Mr laurence Lien is the CEO of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). He is also Chairman of Lien Foundation and the Community Foundation of Singapore, Deputy Chairman of Caritas Singapore Community Council, and Board Member of the Centre for Non-Profit Leadership and the Lien Centre for Social Innovation at the Singapore Management University.
In his titled “A Thriving Civil Society is Key to a Giving Nation”, Mr Lien highlighted that the key issue Singapore faces is not that Singaporeans are not generous enough. It is that we lack a sense of ownership over community issues, and put excessive and unsustainable demands on the government to solve all our problems. Why would people give when there is a lack of meaningful community initiatives to put their donated resources to work? In this talk, he argued that all citizens need to be more actively in leading new initiatives, big or small, in their communities.