Tote Board, SSI Launch Leadership Development Programme for NPOs

Tote Board, together with its partner Social Service Institute (SSI), launched the ACE-Capstone Leadership Development Programme for Non-Profits at the SSI premises today.

The ACE-Capstone programme is a leadership development programme that will focus on the strategic aspects of leadership in addition to management and functional competencies. It is one of several upcoming Tote Board initiatives to build capacity and capabilities in the non-profit sector, the others being the Case Study Collaborator Programme and the Global Speaker Series.

Tote Board Chief Executive Mr Fong Yong Kian was present at the launch of the ACE-Capstone programme and delivered an address to the programme partners and participants, detailing Tote Board’s motivations for developing the programme and what it hopes to achieve.

The speech transcript can be found below.

Speech by Mr Fong Yong Kian, Chief Executive, Tote Board
at the Launch of the ACE-Capstone Leadership Programme for Non-Profits
18 May 2016

Tote Board CE Fong Yong Kian addresses the audience at the launch of the programme

Ladies and Gentlemen

1 A very good afternoon to all. I am pleased to join all of you in the launch of this programme today. Let me first welcome the inaugural batch of 26 participants for the ACE-Capstone Leadership Programme for Non-Profits. ACE of course stands for Accelerate, Connect and Empower.

2 First, why is Tote Board here? Tote Board’s Vision is “Giving Hope, Improving Lives”, to help the vulnerable groups and improve the lives of all in Singapore. Our Mission is to contribute towards building an inclusive, resilient and vibrant community through our grants, which are funded from gaming surpluses from our subsidiaries – Singapore Pools and Singapore Turf Club. We work towards our Vision and Mission, in close partnership with our stakeholders and partners.

3 We know very well that policy is implementation. A policy is as good as how it is implemented. Money does not solve problems. It is people, who have been well trained, equipped, working with good leadership, who solve problem and meet the needs on the ground. Therefore, building up the capacity and capability of the VWOs and NPOs has been a top priority of Tote Board. Tote Board has in fact started this journey back in 2008 when we launched our Overseas Scholarship programme for non-profit sector leaders, now in its 9th year. This was followed by other programmes including the Not for profit Management Programme for the 21st Century (NPM21 in short) in 2011, which is the forerunner of the ACE-Capstone Leadership Programme for Non-profits.

4 The conceptualisation of the ACE-Capstone programme started in 2014. It is part of our intensification of our C&C initiatives, and ACE-Capstone is the star jewel of the slate of programmes. We were clear on the outset that we wanted to bring on board an alliance of partners, to offer a comprehensive leadership programme. I am very pleased to say that when we approached SSI, they agree to come on board readily to be our key development partner.

5 Together with SSI, we designed and developed the programme with a grounds-up approach, working closely with partners and practitioners. We are very happy that, Executive Education AALTO University, Centre for Non-Profit Leadership and Lien Centre for Social Innovation, SMU subsequently came onboard as Programme Development partners.

6 A Steering Committee comprising representatives from AWWA, NCSS, SID and Tote Board was formed to advice on the curriculum of the programme. The Steering Committee provided strategic guidance on the desired outcomes of leadership on their deep understanding of the landscape of non-profit organisations.

7 Indeed, this programme is a good illustration of collaboration across multiple agencies to address the key challenge of leadership in the non-profit organisations. This to me, is the most unique aspect of the development of the programme.

8 The ACE-Capstone Leadership Programme focuses on leadership development, covering the strategic aspects of leadership in addition to management and functional competencies. The programme adopts a practical approach comprising action learning and executive coaching sessions. Participants will have real-time, real-work opportunities to deepen their learning experience relating to their leadership challenges.

9 Let me quickly mention some of the current and upcoming Tote Board initiatives in Capability and Capacity building. We recently launched the Case Study Collaborator Programme. We believe that case study is a very good method for distilling lessons learnt and sharing of best practices. The programme will add on to the depository of case studies which are already available for sharing and teaching in the non-profit sector. We will also be launching the Tote Board Global Speaker Series soon. We want to learn from distinguished practitioners from their experiences in other part of the world. These projects and platforms will enable the practitioners and experts to come together as a community to share, exchange and learn, as well as to adapt, contextualise and implement best practices in non-profit organisations.

10 I would like to thank our partners, SSI, AALTO, CNPL, Lien Centre for coming on board with us for this meaningful partnerhip. I also wish all participants a fruitful, challenging and memorable leadership learning journey.

11 Thank you.