Speaking at the Singapore International Foundation gala dinner on Thursday night, its chairman Ms Euleen Goh said that corporate generosity, long a pillar of support for many charities and volunteer organisations, may weaken as the economic slowdown bites into companies' bottomline.

'In the current global economic turmoil, it will be tempting for many corporates to shift attention away from corporate social responsibility programmes,' she said.

The event honoured nine companies including the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation, Singapore Airlines, UBS and Metro, for their donations and partnerships.

President S R Nathan and Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Dr Lee Boon Yang were guests of honour.

Responding to questions from The Straits Times, Ms Goh, former chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, predicted a belt-tightening trend among companies which 'will focus on cutting back on discretionary spending.'

'I hope that companies will see corporate social responsibility as an essential part of their culture of doing business and continue to practise this meaningful core value,' she said.

Not all is lost, however. Ms Goh noted that while people are less likely to go on long-term overseas stints during financial downturns, many are still keen to volunteer on a shorter-term basis.

Still, the fallout from the financial maelstrom has already hit at least one major charity project.

The Boys' Brigade, which runs one of Singapore's longest-running donation drives, the Sharity Gift Box project, said donations have dropped.

One the biggest sponsors of this Christmas drive has been life insurer AIA, whose parent company AIG recently went into a tailspin.

AIA has been donating $100,000 to this cause yearly since 2005. This year, however, it will donate just 10 per cent of that amount. The brigade was told that this was because of 'new controls' introduced by their head office, said Mr Desmond Koh, executive director of The Boys' Brigade.

Mr Koh added that they are still $130,000 short with a month away from the launch of the project, and may resort to using saved funds from previous years.