I refer to the report, “Government’s dollar-for-dollar matching for donations helps, but charities have manpower and other concerns” (May 29).

The challenges facing social service agencies and charities are multifaceted to begin with. With the fallout from Covid-19, these challenges are even graver.  

As with organisations in other sectors, social service agencies and charities have to rethink how they operate and decisively adapt for greater effectiveness and efficiency.

For example, it is common to see many small- to mid-sized social service agencies still having their own finance, human resources and administrative employees despite limited financial resources. It is clear that this is not a sustainable approach in the long term.

I implore the boards and management of these agencies to look at more sustainable operating models that bring more value.

Some of the following options are not new to other industries, but are still not prevalent in the social service and charity sector:

• Outsource non-core functions, such as accounting, human resources, information and communication technology, and facilities management.

• Form partnerships or alliances, or merge with other social service agencies to take advantage of scale and different expertise.

• Collaborate with like-minded social service agencies to approach potential donors with an integrated and strategic solution to social issues, rather than have a myriad of small agencies knock on doors asking for short-term or ad hoc contributions.

For general donations, charities and donors should not arbitrarily restrict the use of funds to specific projects or narrow purposes, unless absolutely necessary.

This is especially important in these times of scarce financial resources. It does not make sense to have cash locked up in restricted funds, while not having enough money to meet daily operational needs.   

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