Help for those who want to give help

SINGAPORE - When hedge fund manager Danny Yong read the news in 2010 about an Indian national whose hands were badly slashed in an attack in Kallang and who could not pay his children's school fees, he wanted to donate money and help.

But after trying various avenues for some time, Mr Yong still did not know how to pass his donation to the foreign worker.

"In the end I got busy, life went on and I forgot to circle back to give," the 42-year-old told The Sunday Times. "Sometimes sympathy has a certain life span, sad as it may sound."

Mr Yong may not have succeeded in helping that particular man, but he has gone on to assist others like him.

In November 2012, he roped in his colleague Keith Tan, also 42, and founded the Ray of Hope Initiative.

The non-profit organisation aims to be precisely that middleman that Mr Yong had wished for a few years ago: to bridge the gap between those who have suffered a sudden crisis and are featured in the news, and donors who want to help but do not know how to get the money to them.

This is especially since most media outlets have, for transparency and governance reasons, become more careful about receiving cash from donors and re-channelling it to beneficiaries. This newspaper's policy, for instance, is to provide a donor with the contact or bank account details of needy beneficiaries it may have featured, so that donors can channel donations directly to them.

"If there is an easy way to facilitate giving right after someone has read a story in The Straits Times, I think it will help the recipient have more funds. We just want to facilitate you, a fellow Singaporean, helping a fellow Singaporean and that's it," Mr Yong said.

"If the Government helps (as in meets the person's needs), then it's great. But maybe sometimes, you don't really care. A donor may feel sorry about a needy person's struggles and want to donate some money, regardless of what financial aid schemes the beneficiary is on."

Ray of Hope wants to simplify and enhance this giving in several ways.

First, it features various cases on its website so that donors can choose whom they want to help directly. The money donated goes specifically to a beneficiary and his family, rather than a general pool of funds.

"You have a choice to pick A, B, or C. Or all of them, if you like," said Mr Christopher Chiu, the 45-year-old founder of creative services agency Ren Partnership, who sits on Ray of Hope's board of directors.

Next, Ray of Hope sets out a fund-raising target for each case and explains why this amount of money is needed.

That's currently the job of Ray of Hope's full-time manager Sharmin Foo, 34, who has five years' experience in running corporate social responsibility programmes.

Ms Foo evaluates each case, considering details such as a person's loss of income as a result of the sudden crisis he faced and his medical expenses. She then proposes to Ray of Hope's board how much money should be given, and stretched over how long a period. A majority of board members must approve the plan before funds are raised.

If any money is collected in excess of the target, it is channelled to other beneficiaries.

Third, Ray of Hope keeps tabs on the progress of its beneficiaries and updates donors on this via e-mail and the organisation's website.

"Once you give your money, you feel good for that five minutes and you've done your good deed," said Mr Yong. "But wouldn't it be better if there was a feedback loop?"

Ray of Hope has already helped four families that were in the news in the past year.

One of them is the family of Raffles Institution student Joehann Johari, now 15, who collapsed from a heatstroke while jogging during rugby training last year.

His medical bills were covered by donations raised by his school. Ray of Hope assessed how else it could help him, and learnt that his mother, Madam Zubaidah Sujadi, was worried about her household expenses.

The 43-year-old divorcee had lost her job as an accounts clerk before the incident, had three other children to care for, and could not actively look for a job as she had to stay by Joehann's side in hospital.

Ray of Hope helped to cover her household expenses by donating $1,000 and $300 worth of NTUC vouchers twice over two months.

She later found a job, but had to take time off to accompany Joehann on his physiotherapy sessions, so the organisation donated another $640 last October to cover her loss of income.

Madam Zubaidah is appreciative of the help. She said: "They were very fast in reaching out to us and keen to find out how they could help."

Other people who have received help from the organisation include a physical education teacher who suffered severe head injuries after being hit by a shot-put ball, and the family of the construction worker whose death sparked the Little India riot last year.

Mr Chiu said the "intelligence" of Ray of Hope's concept was what attracted him to join the organisation's board.

He likes how each beneficiary's needs are set out on the website and donors can see the amount needed for each case.

"If the target was $15,000 and a person saw that $14,800 had been raised, he would want to close the gap and hit the target," he said.

Mr Yong knows, however, that the credibility of such an institution is paramount. He wants Ray of Hope to be a "complete middleman", with every cent donated going straight to the beneficiary.

To keep costs low, Ms Foo is the only full-time salaried staff at Ray of Hope, which operates rent-free out of the offices of Mr Yong's firm Dymon Asia.

All other administrative and operating costs are fully funded by the organisation's founders and four-member board.

To strengthen corporate governance, Mr Yong said he "intentionally" put together a board of directors with credible and diverse backgrounds.

Apart from Mr Chiu, there are Mr Abdul Jabbar Karam Din, 44, an executive committee partner at law firm Rajah & Tann; Mr Brian Thung, 42, a partner at audit firm Ernst & Young; and Mr Mark Wong, 42, deputy chief operating officer at Dymon Asia.

The organisation makes sure that its statement of accounts is available on its website and checked by an independent audit firm, RSM Chio Lim.

It is applying to be registered as a charity and hopes to achieve Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status later, which means donors get tax exemptions.

Mr Yong said his hope is for Ray of Hope to take off and become self-sustaining with public funds in future. But for now, the organisation's founders and board have committed to pay for all administrative and operating costs for the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, they are all happy to do their part.

"At a personal level, I think for all of us, we're at a stage where we're stable in our careers and we can devote more time to giving back," said Mr Abdul Jabbar.

"We ourselves can pool together all the money that we wanted to, but it's finite. With this platform in place, the number of people we can help is much more than if, individually, we took out our own money."

Mr Chiu added: "We are like-minded people who got wide-eyed by the idea and simply thought this would be a good thing to be involved in. After all, you don't need to be an expert to feel."

Just doing your bit "If there is an easy way to facilitate giving right after someone has read a story in The Straits Times, I think it will help the recipient have more funds. We just want to facilitate you, a fellow Singaporean, helping a fellow Singaporean and that's it... If the Government helps (as in meets the person's needs), then it's great. But maybe sometimes, you don't really care. A donor may feel sorry about a needy person's struggles and want to donate some money, regardless of what financial aid schemes the beneficiary is on." Mr Danny Yong, founder of Ray of Hope Initiative Giving back "At a personal level, I think for all of us, we're at a stage where we're stable in our careers and we can devote more time to giving back. Mr Abdul Jabbar, a board member of the initiative

This article was first published on June 1, 2014.
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