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The Role of United Charities in Fundraising: The Case of Singapore
Author(s) -
Chua Vincent C.H.,
Ming Wong Chung
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8292.00230
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , competition (biology) , monopoly , business , independence (probability theory) , value (mathematics) , control (management) , finance , autonomy , agency cost , donation , public relations , economics , marketing , law , market economy , political science , economic growth , management , sociology , corporate governance , social science , ecology , statistics , mathematics , machine learning , computer science , biology , shareholder
Theory suggests that a united charity helps to economize on fundraising costs by reducing competition for donations among member charities. However, donors often cannot control the allocation of their donations, and charities may dislike the monitoring of their activities. This paper examines these and other issues relating to the Community Chest of Singapore. The results, based on analysis of financial positions and fundraising costs of a large number of charities, suggest that the Community Chest does possess important fundraising advantages. Thus charities in financial difficulties or in need of funds for additional programs tend to seek membership. However, organizations that value their autonomy and independence, and that are able to achieve low fundraising costs tend to remain as non‐members. Thus a monopoly agency raising funds for all charities in the future is unlikely in the case of Singapore.