SINGAPORE — It began as a simple service for clients — setting up online memorial pages. Now, this service by Singapore Casket also serves as a way for charities to raise their profiles, while garnering donations.

Together with SG Gives, Singapore Casket provides clients the option of adding a link to memorial pages, which will allow friends and family to make donations conveniently in the name of deceased loved ones.

For a start, 20 charities already listed on the SG Gives portal — an initiative by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) — were picked to be beneficiaries. The list includes the Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA), the Singapore Children’s Society, Man Fut Tong Nursing Home and the Assisi Hospice.

Launched in January, a total of S$21,823 has been raised through Heaven Address — the Australian website where the memorial pages are being hosted — as of last month.

Families can nominate any of the 20 charities to be added onto a memorial page. A simple click of the icons will bring interested donors to the SG Gives portal where they can donate to a chosen charity. The donations collected are then disbursed to the beneficiaries directly.

“Currently, about 50 per cent of all our clients who have set up memorial pages on Heaven Address will agree to hyperlinking the pages to their preferred charities,” said Singapore Casket Senior Marketing & Customer Service Manager Calvin Tang.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, NVPC CEO Laurence Lien acknowledged that many still preferred to give to families of the deceased, “especially during wakes as there may be obvious needs, which require more urgent help at that time”, but added online giving “is on an upward trend”.

“SG Gives to date has raised over S$20 million for over 250 charities and donations are steadily increasing every month. I don’t think a change in mindset is required but rather, more awareness of tie-ups such as that between SG Gives and Singapore Casket,” he said.

Mr Lien also added that SG Gives is working with other companies to explore options of incorporating donations within consumer’ transactions. “Ultimately, more available platforms will increase the avenues and opportunities for people to give to charity.”

The beneficiaries TODAY spoke to generally agreed that Heaven Address is a “meaningful initiative” that acts as an additional platform to increase awareness of their organisations.

AWWA Community Partnership Manager Karen Liew said: “With the advancement of Internet technology and higher accessibility to the Web, people around the world are very much connected via the Internet. Such online donation initiatives definitely benefit charities in appealing to more potential donors around the world at minimum cost as compared to traditional channels like flyers (and) letters.”

Through Heaven Address, the Singapore Children’s Society has received S$2,430 in donations so far, said Executive Director Alfred Tan, who noted that charities “need to harness online technology to reach out to more donors with wider information reach”.

Singapore Casket aims to add another 20 charities to its list of beneficiaries by the end of this year.

Said Mr Tang: “Many family members have given feedback to us that this is very meaningful and a very good example for other companies to provide a means to giving back to the community. By increasing the number of beneficiaries to 40, we are aiming to cover all religions, races and different groups among the needy in Singapore.”