The Asia Community Foundation, launching in September, is a new funding platform aiming to encourage purposeful philanthropy and cross-border giving in Asia by offering a transparent, safe, and efficient giving vehicle for donors while serving local communities in the region.

The Community Foundation, which was successfully soft-launched earlier this year, has been incubated by the Singapore-based network Asia Philanthropy Circle. APC developed the Community Foundation to address the growing needs and demands for cross-border giving amongst donors in Singapore.

‘Actual giving in Asia lags substantially behind giving intentions, due in large part to the lack of proper governance, transparency, and accountability in the system,’ said Laurence Lien, one of Asia Community Foundation’s co-founders. ‘This is the intention behind creating ACF – to provide donors with a safe, secure, and efficient giving process that addresses these challenges.’

ACF is backed by philanthropists who have engaged in decades of regional giving and understand the challenges that arise in cross-border giving in Asia.

The new foundation offers a Donor-Advised Fund platform that adopts a transparent approach to selecting and vetting nonprofit partners, help donors determine appropriate funding and support models, and provide basic grant monitoring. In addition, ACF offers philanthropic advisory services to support donors in their giving journey.

As a part of the Donor-Advised Fund, ACF is also developing its own technology-enabled platform to provide donors with an oversight of their giving portfolio, direct access to ACF’s extensive charity database, and an opportunity to connect with the larger philanthropy community.