Quantedge Foundation aims to do more for social mobility through philanthropy, says CEO Xie Yao Quan

SINGAPORE – For the past 10 years, philanthropic organisation Quantedge Foundation Singapore has largely stayed behind the scenes.

The foundation, which has quietly supported a wide range of causes with a focus on children and youth, wants to do more in the next decade, particularly by building research and evidence to drive social mobility.

It has given more than $30 million to social mobility initiatives over the past decade to improve opportunities for those who start life with less.

Looking ahead, the charity, which was registered as an Institution of a Public Character in 2016, wants to build a stronger evidence base from the outcomes of programmes it supports, to better inform policy and practice that can be scaled up.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Jan 28, the foundation’s chief executive Xie Yao Quan said Singapore has succeeded in achieving broad-based progress, including for lower-income families. But gaps in starting points and opportunities remain, as higher-income households progress faster.

Having a better fundamental understanding of social mobility is important, and philanthropy has a distinct role to play in this context, he said.

This could be through identifying knowledge or evidence gaps and then piloting initiatives that can later be evaluated to plug the gap, he added.

“We can take risks and pilot innovative solutions with an eye on evaluating their impact, and really ask ourselves the tough questions like what works and what doesn’t,” he said.

As at end-2024, the foundation’s programmes had benefited around 7,000 people.

The foundation, which has 13 staff, now wants to take on a more front-facing role as a “thought leader”, gathering stakeholders and sharing insights drawn from its funding and evaluation work, said Mr Xie, who also chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Social and Family Development, and is the MP for Jurong Central SMC.

One of the foundation’s flagship initiatives, University Access, has helped more than 2,000 students over the past 10 years study tuition-free.

Under the programme, Singaporean students in financial need receive a financial aid package to cover the entire course of their study.

Based on an informal survey conducted by the foundation with a sample of beneficiaries, about a quarter said they would not have enrolled in university, were it not for the support.

Mr Xie said the significance of the programme lies in ensuring that financial constraints do not deter capable students from applying for or enrolling in university.

In 2024, the foundation launched a one-year debt relief pilot initiative with Credit Counselling Singapore.

Mr Xie said that while it is widely recognised that debt places a heavy burden on low-income households, the detailed mechanics of how debt constrains social mobility in Singapore remain poorly understood.

The aim of the initiative is not only to relieve debt, but also to assess whether beneficiaries are able to remain debt-free over time, he said. The programme’s outcomes are being studied.

Underpinning these initiatives is a view of social mobility as a cumulative process that unfolds across a person’s lifetime, Mr Xie said.

Opportunity gaps that begin at or before birth can accumulate through adolescence and into adulthood, indicating that interventions need to be coordinated across life stages, he said. These interventions must also vary, spanning financial, academic, mentoring and social support.

He said his roles as an MP and GPC chair inform the work at Quantedge Foundation, giving him deeper insight into the challenges of social mobility in Singapore.

“With the residents that I meet, you get a sense of the lived realities of social mobility – the challenges that individuals face and the opportunity gaps that manifest on the ground. That is very useful and keeps our view of the foundation’s work grounded in these realities.”

Looking at policies and scrutinising government programmes also give him a sharper understanding of where philanthropic efforts can best complement other existing efforts, he said.

In 2026, the foundation is working on new initiatives like a Social Mobility Fund meant to support lower-income families in a way that gives them agency and choice.

The idea is for low-income families to receive credits to procure development products and services for their young children.

“We want to galvanise resources from the community, and get different stakeholders to play their own part in creating opportunity for others,” Mr Xie said.