NCSS to launch new framework early next year for companies to measure social impact
It will guide firms in measuring and monitoring the effectiveness of their corporate giving, volunteering and inclusive hiring.
Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli acknowledged that while some companies are just starting to do good, there are others that are more experienced in philanthropy. These companies could go beyond funding direct services to investing in areas such as research and innovation, he said.
SINGAPORE: Companies here will soon get a better sense on the impact of their philanthropic efforts.
A sustainable philanthropy framework, which will be launched in the first quarter of next year, will guide firms in measuring and monitoring the effectiveness of their corporate giving, volunteering and inclusive hiring.
The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) is working on the details of the framework. Companies will also get a playbook that suggests steps and practices they can take to achieve their social goals.
HELPING COMPANIES TO MEASURE SOCIAL IMPACT
Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said: “With this framework, we hope for corporates to deepen and broaden their giving, incorporate doing good and doing well as part of (their corporate) strategies, and eventually address social issues and turn giving into a competitive advantage for the corporates themselves.
“As the framework guides corporates to do philanthropy more meaningfully, it will also take into account that corporates are at different stages of their philanthropic journey.”
Mr Masagos acknowledged that while some companies are just starting to do good, there are others that are more experienced in philanthropy.
These companies could go beyond funding direct services to investing in areas such as research and innovation, he said.
ENCOURAGING TIE-UPS BETWEEN COMPANIES, SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCIES
To encourage more tie-ups between corporations and social service agencies, NCSS aims to give companies a tangible set of metrics to measure their social impact and inspire continued giving.
Start-up firm RoboSolutions, for instance, has collaborated with social service agency AWWA's Day Activity Centre to use a robot that can show visitors around.
Called Temi, the robot can also entertain clients with disabilities using videos and music, and alleviate some of the workload at AWWA.
“We do have a lot of downtime in our programme. That means that clients are left to rest, and we want them to be actively engaged as much as possible,” said Ms Nur Atiqah Hairodin, centre supervisor of AWWA Day Activity Centre.
“So definitely one of the issues is for clients to be engaged during downtime.”
The robot allows clients to access leisure and educational applications, she added.
“On top of that, we also want to solve the issue of limited resources in our centre. We want to increase the efficiency of the use of our staff’s time, where they can actually provide more targeted intervention for clients.”
Temi's creators RoboSolutions modified its software to suit AWWA's needs, but staff at the activity centre can also re-programme the robot themselves.
“The idea here is that we want to teach them, to train them up so that they can make changes themselves or they can come up with new ideas,” said RoboSolutions managing director Lim Wen Chyi.
“They can programme the robot in their own way. Whoever is managing the robots will attend some training sessions with us, usually about three to four hours. And the rest of the time, all they need to do is get used to Temi, play with it, try different stuff, and then they can come up with their own creative content.”
