Hundreds of philanthropists, NGO leaders, and at least one princess descended on Singapore this week to chart the future of philanthropic giving in Asia.
The setting? The striking convention center perched atop the ultra-glitzy Marina Bay Sands mall, where you can glide down an indoor canal past Gucci and Prada storefronts on a gondola. It’s steeped in luxury — and a fitting backdrop for a summit focused on how Asia’s rapidly rising wealth might reshape global giving.
There’s no question there’s a lot of money here. Asia is home to more than 1,000 billionaires who will sit on a collective $4.7 trillion in wealth by 2026. If Asian donors were to match the 2% of gross domestic product that U.S. donors give to charity, an estimated $702 billion could be unleashed.
What exactly that extraordinary wealth will mean for philanthropy remains an open question. The people gathered at the Philanthropy Asia Summit were eager to shape the answer.
Singapore, with its geographic and political centrality in Southeast Asia, multicultural fabric, and famed stability, is positioning itself to become the hub for regional giving.
There is also the size and sophistication of its financial markets, including its $300 billion state-owned investment company, Temasek Holdings. It channels an undisclosed share of its funds into Temasek Trust, the philanthropic arm behind the Philanthropy Asia Alliance, the formal hosts of this year’s summit.
The aim was clear: Bring together players from across the region under the banner of “Priming Asia for Good” to encourage giving and showcase successes. The roughly 700 attendees represented governments, local NGOs, and tech giants such as Google.
Read: Asia’s wealth is booming. What about its giving? (Pro)
+ Curious about the insights that drive global development? Experience the power of Devex Pro with a 15-day free trial. Explore expert analyses, unlock hidden funding opportunities, connect with key players at exclusive events, and access a wealth of knowledge you won't find anywhere else.
A massive opportunity
“With ODA coming down dramatically, there is a huge role for other stakeholders to step in. The question is, do we do more of the same that was done in the past? Or do we do things differently?” Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, told me.
Although declining aid and the United States’ retreat loomed in the background, it rarely took center stage. Almost no one mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump or the U.S. Agency for International Development by name. Bill Gates, who spoke on the first day alongside Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, offered only this on the U.S. front: He would “try to convince Congress” not to cut aid as deeply as proposed, adding, “I feel it'll be reversed — at least I'll spend a lot of my time trying to make the case for that.” Gates also said his foundation would open an office in Singapore.
(Notably, on Thursday in New York, Gates also announced that he would double his personal philanthropic giving over the next two decades to $200 billion — virtually all his remaining fortune — and sunset the Gates Foundation by 2045.)
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, spoke candidly in Singapore about how aid cuts are affecting jobs, information systems, supply chains, and health facilities: “Many countries recognize the need to transition away from aid dependency to greater self-reliance, and they see this situation as an opportunity to accelerate that transition. I think this is the right mindset.”
ICYMI: Bill Gates commits most of his fortune to Gates Foundation, closing 2045
+ Join us on May 14 for the event Beyond performative philanthropy: Pro Briefing with Mulago Foundation CEO Kevin Starr, who will offer candid insights into the future of aid. Save your spot now.
A climate for change
The theme of Asia defining its own priorities for itself ran through the week. Over three days, panels and side events tackled AI in education, pandemic preparedness, and food systems.
But what stood out most was climate change. Yes, the conference overlapped with Ecosperity, Temasek Holdings’ climate finance forum. But speakers talked about how the next generation of Asian philanthropists was more passionate and invested in environmental issues than their parents. With $4.7 trillion of wealth in Asia, and $2.5 trillion set to transfer to millennials by 2030, the region is poised for a generational shift in giving. And as millennials increasingly play leadership roles in their philanthropies, it’s starting to shift how they operate.
“We're seeing that a lot of the traditional climate-nature conversations are shifting to Asia,” Luis Alvarado, who heads GAEA, or the Giving to Amplify Earth Action, initiative at the World Economic Forum, told me.
