Support given to Social Enterprises

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