SINGAPORE — A culture of giving — that’s what the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth hopes to cultivate with the launch of the S$200 million Cultural Matching Fund.

The Government will match dollar-for-dollar private cash donations from companies and individuals to arts and heritage groups. More than a hundred cultural organisations — listed as charities or Institutes of Public Character (ITC) — are eligible for the fund, including arts companies, heritage and visual arts museums, arts venue operators and arts education institutions.

Announcing details of the fund yesterday, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong hopes it will spark even more creative works that Singaporeans can identify with, and take pride in. No minimum donation is required as all cash donations large or small will be matched by the Government.

“Many arts groups and charities are very eager to make use of this matching fund and I know many private donors and sponsors are also very keen to start giving in order to make full use of the matching fund,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the Singapore Writers Festival.

“We fully encourage them, the sooner it’s depleted (the) better, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not interested in holding back the money. I want people to make full use of it because the whole purpose of this is to catalyse private giving, so the more people give, the more there will be (in) matching and the faster our funds will be depleted — and that’s a good thing for the arts and culture sector.”

The news has been greeted warmly by arts groups. Ms Charlotte Nors, Executive Director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre, said: “Similar schemes have existed for donations to educational institutions for a long time, so we hope with this matching grant scheme, we can increase the level of philanthropic giving in Singapore and engage even more people in the arts.”

The potential increase in funding was also welcomed by Ms Emily Hoe, The Substation’s General Manager. Last year, the independent arts centre’s cash donations amounted to S$100,000, a mere 11 per cent of their annual revenue. Said Ms Hoe: “It would increase our donation income so, hopefully, we would eventually be able to do more things.”

According to the fund’s guidelines, no conditions will be attached to the first S$300,000 raised per year. However, the subsequent amount raised in the year is to be used by the group for long-term sustainability efforts, including building up its capabilities. There will also be a cap of S$10 million for each group or institution.

Mr Wong said the fund is designed to be flexible, sustainable and accountable. “I think (in) developing this framework now, where we provide it to charities, gives us some assurance that governance will be taken into consideration because the charities — all charities and ITCs — will have some basic level of governance and regulation that assure us of accountability.”

Drama Box Company Manager Tay Jia Ying voiced concerns regarding smaller groups’ abilities to have a piece of the pie. “With museums and huge institutions and organisations (also eligible), I hope the calculations have been done correctly and this S$10 million cap will help smaller groups get to the funding before it gets depleted.”

At the end of the day, however, she pointed out: “Sponsorship generation or fund-raising is never an easy task, with or without the (fund). The whole spirit of philanthropy still needs to be cultivated and that will play a very important factor. Hopefully, this fund will tell people and corporations that giving to the arts is good and we should cultivate this.” Additional reporting by KOK XINGHUI