Leading Through Transition: Corporate Philanthropy in Southeast Asia

Across Southeast Asia, companies are embedding social impact goals into their core strategies to address pressing national challenges, ushering in a new era of corporate philanthropy for the region. Developments in the region offer new models for how business and impact can effectively intersect.

In our report, Leading Through Transition: Corporate Philanthropy in Southeast Asia, we examine this transition across the five largest economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. While only a third of the region’s largest companies have established separate foundations, most engage in philanthropic work.

Our research includes a review of historical and legal contexts, findings from an original dataset of 250 publicly listed companies and 91 corporate foundations in the region, and insights from interviews with 12 corporate philanthropy executives. Combined, the analysis of these sources reveals a region in transition, where corporate philanthropy is shifting from charity-driven giving to more strategic, evidence-based approaches. We found that today’s leaders are navigating four key shifts: aligning philanthropy with sustainability goals, prioritizing deeper community impact over scale, adopting rigorous data-driven philanthropic strategies, and bridging differing perspectives across stakeholders.

As corporate philanthropy is approached with greater deliberation and rigor, these leaders are setting the stage for a new era of regional growth—one in which business success and societal impact advance in tandem.