SINGAPORE - Smaller charities and those with less financial support will be able to tap a new fund set up by the Community Chest.
The money will go to 60 charities from 2018 to 2021. Each charity will receive up to $50,000 a year for two years. If each charity gets the maximum amount, this works out to a total of $6 million.
The money is meant to run programmes that empower social service users and families, support their capital expenses to improve service quality and efficiency, and build their capability for community engagements to benefit service users, Community Chest said on Monday (Feb 5).
It launched the Community Chest Charity Support Fund at its 35-year milestone celebration on Monday.
Mr Phillip Tan, chairman of Community Chest, said: "This is true to the spirit of Community Chest, which was first set up to raise funds for charities, so that they can focus on delivering critical services to those in need."
Selection criteria include being a National Council of Social Service member, having an active Institution of a Public Character status and having less than $2 million in total operating expenditure, based on latest audited financial statements.
In the first grant call, 20 charities that are not currently supported by Community Chest will benefit from the support.
They include CampusImpact, Xin Yuan Community Care and Daughters Of Tomorrow.
Ms Carrie Tan, executive director of Daughters Of Tomorrow, which helps low-income marginalised women, said the funds will enable the charity to scale up its programmes.
"The work that we do includes helping low-income mothers with guidance and emotional support in their work search," she said. "The funds will help boost our general operational and programme capacity."
Mr Chee Kin Hie, executive director of Xin Yuan Community Care, which runs support programmes for the elderly, said: "Raising funds is very difficult for a charity like us. The funds will help us continue the programmes we run, such as computer and smartphone literacy programmes."
Another 20 charities will receive the funding next year, as part of the second grant call. The final grant call will go out in 2020.
At its anniversary celebration, Community Chest also launched its #StoriesOfCare campaign, a nationwide effort to encourage people to share their stories of what caring means to them.
Submissions can be in the form of a short story, essay or poem, or artwork, drawing, illustration or photo. The top 35 entries will be curated into a commemorative book by Community Chest. It will be launched later this year.
Community Chest's Mr Tan said: "Each of us has played a part in making a difference to the lives of others, and nothing is more meaningful than to share such inspiring stories."
Members of the public can submit their stories of care through facebook.com/comchest and tag them #StoriesOfCare, or by e-mail to stories_of_care@ncss.gov.sg, by June 10.
