Use your personal income tax rebate to help 51 charities in Singapore.

 

Three friends with a penchant for doing good in Singapore have come together to create a new initiative – Pledge It Forward – to raise funds for charities.

A slew of measures was announced during the Singapore Budget 2017 address to help Singaporeans prepare for an uncertain world and the future. Among these is a 20-percent personal income tax rebate for income earned in 2016, capped at S$500. These announcements got Rebekah Lin and Cheryl Chong, co-founders of The Social Co., and Nadim van der Ros, founder of Be An Idea, thinking.

“How can we enable people in Singapore to play a part in building a stronger and more inclusive Singapore on a large scale? And with so many different issues to consider as a society, how can we help them to easily contribute to as many causes as they desire? These questions led us to create a platform to pool everyone’s resources together for a more powerful, collective effort and impact,” said Cheryl.

Pledge It Forward enables individuals to pledge any amount of their personal income tax rebate towards a group of 51 pre-selected charities. These charities reach out to and support various vulnerable groups of our community including the elderly, people with disabilities, youth-at-risk, families, low-income individuals and those recovering from addiction.

“The selected charities provide services, programmes and care across a spectrum of causes that are very close to our hearts,” said Rebekah. They hope to have at least 10,000 pledges by the end of the campaign in December.

Funds raised will be disbursed by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) to 51 charities that are registered as member organisations under NCSS and have an Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status. The funds will be deployed towards preventive interventions, capacity building and capital expenditure within two months of receipt.

Pledgers can contribute any amount of their tax savings to Pledge It Forward. Nadim said, “With this campaign, we have sought to maximise the outreach while keeping the donation process as easy as possible. Taxpayers – or anyone who wants to be a part of this initiative and contribute – simply have to visit the website and pledge an amount that they are comfortable with via GIVE.asia or Giving.sg which have been integrated into the Pledge It Forward site.”

For more information and to make donations, please visit http://pledgeitforward.sg/. Donations can be made from now to December 31, 2017.

 

(** PHOTO CREDIT: The Social Co.)

 

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