They say it takes a whole village to accomplish something great — and with every clear goal that benefits a good cause, all it takes is the initiative of one to inspire the many.
This is a mantra TheOneHourProject (TOHP) has carried for five years. And through many of those years, BAGUS (Building All Groundups for Success) Together has been right there to scale mountains when it comes to social impact work.
BAGUS as a Trusted Collaborator
BAGUS Together is a collaboration between the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), Temasek Foundation, and Tote Board. Its aim: to rally Singapore’s groundup ecosystem to work collaboratively. A groundup is a great example of community-driven work – it is a group of individuals who voluntarily come together to carry out a self-organised project or initiative to benefit the community. Groundups are not-for-profit and are not registered organisations and therefore truly appreciate support.
BAGUS Together helps these potential changemakers start and sustain their initiatives through fostering connection, easing access to resources, and building the networks that make community work stick.
In their own words, BAGUS Together exists to establish a “go-to” platform and create a safe space for changemakers to come together and create magic” — an ecosystem where groundups, volunteers, charities, corporate partners, and everyday people meet to deepen their collective impact. This mission is one TOHP definitely resonates with.
BAGUS also brings into focus something very TOHP aligned – the full breadth of what people can contribute. Their framework of the 5 Ts — time, talent, treasure, ties, and testimony — reframes participation as something genuinely accessible. You don’t need to give money or expertise to matter. A connection, a story, a few hours: these are all pieces of a larger puzzle, and every piece counts.
Lessons from BAGUS
One of the most grounding things BAGUS teaches us is how important a framework of support is for social impact movers.
We learned that nurturing connections may ease access to resources, skill pools, and other forms of support. This became an integral part of the process when it comes to our missions.
“In the groundup ecosystem, this often begins with a single individual who cares deeply about an issue and decides to step up,” BAGUS shares. “Through their passion and consistency, they ignite others in their community to act and serve alongside them.”
Volunteer challenges: The case for collective effort
Passion, on its own, is a powerful thing. But BAGUS is clear-eyed about what happens when passion isn’t supported by community: burnout, bottlenecks, and initiatives that don’t outlast their founders.
“Community building also works best when it is shared,” BAGUS says. “Instead of trying to carry the initiative alone, it helps to invite others in early — whether that’s asking for ideas, sharing responsibilities, or creating opportunities for people to take ownership of different parts of the work.”
This is something both TOHP and BAGUS have learned the hard way and the good way. Collective effort brings in more ideas, distributes the weight of difficult work, and — crucially — makes the impact of every campaign more than the sum of its parts.
The data backs this up too. BAGUS’s Groundup Impact Study 2023 found that 73% of groundups identify community building as central to their mission. It’s not peripheral to the work. It is the work.
No man is an island, and in the case of groundup ecosystems, every man is responsible for their fellows.
True progress, they confirm, must go beyond infrastructure to strengthening what they call Heartware — “the relationships, empathy, and shared responsibility that allow communities to be caring, resilient, and sustainable.” Technology can connect people. But it’s the human texture of community — showing up, listening, taking ownership together — that makes that connection mean something.
For TOHP, this has been a reminder that the hour someone gives isn’t just a unit of time. It’s an act of care. And when enough people offer that care consistently, building a society that cares becomes even more tangible.
It Takes a Village
The hard work that a committed community can accomplish is remarkable. What BAGUS Together has given us — and given Singapore’s wider groundup ecosystem — is both a practical platform to organise from, and a philosophy to organise by.
After all, it does take a whole village. And we’re grateful to be building ours, together.
BAGUS Together is a tripartite initiative by NVPC, Temasek Foundation, and Tote Board.
