In its inaugural Charity Governance Report released today, the Charity Council revealed that the overall median governance evaluation score of about 1,500 charities in Singapore is 87 per cent.

This constitutes 81 per cent of the charity sector in Singapore which has supplied information about their governance on an online evaluation system.

The score is based on areas such as board independence, regular board meetings, reviews of vision and mission and communication to stakeholders, conflicts of interest declaration, human resource policies, staff appraisal/ development, reserves policies, board evaluation and disclosure of remuneration.

The report released by the Council also revealed that charities have taken the responsibility to enhance their governance and management capabilities.

Since April 2007, more than 500 charities have tapped upon the VWO-Charities Capability Fund (VCF) grants for training, consultancy and info-comms technology projects.

Mrs Fang Ai Lian, Chairman of the Charity Council, said, 'After two good years of foundational work, the general level of governance and public confidence has improved and there is certainly cause for optimism. I would like to say that the majority of charities are doing good work for the community.'

About 5,000 Board members and management personnel have also attended governance and management training.

The Charity Council plans to step up efforts to engage professional associations and strategic partners to encourage people with appropriate skills to volunteer with charities.

It will also launch a shared services initiative for finance and accounting as a way to relieve charities from administrative procedures, thereby allowing charities to focus on direct service provision and governance.

The Charity Governance Reporthighlights the state of governance in the charity sector, profiles good governance practices by charities and explores how the Council could further enhance governance best practices in charities.