A recent email I received from St Johns Home for Elderly Persons about a charitable bequest got me thinking.

"Many people give whatever they can to charity throughout their lives because they wanted to help the less fortunate in some meaningful way. But many may not be aware that they can do even more. A charitable bequest is simply a distribution from your estate to a charitable organisation through your last will and testament", the email read. It can be in the form of the general value of the estate, and can be made by designating a specific dollar amount, a particular asset or a fixed percentage of your estate.

Did you know, in 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates, alongside billionaire investor Warren Buffett, founded the “Giving Pledge”?

This is a commitment by them to donate most of their wealth to charity, and in doing so, encourage other billionaires to donate their wealth to charity either during their lifetimes or after their deaths.

“This is about building on a wonderful tradition of philanthropy that will ultimately help the world become a much better place,” Bill Gates said.

While many assume, it is easy for the rich to give, according to sociologists, the art of giving can occur regardless of a person’s socio-economic background. A study published in the journal, Science, found donating to a charity activates neural activity in areas of the brain that are linked to reward processing.

As awareness around charity and philanthropic initiatives round the world grow, we’re seeing rising interest. Philanthropy, which can be broadly defined as a love for humankind is derived from the Greek words "philos," which means loving and "anthropos," which means humankind.

Interestingly, COVID-19 spurred greater interest and faster action in the philanthropic sector. A McKinsey & Co report made a pertinent argument, “Philanthropists are often drawn to global problems, leading them to invest in the well-being and empowerment of people living thousands of miles away. While these contributions are critical to address global inequities and injustices, the pandemic has rightly turned many philanthropists’ attention to the severe inequities in their own backyards, producing a swell of local giving.”

And, we saw Singaporeans do just that.

From January to May in 2020, $90 million was donated to the Community Chest, the Community Foundation and on the online platform Giving.sg. This amount was about equal to the overall donations received by the Community Chest and Giving.sg throughout the entire 2019, said the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Ministry of Social and Family Development in its statement.

As we think of about life in the post-Covid world, my hope is the spirit of giving remains.  

No amount is big or small, when every little bit counts. As Mother Teresa said, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of St. John's Home for Elderly Persons.

St John's Home for Elderly Persons is not a government-subvented Home and depend largely on the public's generosity to enable us to continue our work as a Registered Charity.

Read more about Planned Giving to St. John's Home for Elderly Persons