decisions and community outcomes are linked. The nation’s hub ambitions are closely tied to how ESG considerations are integrated into everyday business decisions, translating capital into real-world outcomes through operations, workforce investment and community engagement, says Lin.
Commitment to social mobility
For QuantEdge Capital, a locally-based investment management firm, the philanthropic channel is deliberately separate from the hedge fund business. Its giving is conducted through Quantedge Foundation (Singapore) Ltd, a registered charity and Institution of a Public Character (IPC), under a separate legal entity because both areas are regulated and require distinct expertise.
Suhaimi Zainul-Abidin, CEO of QuantEdge Capital and a founding director of the foundation, ties the firm’s view of responsible capitalism to its investment philosophy. “Our view of responsible capitalism is deeply intertwined with our core investment philosophy that the long-term compounding of value requires systemic and sustained investment,” he says.
If the social ecosystem erodes, he adds, “then everyone suffers”, and financial success creates a non-negotiable obligation to reinvest in the systemic stability that supports that success.
He also argues that financial institutions are not passive participants in markets. “Financial institutions are an engine of capital allocation,” he says. “We don’t just react to markets; our actions shape them, and we see risk where others might not.” If the focus remains only on market returns, “we miss the rising systemic risks such as poverty, inequality and climate change”.
Outcomes, not optics
That perspective shapes how QuantEdge thinks about both social and financial returns. Suhaimi says the firm tries to translate investment principles such as discipline, long-term thinking and quantitative rigour into social outcomes. “We seek to generate high-leverage outcomes in the community,” he says, aiming for the highest social multiplier per dollar spent and tracking outcomes beyond simple inputs, including measures such as student progression rates and sustained employment metrics.
QuantEdge’s giving predates the formal foundation. “Philanthropy has always been a quiet commitment,” he says, noting that even before Quantedge Foundation was established in 2016, the firm was already working with charities and partners, including the National Council of Social Service and the Community Foundation of Singapore. As the business scaled, he says, the firm understood the need to scale its commitment proportionally, a choice also influenced by “our upbringing and identity as Singaporeans”.
The foundation’s focus is on local social mobility, with programmes designed around long-term systems outcomes rather than one-off grants. One flagship is the University Access programme launched in 2017, which Suhaimi says has led to all six autonomous universities guaranteeing full financial aid to deserving students from economically challenging backgrounds. Another is the Philantropreneur-in-residence programme, where the foundation provides funding and strategic support to individuals implementing innovative approaches to social issues; it currently backs seven individuals and charities.
QuantEdge also points to experiments where it funds pilots, tracks outcomes, and adapts over time. Suhaimi cites a programme that uses adaptive learning technology to provide tailored academic support in community settings for children with limited access to learning resources. While basic outputs such as participation rates are tracked, he says the foundation is more focused on whether interventions deliver longer-term change, including “a sustained love for learning”. Partners include Temasek Foundation, Yayasan Mendaki, Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA), Campus Impact, SHINE Children and Youth Services and South West Community Development Council.
For the firm, the culture of giving is meant to be organic rather than mandated. “We don’t force anyone to do anything,” says Suhaimi. “It is quite organic. If anyone has an idea to do some good, he or she can just organise it and rally interested parties to come along.” He argues that the deeper test of intent is what happens out of public view. “Some say that the original purpose and intent behind CSR has been corrupted or distorted because it’s become a public relations game,” he adds. “In truth, what’s more important is what you do when no one is looking”.
Voluntary giving
Employee participation is also structured around voluntary commitment. Suhaimi says the resources backing the foundation come from the staff of Quantedge, led by the firm’s principals, while the foundation team studies needs, finds partners, co-designs interventions and reviews outcomes. QuantEdge also matches staff donations in some cases to amplify giving, and some employees contribute through board and committee roles. “I think the best way to create a culture (any culture) is to live it,” he says, arguing that leading by example makes giving “infectious” without making it compulsory.
The broader ecosystem still has room to deepen long-horizon giving, particularly in parts of finance that prefer to stay under the radar. Suhaimi notes that “lots of people do good things on the quiet” and that hedge funds often prefer discretion, but “we can certainly still do more” by being more strategic and systematic.
Batra, for her part, wants a shift from “doing more CSR” to changing how impact is “understood, governed and funded”, arguing the old model of short-term projects no longer matches the scale of regional challenges.
