Tanoto Foundation: Improving Lives In Asia For Four Decades

• The range of programs driven by the Foundation has continued to evolve over the years
• Recent call to action at Philanthropy Asia Summit seeks to replicate the success of early childhood programs in other countries

Just over four decades ago, in 1981, Indonesian businessman Sukanto Tanoto and his wife, Tinah Bingei Tanoto, helped to set up a kindergarten and elementary school in a small community near Besitang, North Sumatra. The decision to set up the school came about following a visit to a local community near their business operations, where they found there was insufficient educational facilities for young children in the area. This also reminded them of their own struggles early in life, when they both had to leave formal education early due to school closures and family circumstances.

From these early beginnings, Tanoto Foundation came into being as an integrated social development initiative, spanning early childhood education, medical research and leadership development across several of the countries in which the Tanoto family’s businesses operate. So far, Tanoto Foundation has provided almost 8,000 scholarships and has helped train more than 70,000 development workers in Indonesia alone.

“We feel that our businesses and the Foundation are tools for our family to create value for society,” says Mr. Tanoto, founder and chairman of the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group. “For the businesses, we create value by providing job opportunities. For the Foundation, we focus on education, so that children can have quality education and realize their full potential, along with other initiatives in healthcare and capacity building.”

Early Days

In line with RGE’s ‘5Cs’ philosophy—which is built around Community, Country, Climate, Customer and Company, and stipulates that the company’s business must have a positive impact on communities—Tanoto Foundation’s early philanthropic work was mostly concentrated in the remote areas where RGE companies operate. Given the nature of the companies’ operations, these areas were mostly rural, poor, underserved and lacking in adequate infrastructure.

Between 1981 and 2001, the Tanoto family’s philanthropy centered on giving out scholarships. This education-focused approach was executed in parallel with RGE group’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, which focused on community development and economic empowerment.

In 2001, the Tanoto family began actively exploring areas of giving beyond scholarship disbursements. They also embarked on the process of setting Tanoto Foundation up as a professional institution, which involved the hiring of staff with the necessary managerial and subject-matter expertise.

The Foundation also developed its ‘3Es’ framework of Education, Empowerment and Enhancement, under which it implemented interventions and programs for a broad spectrum of stakeholders in early childhood development, basic education and tertiary education.

The 3Es programs were piloted in Riau, Jambi and North Sumatra, the three provinces in Sumatra where RGE companies operate. This approach allowed the Foundation to leverage the resources and social networks of RGE, maintaining cost efficiency through the consolidation of resources and securing the effective support of community leaders.

From its earliest days, the Foundation has continued to expand its reach and adapt its programs in line with the family’s core belief that quality education accelerates equal opportunity.

Transformation

From 2018, following many years of trials and pilots, the Tanoto Foundation focused its work on three main pillars that were closely aligned with specific targets within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, namely learning environments, leadership development, and medical research and sciences.

Under learning environments, the Foundation invested in human capital development by contributing to stunting prevention and improving parenting skills to nurture the school readiness of young students. It also sought to improve pedagogical practices and build a supportive environment conducive to learning. The Foundation also embarked on a range of early childhood education and development initiatives across Indonesia, Singapore and China, as the family business expanded across all three countries.

Under leadership development, the Foundation worked to empower younger generations with the essential skills to become impactful future leaders and continued to support government initiatives to improve institutional efficacy. The medical research and science pillar, meanwhile, saw the Foundation maintain its commitment to investing in medical professorships and research to promote healthy living and well-being.

Present Day

The scope of Tanoto Foundation’s operations has highlighted the impact that family operations can have in supporting philanthropic initiatives, especially in Asia. A 2019 Accenture study indicated that two-thirds of the largest family-owned firms in the world are based in Asia, while an EY study from last year noted that family-owned enterprises had managed to stay noticeably resilient in the face of the pandemic.

This suggests that family businesses can play an essential role in helping to address a whole range of social issues across the region—which is why the Tanoto family has continued to invest in the Foundation, having committed about US$25 million to date across the different programs and initiatives.

Today, the key focus areas, and the countries in which they are deployed, are: early childhood education and development (Indonesia, Singapore and China); basic education (Indonesia); leadership development and scholarship (Indonesia, Singapore and China); and medical research and health advocacy (Singapore).

But the work of the Foundation continues to evolve. In September 2022, the Foundation issued a call to action at the Philanthropy Asia Summit in Singapore, highlighting the potential to replicate its successful SIGAP and HOPE programs in other countries and regions in Asia. The Foundation also committed to invest a further US$2 million in its ECD programs in Indonesia and China.

The SIGAP program—‘sigap’ means ‘energetic’ or ‘ready to take action’ in Bahasa—is Tanoto Foundation’s umbrella initiative to work with partners at subnational, national and regional levels to bring about early childhood impacts at scale for children aged six and under. The HOPE (Harnessing Opportunity through Parenting and Education) program, which operates in China, focuses on infant development (0-3 years).

The call to action at the Philanthropy Asia Summit illustrates the Tanoto family’s enduring commitment to the Foundation. “We believe everyone deserves to live a healthy, dignified life and fully realize his or her potential. To achieve this long-term goal, we need efforts and impact to be sustained and sustainable, so that immediate and systemic impediments to human capital development are removed,” says Mr. Tanoto. “We want to put in place a lasting philanthropic organization for generations, which will continue to support a range of important educational and well-being-related causes across the region.”