Perspectives

We feature the views of APPC Board Member Darwin Chen on philanthropy and the Arts in Asia. Apart from being the Honorary Chair of Habitat for Humanity China, Darwin is very active in the arts scene in Hong Kong as the chair of the HK Government’s Committee on Performing Arts.

Developing countries need assistance on many fronts, to the point that they often seem to be on the brink of helplessness. A natural disaster, economic crunch, and they are pushed over the edge -- people are forced to see their homes, livelihoods, and jobs taken away, without being able to do anything about it.

As social investing and entrepreneurship encourage more philanthropy into Asia, something must progress in parallel: studying its impact. In its attempt to explore the effect of diaspora philanthropy to Asia further, research efforts were geared towards finding the link between diaspora contributions and its potential as social investments.

If you're on Facebook, chances are you would have seen a friend "join" a certain cause, or associate themselves with a certain charity. You would have probably been invited to an event, or glanced at the "Donate" link and considered giving. But will this approach work for your organization? Will this solve any problems you've been experiencing regarding support and funding?

It is easy to feel desperate when our daily fare consists of news of massive lay-offs, plant shutdowns, bankruptcy, and multi-billion stimulus packages. Now that the whole world is preparing itself for much more devastating effects of last year's financial meltdown, we wonder how non-profits will be able to cope when the priority will be, understandably, on keeping economies afloat. On the surface, this seems to be a difficult time for philanthropy and the development sector.

Innovation is crucial to the success of any business, because today’s environment has got the competition heating up, the market base shifting sides faster than one can say “innovate”, and profits spiralling downward. For enterprises to stay on top of the game—or even just stay afloat—they must constantly push themselves in order to capture a respectable portion of the market share.

At the APPC’s Hanoi Conference in May, where we discussed the role of diaspora philanthropy in development and also looked at directions for enabling a strategic view of philanthropy in the region, it became clear that there will have to be a tri-partite partnership between governments, not-for-profits, and the public, including diaspora communities, in addressing development issues.