Championing Purpose Through Giving

This story is featured in the NUS Giving Report 2025/2025 - Future: Powered by Giving. Click here to read more Giving Report stories. 

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For the past 10 years, one word has guided Mr Foo Jixun’s (Engineering ’93) approach to philanthropy: purpose.

An entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Mr Foo is familiar with investing in what he believes in. This clear sense of purpose has led him and his wife, Ms Serene Siar (Business ’92), to give generously to support scholarships and programmes at the National University of Singapore (NUS) College of Design and Engineering (CDE) and NUS College.

In recognition of Mr and Mrs Foo’s generosity, the J&S Aspiration Room, housed at NUS College (Cendana) has been named in their honour. Within the classroom sits a plaque that shares the vision the couple has for future generations. The last paragraph reads:

“May all who enter be inspired to share knowledge openly, collaborate boldly, and invest in the growth of others—knowing that today’s support shapes tomorrow’s world.”

Mr Foo and his family appreciating the J&S Aspiration Room donor plaque in the classroom.

But this hope is not limited to students alone. Recently, Mr Foo has started sowing seeds of inspiration for bold collaborations across his own network. Through his own acts of giving, he has inspired those around him to find their own purpose and realise it through philanthropy.

The Power of a Conversation

Both Mr and Mrs Foo are proud NUS alumni who credit their time at NUS with instilling a deep appreciation for the role of education in shaping their personal values and purpose.

This experience has foregrounded their partnership with NUS, as they believe in giving back to the communities that have shaped them. This belief underpins Mr Foo’s conversations with his entrepreneur friends about giving back.

“I share with them that everything we build comes from society and community,” he said.  “As we gain our wealth through the support of others, we have to learn how to give back in return.”

NUS College Dean, Professor Simon Chesterman, presenting a token of appreciation to Mr Foo Jixun and Ms Serene Siar (Mrs Foo).

But convincing them to give is never his agenda. “Once it feels forced, it becomes unreal,” he explained. “It has to be casual and simply part of a natural conversation.”

One day, during a walk in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, one of Mr Foo’s friends mentioned that he had seen an article about a gift that Mr Foo had made through NUS. He asked if Mr Foo could tell him more. This sparked an organic opportunity for Mr Foo to share about his own motivations for giving. 

Through this conversation, Mr Foo was able to connect his friend with his contact at NUS Giving. Not too long later, the friend decided to make a major gift and establish a bursary at NUS, and continues to generously support University causes today.

Recounting this experience, Mr Foo reflected that it wasn’t a strong business pitch that drove his friend’s decision: “It’s really about the purpose they have in mind when they decide to give,” he said. “Our causes can be different, and that’s perfectly fine. Everyone has their own passions and beliefs, and people should follow what resonates with them.”

Focusing on what they hope to achieve by giving back, rather than a specific gift amount, is what helps to guide these conversations.

“Giving can be big or small,” Mr Foo elaborated. “What matters is that it’s done in a way you’re comfortable with and aligned with your own beliefs.”

Making Giving Relevant

With a large part of his work based in investment technology, Mr Foo has always had a keen eye for identifying possibilities and challenges on the horizon. This usually informs what he choosew to support through his philanthropy.

Lately, artificial intelligence (AI) has become the hot topic of his dinner conversations. The advancement of AI has drastically broadened the realm of possibilities for society, accelerating disruption in the market and thus amplifying the importance of continuous education through institutions like NUS. This kind of realistic and relevant subject matter naturally lends itself to exploring a philanthropic response, Mr Foo shared.

He explained: “From this conversation over different sorts of gatherings, the question very quickly becomes: ‘What can people with the ability—the ‘haves’, if you will—do to address this sort of transformational gap that we might face as a community, a society or a country?”

These discussions bring purpose to the forefront of philanthropy. Once a pressing need is realised and people recognise how their own values and convictions interact with the current societal landscape, philanthropy simply becomes the vehicle through which they decide to make impact.

A Collective Family Purpose

Beyond inspiring friends and colleagues to join him in giving, Mr Foo is also bringing his family along for the ride. Recognising the major efforts and sacrifices made by his wife and three children that have allowed him to achieve his present-day success, he sees his wealth as a collective family achievement.

“Everything I have is not just mine,” he said. “It also belongs to my family.”

The Foo family and Professor Simon Chesterman celebrating the official launch of the J&S Aspiration Room.

Because of this, Mr and Mrs Foo have decided that giving must also be a collective family decision. For their recent gift, the couple was intentional about involving their children throughout the entire giving process, hoping the experience would inculcate the importance of giving with purpose.

It was together with their children that Mr and Mrs Foo crafted the messaging on the plaque in the J&S Aspiration Room. Through this, they believe that many generations of students will be inspired by their family’s words.  

Giving From the Heart

Mr Foo’s story is one of purposeful philanthropy. His philosophy reaches deep into the core of what makes giving so powerful: beyond a simple transaction, giving is always about achieving a bigger purpose aligned with one’s personal values and beliefs.

“At the end of the day, the act of giving has to come from the heart,” he concluded. “That’s the most important thing.”

If you’re already a committed supporter of NUS, why not take your impact further? Just like Mr Foo, you can connect your friends to meaningful causes at NUS through purpose-driven conversations.