Our Founding Story

In February 2020, a small and informal group of women leading NGOs, recognised the sector had some very serious, immediate and common concerns regarding the impact on our operations from the ongoing unrest, compounded by COVID. We gathered data from our peers to understand the scale of the issues and the clear message was that the sector was indeed suffering. Importantly, this meant our beneficiaries were also going to suffer. Using the data, we were able to engage with the HKSAR Government about including the NGO sector in the Emergency Subsidy Scheme to help cover staff salaries. In April 2020, we published an open letter to funders, signed by 176 nonprofit leaders, to share our findings. The letter has resulted in more collaborative funding initiatives from foundations (eg. Bridge the Gap) and flexibility with funding and/or grants. The volunteer members of VSG came together, driven by a genuine and deep-rooted desire to see the nonprofit sector survive, thrive and become more sustainable.