Skeptical Chinese donors need concrete results

• Source: Global Times
• [08:27 June 30 2010]
• Comments

Wang Zhenyao

Editor's Note:

Wang Zhenyao (Wang), former director in charge of disaster relief with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, recently quit his government job and joined One Foundation, a private charity organization. Over the past 10 years, he has been devoted himself to building a social network to secure the poor and disaster-stricken areas. Global Times (GT) reporter Wu Mian talked with Wang on his understanding of the nature and future of charity in China.

GT: In your decade of experience working with the Ministry of Civil Affairs on disaster control and fund-raising, what were the most difficult parts of your job?

Wang: Generally I think people in China are not yet familiar with the concept of charity. Most of the existing charity organizations are either closely related to the government or are monitored by the government. Many wonder, if charity is connected to the government, why doesn't the government solve the problems in the first place, and what do we need charity for? This reduces the public's enthusiasm for donating.

On the other hand, the rich can't find good projects to donate their money to. In the past decades, only Project Hope, run by the China Youth Development Foundation, was known to the general public. Other charities failed to make their names known. Therefore those who have the ability to donate are reluctant to give their money away.

GT: You have a reputation as a talented fund-raiser. What is your secret?

Wang: To persuade people to support you, you need to have a strong reason for them to do so. Good causes and good proposals speak for themselves. Take the project on autistic children in Shenzhen for example. The Shenzhen Autism Society (SAS) gathered hundreds mothers with autistic kids and wrote to the central government. The top leaders learned about the project and sent inspectors there to learn how SAS helps the young patients. Now SAS receives millions of yuan from the local bureau every year.

In addition to that, you also need to show people what you have done with the money received. The lack of transparency creates misunderstanding. There is a common speculation that the money has gone to the pockets of corrupt officials. What I did back in the Ministry of Civil Affairs to combat such misunderstanding was to have flyers and pamphlets printed out and sent to all sponsors and related departments.

After seeing the smiling faces and reading the reports about the people and projects that received donations, the donors and public had a much better idea of what the charity had done. Some charity organizations posted their statistics online but received unsatisfactory results.

Personally, I don't think this is sufficient. After all, not everyone will visit your website. The charity should make sure that each individual who has donated money to you knows where his or her donation has gone.

Last but not least, we should always respect people, not just donors, but also the recipients of charity and those who help in the process. The public now holds a bizarre attitude toward the rich. Every time disasters take place, the public expects the rich and big enterprises to donate.

Due to such pressures, they feel obliged to do so, and this leads to negative consequences. In the West, people don't have to stand in the middle of a big ceremony with a giant check in their hands to show that they've made a donation, but in China, it has turned into a marketing opportunity.

Some enterprises use it as a chance to promote their brands whereas the original idea was just to gather donations without asking for anything in return. We should respect people's wishes to give back to society no matter how much they donate.