The following is an excerpt from an article published on the Latest from Alliance blog on 1 May 2015. The original article can be found here. For more information about Alliance magazine, please visit www.alliancemagazine.org.

The figure of Laurence Lien looms large in the philanthropy landscape of Singapore. In addition to chairing the Lien Foundation, he is also chair of the Community Foundation of Singapore, former CEO of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and a former Member of Parliament, in which capacity he was vocal in advocating for the social sector and civil society. His latest venture is the Asia Philanthropy Circle. He talks here to Caroline Hartnell about how he sees the general trends in Asian philanthropy, how the Circle fits into them, and what an Asian brand of philanthropy might look like.

Alliance: In January this year, you co-founded the Asia Philanthropy Circle. What do you hope to achieve through this initiative?

Laurence Lien: We hope to mobilize philanthropists in Asia, for the purpose of learning, sharing, exchange and joint action. Though philanthropy has grown quite significantly in Asia, some problems haven’t gone away, in fact they’ve become more complex. In order to address those issues better, philanthropists need to start working together, so this platform is to bring together what we’d like to call progressive, like-minded philanthropists. We’re targeting 100 over five years.

Continue Reading on the Alliance website. Image via Singapolitics.