Introduction

At DBS, we believe the future of business lies in being a Force-for-Good. The DBS Foundation nurtures social enterprises (SEs) across the region to enable them to scale and enhance their social impact through their innovative and sustainable businesses.

Our vision is to shape a better future for Asia. The DBS Foundation is working towards building a more inclusive Asia by championing social entrepreneurship and encouraging the development of businesses for good. The Foundation is an endeavour from DBS Bank to make an even greater impact in addressing Asia’s evolving social needs.

 

DBS Foundation works towards

Building awareness and advocacy for social enterprises through initiatives such as the Social Venture Challenge Asia, bootcamps, workshops and learning forums. Developing the ecosystem to support businesses with a dual bottom-line – which align profit and social impact.

• 30,000+ Social enterprises reached through our events
• 5040+ applications received to our various programmes that target start-up and scale-up stage social enterprises.
  
  Through our competitions, we have identified and bought to fore high impact social enterprises such as Zaya learning labs from India that touches 500,000 children through quality education; Learn Education from Thailand that serves 14,000 teachers in Thailand by leveraging technology to ensure high academic performance for students and Siam organics that provides livelihood to 2500 farmer families getting them to earn 14x more!
  
  Watch how we #ChangeAsiaToday:
  
  

Nurturing promising social enterprises through grant funding, capacity building and mentorship.

• 101 Social enterprises awarded grants
• 310 Social enterprises nurtured through our programmes.
  
  Our grant awardees like HelpUsGreen have pursued innovations like the biodegradable Florafoam® used as a packaging alternative to the polluting Styrofoam.Our grants have helped enhance online sales of handicrafts produced by women in rural Indonesia through a social enterprise called Du’anyam. In Singapore, Homage which matches trained caregivers to elderly and patients needing support has strengthened their hardware, software of their mobile platform while also getting the basic infrastructure and marketing team in place with our grant.
  
  Watch how some of our grant awardees work towards a #betterworld:

 

Growing high potential SEs through customised support, advisory and integrating them into the bank’s culture and operations.

• 515 Social enterprises banked / loaned through our special Social enterprise banking package
• 3000+ volunteers across the bank, lend their skills and expertise to support these businesses of good.
  
  Our mentoring programme for social enterprises harnesses the collective experience and networks of DBS’ leaders to mentor and provide holistic support to high potential, innovative social enterprises across Asia. We piloted a programme in celebration of DBS’ 50th anniversary, in line with DBS Foundation’s focus on integrating SEs into the bank’s fabric. The efforts of DBS’ senior leaders helped our SEs jumpstart to the next phase of their business growth and subsequently increase the impact they are making in society.
  
  Watch how senior leaders in the bank support Social Enterprises on their growth journey and be the #ForceforGood:

*Our impact since our launch in February 2014

 

Sustainability thinking and DBS Foundation

Sustainability has been at the core of DBS's purpose-driven DNA. From the time of our founding, 50 years ago as the Development Bank of Singapore, we have always believed in the importance of good citizenship. As a bank, we have adopted six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as focus areas to guide our path.

DBS Foundation was started in 2014 to champion enterprises with a social mission across the region to catalyse the growth of businesses for good. Hence, we support social enterprises working across all development areas stated in the 17 SDGs, the key being that they build businesses that are sustainable and scalable.