China Philanthropy

Drinks for a Cause a Success!

SVG’s first Drinks for a Cause event debuted last week in Shanghai with a packed house! Over 60 people braved the chilly March evening to join us. Conversations (and people) overflowed onto the balcony and staircase as people from different networks, professions, and non-profit backgrounds mingled over drinks and canapés. We featured Compassion for Migrant Children (CMC) and helped them kick-off the opening of their first Shanghai community center. Guests heard about CMC’s various programs among migrant communities and were invited to join as volunteers for the organization. Many of our guests also purchased CMC's calendars and photographs displayed around the venue. Check out our photo gallery from the evening!  In the future, SVG plans to throw many more events for charity that combine an evening of having fun while supporting a great cause. We’re excited about seeing you all at our next Drinks for a Cause in May! 

--Chris, SVG's fearless intern

How Microfinance? An Opportunity to Hope

In the previous two posts (What is Microfinance?, Why Microfinance?), I outlined a theoretical foundation for microfinance and then explained the China context. Class is over—now it’s story time. 

Why are we, the microfinance institutions that operate in the nebulous and unpredictable regulatory environment that is the China finance sector, invested in this work? We want to see businesses changed and families transformed. Theory and context are the grounding, but the end goal is not to set up a functioning program—it’s to see people move out of poverty and into opportunity.

Links That Make You Go Hmmm…for the week ending March 26th

Scouring the news all day (slight exaggeration) for interesting info on philanthropy and China, we often come across noteworthy links that don’t make it into posts but are useful tidbits all the same. So we bring you our first installment of fascinating links, with commentary of course.

New Restrictions on Foreign Donations to China:  On March 1, new donor rules went into effect that determine how Chinese based NGOs receive foreign donations. For more information, check out Grace’s article explaining the new laws and some of the implications for grassroots NGOs and foreign-based donors.

Forbes’ Philanthropist List has some familiar names: This month’s Forbes features their annual listing of top philanthropists. In the mix are a number of Chinese do-gooders including Chen Guangbiao known for handing out money to victims of the Sichuan earthquake. Grace recently wrote an article about how Chen and his fellow Chinese philanthropists view giving, which you can read here.

A new concept for China—Matching Funds: Billionaire Duan Yongping and his wife Liu Xin recently announced that they were giving $30 million to Renmin University where they both matriculated. The couple was very specific with their donation and set aside $15.5 million of it for matching funds. While this concept is a common fixture in the west, it has not yet become a norm in Chinese giving strategies.

Selfish giving and philanthropy: A number of philanthropy blogs I follow have been debating/commenting on how we should look at giving that is less than “optimized.” Should we feel guilty if and when we give emotionally instead of strategically? At the GiveWell blog the answer is no…just don’t call it philanthropy. This speaks a lot to giving in China, especially in light of the growing awareness of giving and philanthropy. Many Chinese people are wary of the charity sector in general, but the resources needed to check up on individual organizations and give responsibly are scarce (as is, oftentimes, motivation). Everyday people do not see themselves as potential philanthropists. So, perhaps the question we need to answer in China is how do we help givers view their contributions as significant?

New Trafficking Laws: Another small but important nail went into the coffin of human trafficking recently as China passed a law that clears a gray area in reporting teenage girls missing. Formerly, girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were in a middle ground that did not include them as children nor as adults. The new law gives parents a right to report their children missing. This new law is one of several recent moves to curb human trafficking in China and will hopefully speed up the retrieval of kidnapped girls.

--Georgia

Announcing: Drinks for a Cause!

At SVG, we've been cooking up ways to get the Shanghai community more involved in philanthropy. We were inspired by a friend of ours in the States who hosts a regular networking/mingling event for charity and we stole his idea (well...we did get permission!)

This Thursday we're having our first Shanghai Drinks for a Cause event, and you're all invited! Compassion for Migrant Children (CMC), an organization that works amongst the migrant community, is opening their first Shanghai community center soon and we wanted to give them a little boost! CMC will briefly share about their organization (they will also have some photographs and calendars for sale) and then we'll have mingling aplenty.

Here are the details:

Location: Balthazar, No. 7, Lane 155 Jianguo Zhong Lu (建国中路155弄7号近瑞金二路). Phone: 6473 0820

Date/Time: Thursday, March 25. 7-10pm (Drop by anytime!)

Price: 100 rmb includes a drink, snacks

Recent Restrictions on Foreign Funding to Chinese NGOs: What Does It All Mean?

Several of our partners and readers have asked us about the news that broke this week from the AP about the impact of the new donor rules in China that went into effect on March 1^st governing foreign donations. It wasn’t until a few days later that the China Philanthropy Times (CPT) broke the news domestically, though the article covers much of the private hand-wringing at many grassroots NGOs in the weeks prior.  What does this all mean?  Well, the answer is complex, so read on.  You can read the actual Notice here in English and here in Chinese.

China’s Empty Villages: New Discoveries in Migration Trends

In January, The University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute published a case study of rural migration in China based on two impoverished rural areas of North Shaanxi province. The study evaluated migration trends in this area and compared them to previously published data for China’s rural migration. The authors found that “the existing literature provides an important insight in understanding the actual situation of migration in China, but there is no study that provides a clear analysis of the various patterns of migration at the village level, using national census data,” i.e. how and why people migrate has been largely unexplored. Using data from the Second National Agriculture Survey, the paper assesses the causation of migratory behavior with a broader look at China’s migration as a whole.

Why Microfinance? The Opportunity Gap

Today we bring you our second of three posts on microfinance by our guest poster Sarah Haig of Hope International. To read the first post click here: What is Microfinance: An Illustrative Hyperbole.

“No Business Left Behind.” Among all the “could have been” development slogans for China, this is my favorite. It would be foolish to do much more in this space than mention the tremendous economic growth that has catapulted China into the present and the future as a global economic influence. Similarly, much is being said about the millions of people who have been left behind the development growth curve—particularly the migrant workers that fuel the economy yet scarcely benefit from it. Underrepresented in the public discussion is a segment of the Chinese population that is well-positioned but still waiting to benefit from China’s growth: microentrepreneurs.

What is Microfinance? An Illustrative Hyperbole

Over the next two weeks we are bringing you a series of informative and creative guest posts on microfinance from Sarah Haig of HOPE International. Before joining HOPE, Sarah traveled extensively and experienced the developing world first-hand. She joined HOPE in 2005 with a desire to find solutions for families trapped in spiritual and physical poverty. In 2006, she moved to Beijing where she currently serves as Asia Associate Regional Director.

 

Once upon a time, there was a perfect town. Some people in the town were Strong, and they could build the houses of the Delicate. Some were Listeners and they enjoyed laughing at the tales of the Conversationalists. There was not total equality, since people were different. But there was something better: universal opportunity.

Giving “Directly” to the Poor vs. Giving to a Nonprofit in China

中文

“Direct” Aid from Chinese Philanthropists Underscores a Deep Lack of Trust in Traditional Nonprofit Channels

In our interactions with Chinese donors, one common theme that recurs is the apparent tension between giving “directly” to the poor versus giving to an established nonprofit that serves a particular disadvantaged group. This tension is hardly surprising given the traditional deep mistrust in an authoritarian society for non-governmental institutions (a very different perspective than in the West). It is at times counterintuitive that a philanthropist would engage directly in service delivery; why bother reinventing the wheel when you can find an “expert” who has a track record to do the job right?