SMU Assistant Professor of Strategic Management Kenneth Goh co-founded AdvocAid – a new non-profit organisation – with the aim of verifying and shaping compelling crowdfunding profiles for needy beneficiaries, especially for those who fall through the cracks and do not qualify for government help. Till date, Assistant Prof Goh and his co-founder Tan En, along with their team, have created about 10 profiles and raised some $3,000 in total for several beneficiaries. The team, comprising volunteers who are trained in various professions including law, medicine and business, help evaluate and design the narratives.

Assistant Prof Goh said as the crowdfunding space grows, the avenues for giving become increasingly diverse. He said, “By telling stories, we can take the individual to the public market and sell these stories to ‘investors’.” He added that it removes the arbitrary standards set by traditional methods of means testing, instead, leaving it to individuals to decide what and who is “worth donating their own money to. "We see a gap in the market - crowdfunding as a platform can be such a powerful tool in creating opportunities for individuals to help each other,” said Assistant Prof Goh.