The summit saw the launch of Philanthropy Asia Alliance communities — one on the just energy transition, the other on health — designed to help philanthropic groups collaborate more effectively. They join three communities launched last year on blue oceans, sustainable land use, and holistic education. The just energy transition community, which does not yet have a monetary target, will be led by the Tara Climate Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“Despite being home to over half the world’s population and accounting for more than 50% of global energy consumption, Asia receives disproportionately lower philanthropic support for its critical energy transition,” Jamie Choi, CEO of Tara Climate Foundations, said in a statement, noting that just 20% of philanthropic funding reached Asia, Africa, and Latin America combined between 2019 and 2023, compared to nearly 60% for Europe.
Recipe for success
Food was everywhere — in panel discussions, strategy sessions, and, of course, on my plate. With so much talk about climate-resilient rice and sustainable farming, it only seemed fair to do some hands-on research; I taste-tested hawker stalls to see if Singapore really deserves its “street food capital of the world” title. (Spoiler: I’m convinced.)
One of the most fascinating conversations highlighted Indonesia’s pioneering school meals program. The world’s fourth-most populous country aims to reach 80 million kids via the initiative. Indonesia’s stunting rate is 19.8%, and the government aims to bring it below 10%, said Ferro Ferizka Aryananda, the country’s special adviser to the coordinating minister for human development and culture. School meals can help get there while boosting economic prospects for farmers and communities.
The big idea? Keep the benefits local. “We want the economy to be circulating locally,” Ferro explained, with kitchens that “empower and employ the local people.” In Java, for example, the government brings together groups of mothers to cook meals for local schools.
Of course, rolling out one program across a country as massive and diverse as Indonesia isn’t easy. That’s where philanthropy and the private sector come in. Their job, Ferro said, is to help governments “pilot, experiment, and help us learn” what works so countries can scale up the best ideas. As Ferro put it, success will come “when this free nutritious meal program becomes an economic system, not only … a food system.”
AI for good
One of the buzziest sessions came from Google.org, the tech giant’s philanthropic arm, spotlighting the AI work it’s supporting in the region.
A lively example: Edufarmers, an Indonesian AI chatbot accessible over WhatsApp. It lets farmers ask whether they should apply fertilizer this week or next, send photos of diseased chili peppers for advice, or snap a picture of their kids’ dinner plates to check their nutritional balance.
The tone was largely optimistic, but not especially candid. Batra of AVPN, offered a needed reality check: “Lots of young people … are already engaging with AI,” she said, noting that 1 in 5 surveyed had joined an AI program — but women, she warned, are 1.5 times more likely to face an AI-driven job challenge, yet only 2.5% of current AI training reaches them.
Google announced it’s adding $12 million to its Asia-Pacific AI Opportunity Fund, on top of the $15 million committed last year — money aimed at training people and building an AI-ready workforce. Alongside funding, it also touted some of its “AI for good” applications, such as smoothing traffic patterns (“reducing emissions by 10 percent”) and running flood forecasting models that have already alerted 800,000 people in Bangladesh, India, and other flood-prone regions.
Still, these investments look modest next to the $75 billion Google is reportedly channeling into AI this year — a spend fueling the company’s expectation-beating returns. Notably absent was discussion of the risks of artificial intelligence to widen inequality both within and between countries.
Competing agendas
Singapore and Hong Kong are in an unofficial race to become the region’s philanthropic capital.
The Philanthropy Asia Summit only launched in 2021, but “today it’s on everybody’s calendar globally,” Alvarado said. The challenge now is to move from everyone showing up with their own separate agendas “to where it's merging and aggregating.”
Sure, there were some commitments, investments, and partnerships announced — but none came anywhere near the scale needed to tackle even one of the region’s biggest problems.
“This is one of the biggest challenges, I think, not just in Asia but in the sector globally,” Alvarado said. “People are so stuck in their own theory of change, their own strategy, their own KPI, and their own thing that, OK, that will not move the needle. It's getting 100 philanthropies to come together to shift the market. That is what will move the needle.”
Related reading: New Commission on Asian Philanthropy seeks to shape region’s giving
Sign up to Newswire for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development.
About the author
Ayenat Mersie
Ayenat Mersie is a Global Development Reporter for Devex. Previously, she worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as National Geographic and Foreign Policy and as an East Africa correspondent for Reuters.
