NVPC sees record-breaking $27.2 million in donations in Dec 2024
The National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) announced that it saw two record-breaking amounts of donations in December 2024, receiving $27.2 million in total during the month and $3.9 million on Dec 31, 2024.
NVPC held its second City of Good Summit on March 27, with more than 1,000 participants from the people, private and public sectors present.
In the spirit of SG60, NVPC is collaborating with Community Chest on SGSHARE, a national giving campaign on giving.sg that encourages all to give in support of the wider community.
Formerly known as SHARE, donations given to the rebranded programme will be matched by the Government by up to $250 million from Jan 1, 2025 onwards.
NVPC's giving.sg remains as Singapore's preferred online philanthropy platform, with more than 700 charities supported on the website.
The event also saw Building All Groundups for Success (BAGUS) Together celebrate its First Anniversary, with an appreciation session for groundup leaders, stakeholders and partners who have supported groundup initiatives.
Among these successful initiatives is 32 Pages, which fosters resilience among children aged four to 10 by nurturing their socio-emotional skills and providing positive adult modelling.
Tamara Ann Tan, 25, the co-founder and program director of 32 Pages, shared that it was challenging to get children to sit down and learn as they did not want to learn in a classroom space due to past negative experiences.
They eventually decided to pivot to focus on teaching them how to navigate their feelings and how to understand their past experiences.
Some children come in with complex family histories, but Ms Tan believes that everyone has the potential to succeed and they just need to be guided gently in the right direction.
They plan to have more collaborations with other organisations, with a focus on innovation, fitness and health in lieu of SG60.
State of Play, a dynamic 'trade fair' style where corporates can connect with community partners, returned for its third edition at the event, with 60 community partners from across diverse causes.
One of them is The Signpost Project, aimed at nurturing relationships and articulating individual stories of tissue peddlers in Singapore.
Founded in 2019, it is the only organisation in the country dedicated to helping such individuals.
In an interview with The New Paper, Augustine Chan, 20, the vice president of the organisation, shared that there is a lot of scepticism among peddlers towards help.
"These are the people who have fallen through the cracks, and resort to selling tissues as a last resort. Hence, they have a lot of distrust towards government initiatives and people in general."
However, he shared that they remain committed to engaging this very overlooked group in society, and will continue to help them whenever they can.
Seraphina, the director of operations, added that every person has their own story and problems, and hopes to create a community that will help them.
The organisation hopes to spread awareness of the difficulties faced by the peddlers and expand their volunteering network this year.