Facts and Figures | Singapore Economic Development Board

Facts and Figures

Singapore is currently home to more than 130 international non-profit organisations.
There is a growing cluster of private banks providing philanthropy services to their HNI clients. This includes banks like UBS, RBS Coutts and Standard Chartered. In particular, Credit Suisse launched the SymAsia Foundation in early 2011 as a dedicated grant-making institution to manage donor advised funds for its clients who give towards local or regional philanthropic causes. International philanthropy advisory bodies are also coming to Singapore to engage local and overseas donors. One example is the Charities Aid Foundation Southeast Asia that was set up since 2008.
Social finance and impact investing activity is growing in Singapore with experienced organisations such as BlueOrchard, representing the largest investment manager in the microfinance sector, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), the sister organisation to the European Venture Philanthropy Association, and the Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIXA), which seeks to launch the first social stock exchange for Asia from Singapore.
With the growth of the middle class in Asia alongside with rapid urbanisation, there is both a growth in consumer and user demand and more challenges for the various industries to meet this new and increased demand, industry associations serve to fulfil the needs of industry in offering insights, solutions, sharing of best practices and setting industry standards. There are currently close to 50 industry associations in Singapore, and some of them have global functions, with International Baccalaureate as an example, Singapore being one of their 3 global centres, supporting more than 600,000 IB students in over 2,400 schools in 129 countries. The Singapore Global Centre evaluates prospective and authorised schools, develops and organises teacher training workshops, and promotes understanding and recognition of IB programmes.
Five of the world’s top environmental conservation NGOs, Worldwide Fund for Nature, Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Birdlife International, and Fauna & Flora International have their Regional Headquarters in Singapore.
Earth Hour, one of the world’s largest campaigning brands, relocated its Global Headquarters from Sydney to Singapore. Earth Hour manages its global branding, media outreach, advertising and corporate engagements from Singapore.
IUATLD is a leading global scientific organisation that promotes lung health in low- and middle-income countries. The RHQ in Singapore serves as a base for its regional TB, TB/HIV and tobacco control programmes through technical assistance, clinical trials coordination, and grant monitoring. The regional HQ also runs the education component - the International Management Development Programme - for health professionals.

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