The Singapore-based wealth management house said that families in the city often face a number of difficulties in setting up philanthropy.

This week, Singapore-based multi-family office Farro Capital formally launched its philanthropy advisory services. The firm also explained its approach to philanthropy to WealthBriefingAsia and the obstacles it says clients contend with in this area.

The initiative was unveiled under the national SG60 – Building Our Singapore Together movement – which is being delivered in collaboration with ImpactSG, a charity.

“What we give today will shape the world our future generations inherit,” Farro Capital said in a statement. Farro's clients will not pay additional fees to use the philanthropy service.

"This is a complementary service that we are extending to our clients, as one of the missions of Farro is to help clients find purpose in their wealth," a spokesperson told WealthBriefingAsia.

The programme is designed to strengthen cross-generational purpose and foster deeper connections between family members. 

Farro said that many families have a strong wish to give back meaningfully, but have not done so in a large way, due to weak understanding of the giving landscape in Singapore, difficulty in assessing the credibility of beneficiaries, unclear metrics for measuring impact and outcomes, and inadequate governance structures for giving.

Also, few families possess the internal infrastructure for designing philanthropy programmes with lasting effect, Farro said. 

The new philanthropy offers families bespoke blueprints, governance structures, impact measurement frameworks, and operational execution through expert in-house teams and vetted partners.

“We have shaped our philanthropy offering while keeping in mind that the NextGen inherits not only family values and legacy, but also the world we leave behind – what we create today shapes both,” Hemant Tucker, CEO and co-founder of Farro Capital, said.

“ImpactSG is proud to be a strategic partner to Farro Capital’s Philanthropic Advisory Services, and [is] excited to work with Farro’s families to contribute their time, talent, ties, and treasure,” ImpactSG co-founders, Edmund Twohill, Daniel Lim, and Kwee Ker Fong, said.

“In the spirit of SG60, we have engaged five families, and they have collectively committed S$600,000 ($465,762) to kickstart the launch of this partnership. We will engage more families on their contributions in the coming months. This is a first-of-its-kind partnership between ImpactSG and a multi-family office, and we hope to scale this model of giving to more single and multi-family offices over time.”

The launch event in late August was attended by business families, ImpactSG’s co-founders and board, and representatives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth, and others.

 
Left to Right: Mahesh Kumar, co-founder of Farro Capital and Ravi Menon, chairman of ImpactSG

Difficulties to overcome
Asked by WBA about the kind of difficulties families have with philanthropy, the Farro spokesperson said obstacles include having a clear roadmap of their philanthropic endeavour – currently it is ad hoc, without any internal accountability; there is a lack of trust on the beneficiaries, mostly due to the past experience; there is a lack of clarity over the structuring of a grantmaking vehicle, and there are no clear metrics of the impact of the giving. 

WBA asked Farro how much of the rise of this sort of venture is down to requests from clients?

"This topic often emerges in our conversations with families. While many do not expect us to provide an immediate solution, we recognised an opportunity to add meaningful value by helping them [to] view their wealth more holistically. By broadening the lens beyond financial capital, we can support families in aligning their resources with their values, purpose, and legacy aspirations," the spokesperson added. 

This news service interviewed Farro about its business strategy back in 2023. In December 2023, Farro Ventures, parent company of Farro Capital, pushed into Dubai, opening an office in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

The role of philanthropy and how advisors should and could engage effectively with HNW individuals and families is explored in this article.