23 April 2021

Three young and promising charities are the first to receive the Maybank Momentum Grant - Singapore's first interest-free recyclable grant

The charities serve critical needs in the areas of drug recovery, youth mental health intervention and technology access for vulnerable families.

Singapore - Maybank Momentum Grant (the “Grant”), Singapore’s first interest-free recyclable grant to uplift and transform small charities, has awarded grants to three non-profit organisations. The inaugural batch of grant recipients are Limitless, Engineering Good and The Greenhouse Community Services. The total disbursement in this first grant call was S$360,000.

The total Grant size of S$2 million will be disbursed over the next two years. It aims to provide capital and capacity support for up to 20 small promising charities that are struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic or as a start-up. The grant support will enable these selected charities to continue their good work with specific communities-in-need. The Majurity Trust will administer the Grant funded by Maybank Singapore.

The Grant was officially launched by Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore, Dr John Lee, Country CEO and CEO of Maybank Singapore, and Mr Martin Tan, CEO of The Majurity Trust on April 23, 2021. The launch event was held in conjunction with The Majurity Conversations 2021 – Philanthropy: The Way Forward. The event was viewed by over 200 people online. 

Limitless is a non-profit organisation that provides counselling for youths. Executive Director of Limitless, Mr Asher Low, said, “To work with youths who come to us with mental health issues, we cannot rely on volunteers to counsel them. Very often, we need trained personnel and this is costly. At the end of the day, we are seeing a huge number of young people coming in and we do not have the manpower to handle that. With the Grant, we can now expand the clinical team to serve the increasing number of young people.”

The Grant is repayable so that the returned funds can be circulated to help more charities down the road. The Greenhouse Community Services, a substance recovery centre for marginalised communities is happy to receive the funding for their hiring purpose and is confident to pay back. Its Executive Director, Mr Alaric Tan, said, “The concept of paying it forward is very familiar in recovery services. Service to others is a big part of recovery. We are glad that Maybank and The Majurity Trust believe that we are good people who want to get better. And once we are better, we want to be able to help other people get better.”

Engineering Good serves the disadvantaged communities by providing them with technological access. Mr Johann Annuar, its Executive Director, said: “Children still experience a lack of devices and internet access; hence it is very easy to fall behind in a digital age. Receiving this grant is timely and allows us to do our outreach projects well and do it now without waiting; else, we might lose a few more (people) down the road. As a grant recipient, we are not only responsible for our own organisation, but when we return the money, we are also responsible for every single grantee that comes after us, so that they can grow.”

Besides receiving an interest-free grant, grantees will get to attend a series of masterclasses and mentorship programmes along with a Maybank Community Package – a set of comprehensive SME banking solutions that consist of a current account, preferential time-deposit interest rate, free coin deposit/counting service and a suite of subsidised digital solutions from the SME Start Digital programme. In future, Maybank will also appoint the grantees as charity recipients of Maybank Cards’ TREATS points donations as well as encourage bank employees to volunteer with them to serve community needs.  

Dr John Lee, Country CEO and CEO of Maybank Singapore, remarked, “Small charities are the start-ups of the social sector. They tend to be closer to the ground and have strong relationships with their service users and volunteers. During this pandemic, we have seen the power of what small charities and even informal groups can achieve, playing an important role to address unmet needs in innovative ways. Supporting small charities with the Maybank Momentum Grant and our own Maybank Community Package is one way we in Maybank live up to our mission of humanising financial services.”

Mr Martin Tan, CEO of The Majurity Trust, said, “Our vulnerable communities were hit the most during this pandemic. The past year saw the collective giving of Singaporeans go up, yet we also witnessed one of the deepest declines in fund raising for many of our charities. The needs in the community are growing and many charities stay committed to meeting the needs on the ground, even when funds dwindle at this time. This recyclable grant is timely to help promising recipients keep up the incredible work they do as we also help them transform and scale.”

For more information, visit https://www.majurity.sg/funds-and-grants/momentum/. Watch the interviews with grantees: https://www.majurity.sg/funds-and-grants/mmg-grantee-interviews/