- Nanyang Technological University (NTU) received a $110 million donation from UOB and the Wee Foundation, funding programs like the NTU Opportunity Grant to support undergraduates in need.
- The National University of Singapore (NUS) also benefited from major donations, including $101 million from the Low Tuck Kwong Foundation in 2023 for its Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
- Other notable donations include $125 million from the Ng Teng Fong family for Jurong General Hospital and $125 million from the Khoo family for Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, continuing a long tradition of philanthropy to Singapore's educational and healthcare institutions.
Singapore's largest donations have long been made to local universities and hospitals. In April, it was announced that Nanyang Technological University received $110 million from UOB and the Wee Foundation, established by the bank's former chairman, the late Mr Wee Cho Yaw. The donation would fund three new programs, such as the NTU Opportunity Grant where needy undergraduates can receive up to $10,000 to cover the cost of their on-campus housing and foreign exchanges, among others.
It is the university's second-largest donation. In 2011, the Lee Foundation donated $150 million to NTU to establish its medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
The late Mr Lee Kong Chian, a tycoon who earned the nicknames of rubber and pineapple king for the companies he owned, founded the Lee Foundation in 1952. The National University of Singapore is also one of the beneficiaries of some of the largest donations here. Its Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy was gifted $101 million in 2023 by the Low Tuck Kwong Foundation to assist public officers from Asia and fund scholarships for students across the region.
The Low Tuck Kwong Foundation is named after the late coal tycoon Low Tuck Kwong, and it is among the new philanthropic foundations in Singapore established by the world's wealthiest individuals over the last three years.
Others are the Dalio Foundation of US hedge fund mogul Ray Dalio and his family, as well as the Elaine and Eduardo Saverin Foundation by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
The amount contributed by the Low Tuck Kwong Foundation is marginally more than the $100 million that Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing gave to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in 2007.
As far back as 2005, the NUS Medical School was gifted $100 million by the Yong Loo Lin Trust and renamed the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Yong Loo Lin was born in Malaysia, graduated from the University of Hong Kong as a medical doctor, and was a successful businessman in Hong Kong. He passed away in 1959.
In 2011, the family of the late property tycoon Ng Teng Fong, the founder of Far East Organization, donated $125 million to a new hospital. Jurong General Hospital was renamed the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in honour of the gift.
The late Mr Khoo's own family also gave $125 million in 2007 to the construction of a new Yishun hospital. Most of the amount contributed to the building cost of the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, and the rest was for a welfare fund to assist poor patients. The late Mr Khoo was a hotelier and banker whose family owns the Goodwood Group of Hotels.
