Building Stronger Infrastructure for Giving Across Asia: Introducing Shared Impact Philanthropy at Asia Community Foundation
Feature | Singapore, 9 April 2026
Across Asia, we are facing many pressing challenges—climate change, educational equity, migration, and public health. In response, funders and mission-driven initiatives are seeking to collaborate across the region and across borders. Yet turning that intention into action often comes with significant operational complexity.
To help address this gap, Asia Community Foundation (ACF) is excited to introduce Shared Impact Philanthropy (ShIP), a new service offering designed to support cross-border philanthropy across Asia. ShIP provides strategic advisory, fund management, grantmaking, and shared operational services, enabling partners to navigate compliance, reduce administrative friction, and focus on delivering meaningful impact.
Developed with the support and guidance of several anchor partners, ShIP responds to a growing need for reliable operational infrastructure in Asia’s philanthropic ecosystem. By carrying the back-office and governance responsibilities that often accompany multi-country initiatives, the platform allows funders and mission-driven organisations to operate more confidently and efficiently across borders.
Leading this new initiative is Charles Tan, who recently joined ACF as Deputy Executive Director of ShIP to guide the platform’s development and partnerships. In the conversation below, Charles reflects on the challenges of cross-border philanthropy in Asia, the thinking behind ShIP, and the role the platform hopes to play in strengthening collaboration across the region.
In Conversation with Charles:
What was the gap that led to the creation of Shared Impact Philanthropy?
There is a growing number of funders and philanthropists who want to support impactful initiatives across Asia, whether in public health, climate, or other pressing regional issues. The intention is there, but when moving from idea to action, many encounter a tangle of regulatory questions, governance requirements, and operational complexities that can slow progress or stop it altogether.
The result is a real gap between wanting to give and being able to give well. ShIP was created to bridge that gap. It provides the infrastructure and backbone capabilities, including strategic advisory, fund administration, grantmaking, and cross-border compliance, so funders can deploy capital responsibly and at scale across Asia.
You recently joined ACF to lead this initiative. What drew you personally to this opportunity?
Looking back across my career, first in government and then in private philanthropy, there are a few recurring themes that have defined my journey. A propensity towards creating and doing things differently, forming and shaping teams, and connecting dots across the ecosystem in ways that create something greater than the sum of the parts. This opportunity at ACF to lead ShIP felt like a natural fit and extension of that - this time at a regional scale.
What struck me about the opportunity was also the clarity of purpose. Building lasting infrastructure that opens up giving across Asia in a meaningful, scaled way felt like exactly the kind of challenge worth taking on.
And finally, what gave me added confidence was knowing that ShIP is being built in collaboration with anchor partners who bring global impact experience and a long-term commitment to the region. That combination of shared purpose and credible partners made this feel like the right opportunity to say yes to.
What excites you most about building ShIP from the ground up?
ShIP is deeply aligned with ACF's mandate of accelerating philanthropy for greater impact, and what makes it possible is the foundation that has been thoughtfully built by the team over the past few years.
What excites me is the potential to significantly reduce friction for people and organisations doing important work to tackle social and environmental challenges in Asia. Many promising impact leaders and programmes face real hurdles when moving from intention to action. Reducing that friction not only saves time, but it also raises the ambition of what people are willing to try. You allow more resources to flow to where they are most needed and change what feels possible.
When building ShIP, what principles were most important in shaping how the platform works?
Three things kept coming up in how we thought about this.
First is trust and transparency. A platform like this only works if the people using it have confidence in its governance and stewardship. That has shaped many of our decisions about how ShIP is structured and how we communicate about it.
Second is being rooted in Asia. Cultural and socio-political context matters enormously in philanthropy, and how you operate in one country will look different from how you operate in another. That must be built into the platform, not treated as an afterthought.
Third is complementarity and partnership. There are other good organisations doing regranting and fiscal hosting. ShIP is not trying to replicate, but to fill gaps and provide infrastructure that others can build on.
If Shared Impact Philanthropy succeeds, what could look different for philanthropy in Asia five years from now?
You would see more funders willing to channel greater resources to impact initiatives across Asia. And alongside that, more local philanthropists feeling confident and equipped to give within the region.
Success also looks like a wide variety of impact initiatives that can cross-pollinate and collaborate, whether geographically or thematically. We are creating the conditions for a different kind of allyship—one that would be much harder without shared infrastructure.
What kinds of organisations or initiatives do you hope will engage with ShIP?
We are thinking about partners with purpose-driven ambition and strong ideas who are being held back by operational complexity. This might be a collaborative fund working across several countries, or a regional programme that needs governance and financial management support to get off the ground.
The common thread is that infrastructure is the bottleneck, and removing it is exactly what ShIP is here to do.