In the news article “Social
enterprises to get more help” in The
Straits Times by Priscilla Goy, the article explained about the early-stage funding scheme
under the VentureforGood initiative by the Singapore centre for Social
Enterprise (raiSE) which gives start-up social enterprises start-up funding of
up to $20,000 to try out their ideas. With this news article, the topic of
challenges that social enterprises face surfaces, with one of the early
challenges that a social enterprise face being the lack of funding during its
start-up. However, with the social
enterprise sector growing bigger each year, more help and support such as the
early-stage finding scheme mentioned above has been given to social enterprises
in Singapore to help social enterprises overcome the challenges they face.
In a speech by Mr Tony Tan, the
president of Singapore, Mr Tony Tan explained that the social enterprise is a
young but growing sector in Singapore and hence faces many challenges such as
the lack of funding and knowledge in business. As such, there are many key
initiatives taken to help the social enterprise sector including the forming of
raiSE. Mr Tony Tan then shared about the President’s Challenge Social
Enterprise Award which rewards successful social enterprises that has created a
social impact in society with money. The award also serves to help more social
enterprises receive help from other partners including mentorship which would
help the social enterprise to develop and grow further (The Istana, 2015).
The Tote Board and Ministry of Social
and Family Development (MSF) are also supporting the social enterprise sector
by providing $30 million worth of funding in investment and grants for social enterprises
to help grow and expand the sector (toteboard, 2016). raiSE was also formed to
raise awareness about the social enterprise sector in Singapore and to help
increase the support given to social enterprises to encourage the growth of
this sector in Singapore. raiSE provides many kinds of support for social
enterprises to help them overcome challenges such as the lack of funding which is
a common challenge a social enterprise face when starting up, mentorship and
training for social enterprises to gain relevant expertise such as knowledge in
business management and by also providing relevant resources to social
enterprises (raiSE, 2016).
Other corporates such as DBS are also
providing support for social enterprises with DBS providing $340,000 worth of
project funds for social enterprise and creating loan schemes that are catered
for social enterprises which allows social enterprises to focus more on building their business. DBS also shares process improvement expertise with
social enterprises that has further expansion plans in the hopes that social enterprises
can provide more job opportunities for others when they develop in the future (DBS, 2014).
In conclusion, with the growing
social enterprise sector in Singapore, more support has been provided to social
enterprises in various ways to help social enterprises become sustainable and
to help create a social impact in our society. With more support provided to
social enterprises in Singapore, passionate people with a social cause they
want to improve on and other social enterprises should go to the various
stakeholders that support social enterprises to seek assistance and advice for
these social enterprises to have a more successful start-up thus helping our
society as the growing social enterprise sector helps to improve on the various
social issues in our society.
Reference Articles
Development Bank of Singapore. (2014). DBS commits to developing social
entrepreneurship in Singapore and Asia with
Social enterprise project grants.
Retrieved from https://www.dbs.com/newsroom/DBS_commits_to_developing_social_entrepreneurship_in_Singapore_and_Asia_with_social_enterprise_project_grants_MIGRT
Goy, P. (2015, August 1).
Social enterprises to get more help. The
Straits Times. Retrieved from
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/social-enterprises-to-get-more-help
Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise. (2016). What we do. Retrieved from
https://www.raise.sg/what-we-do/
The Istana. (2015). Speech by President Tony Tan Keng Yam at the
launch of Singapore Centre
for Social Enterprise (raiSE) and the
President’s challenge social enterprise award 2015 on 27 May 2015.
Retrieved from http://www.istana.gov.sg/news/speeches/2015/speech-president-tony-tan-keng-yam-the-launch-singapore-centre-social-enterprise
toteboard. (2016). Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise.
Retrieved from
http://www.toteboard.gov.sg/grants/application/apply-through-our-partners/strategic-initiatives/singapore-centre-for-social-enterprise