Charities got $3.12b in donations in 2020, dip from 2019 but higher than other years before pandemic

Despite the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when many in-person fund raisers were cancelled or scaled back, donations to the more than 2,000 charities in Singapore fell only slightly that year from the year before.

A total of $3.12 billion in donations was collected by charities here in the 2020 financial year, a 4 per cent dip from the $3.25 billion in the year before that.

Despite the dip, the $3.12 billion is still higher than the sums donated in the pre-pandemic years.

For example, $2.65 billion was donated in the 2017 financial year, and $2.87 billion in 2018, according to data in the Commissioner of Charities’ (COC) 2021 annual report, which was released at the end of November.

A spokesman for the COC explained that the total donations for 2020 are compiled based on charities’ annual submissions for their respective financial year, and this varies across charities.

For example, some charities’ 2020 financial year ended in March 2020, while others ended in December 2020.

The spokesman said of the fall in donations in the 2020 financial year: “Covid-19 disrupted the operations and fund-raising activities of the charity sector, affecting the ability of organisations and individuals to donate as much as they used to.”

Since early 2020, many charities cancelled, postponed or scaled down their physical fund-raising events, the spokesman said, adding that the fall in donations was most evident in the religious and educational sectors. 

Donations collected by religious charities such as churches and temples fell by 13 per cent to $1.17 billion in the 2020 financial year, from $1.34 billion the year before that.

But the donations raised by the social and welfare sector rose by 23 per cent to $608.6 million in the 2020 financial year, from $494.4 million in 2019.

The COC spokesman said this increase showed that donors could be more focused on giving to those in need given the pandemic.

As at end-December 2021, there were 2,359 charities registered in Singapore. About half of them are religious groups, while the rest include charities in the social and welfare, healthcare, education and arts sectors. 

When asked why donations to charities providing social and welfare services increased, Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) senior research fellow Justin Lee said: “I think donors were likely thinking of giving to more urgent needs based on what Covid-19 had brought about – health being an obvious choice, but also social welfare, because families were being hurt by Covid-19 when breadwinners lost their jobs.”

For example, Food From the Heart, a charity that gives food to the needy, saw its donations more than double to $8.7 million in 2020, from $3.9 million in 2019. This was even though it had to cancel major physical fund raisers in 2020 due to the pandemic. 

Its chief executive, Mr Robin Lee, said many companies and groups organised their own fund raisers to support Food From The Heart, knowing that their donations were helping families facing tough times.

Mr Lee said: “2020 was really an exceptional year for us in terms of donations, due to a heightened sense of community spirit.”

IPS Social Lab head Mathew Matthews noted that more charities in the social and welfare sector had learnt to leverage social media and also used online donation portals to persuade donors to give after the pandemic started, which could have increased the sums raised.

Charities such as the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the Singapore Children’s Society and SPD said they had to find new ways to raise funds.

They also turned to online fund raisers, given that traditional in-person fund-raising events such as charity dinners were not feasible or not allowed under prevailing Covid-19 rules.

For example, NKF started an online shop in October 2020 selling products to raise funds, said its chief executive, Mr Tim Oei.

It raised $22.8 million in its financial year that ended in June 2020, and this rose to $23.5 million a year later.

In its last financial year, which ended in June 2022, it raised $24.4 million, which was boosted by its fund-raising dinner held the month before. The dinner was postponed from April 2020.

SPD, which helps people with disabilities, made more fund-raising appeals through social media and tapped online donation platforms such as Giving.sg to reach donors. It met its fund-raising targets and raised $5.3 million in the financial year that ended in March 2021, up from $4.5 million a year earlier, said chief executive Abhimanyau Pal.

However, charities expressed concern about waning generosity and falling donations after the worst of the pandemic has passed, and especially now, with soaring inflation and other economic uncertainties.

For example, donations to Food From the Heart fell to $6.1 million in 2021 from $8.7 million in 2020, even though more families need help to cope with the rising cost of living, Mr Lee said.

Food From the Heart’s Mr Lee said: “In 2021, with the easing of pandemic measures and change in general attitudes and adaptation towards a new normal, the pandemic-effect outpouring of altruism has slowed down.”