Seed funding for S’pore charities: Small charities repay their grants as they grow (Courtesy of The Straits Times)

SINGAPORE - As the founder of a small charity to help drug users overcome their addictions, Mr Alaric Tan found fund-raising almost impossible due to the perception that such individuals were to blame for their substance use, and donations would only fund their addiction.

“There’s so much stigma, discrimination, misunderstanding; no one wants to give money,” said Mr Tan, founder of The Greenhouse Community Services, a substance recovery centre for marginalised communities set up in 2017. “It’s very, very difficult.”

He had used his own savings to run Greenhouse, which had only $10,000 left in the bank by 2021 – enough to operate the drug rehabilitation centre for another three months – when he found out about a new grant which would give him up to $150,000.

Mr Tan hesitated to apply for it because there was a catch – he would have to return the amount.

Mr Tan took the leap of faith, with Greenhouse being one of 17 charities picked to receive the Maybank Momentum Grant. Designed as a pay-it-forward model, the $3 million grant was launched in 2021 by Maybank Singapore and non-profit philanthropic organisation The Majurity Trust.