China Philanthropy

Book Review: The Seven Faces of Philanthropy

The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors
by Russ Alan Prince and Karen Maru File

A New Approach
Although The Seven Faces of Philanthropy is written primarily to help fundraisers, it is also a fascinating description of the diversity of perspectives people have when it comes to philanthropy.

Instead of a one-size-fits all approach to fundraising, the book proposes seven unique philanthropic personalities. These seven ‘faces’ are broken down in terms of motivations and expectations surrounding charitable giving. Here are the key identifiers of each personality:

• Communitarians – Local is the key word here. For Communitarians, giving money to organizations based in their community just makes sense. Relationships from work are key in shaping both their desire to give and the practicals of where and how they do it.
• Devout – For the devout, giving is a moral imperative. Their faith commitment is key in shaping both why, where and how the devout give. Their religious community is also often a key source of information about giving as well as a recipient of donations.

• Investors – For investors, giving is viewed the same as any other business investment. It is important for them to see a return on their investment, either in personal tax benefits or other less tangible ones. In selecting a recipient of their giving, they often choose organizations that are efficient and focused on results.

Merry Christmas from Social Venture Group!

Will/Can China’s Wealthy Embrace Philanthropy?

The more wealthy they get and the more they increase in number, the more China’s upper class comes under scrutiny. Over the past several months, that has been especially true regarding philanthropy or the absence of it among high wealth individuals. In a report feaaured on the Hauser Center blog (translated from Chinese) Xu Yongguang of China Youth Development Foundation discusses several barriers to philanthropy for the country’s high wealth individuals. While Xu makes good points, I think he has a very conservative view of the role of the wealthy in philanthropy and their ability to engage in charity.

“The social responsibility of China’s rich cannot be measured by the donation amount.”

If companies don’t have solid CSR practices (producing quality products, providing healthy and safe environment for employees, etc), it doesn’t matter if they are donating money to charity. Charitable giving, says Xu, is voluntary whereas social responsibility is a must.

Links That Make You Go Hmmm…for the week ending December 15

Jumo: Jumo is a new social networking site specifically for the global social sector that launched a few weeks ago. Organizations and individuals interested in do-gooding can connect, share resources and learn about new organizations. Read more about the organization here and, of course, we’d love it if you follow us on our page.

Philanthropy Consultants for the Rich and Famous: The L.A. Times reports that celebrities are increasingly seeking help from consultants to decide where and how to be charitable saying, “Those who hire consultants fall into various categories — those like Legend who know they want to do something, but aren't sure what; others who know what they want to do but don't know how; and those who are already doing something but doing it poorly.”

Earning an Urban Hukou: Guangdong has come up with a new way to loosen restrictions on hukous for migrant workers. The plan, which went into effect this summer, allows migrants to earn points towards an urban hukou. Already, 17,000 people have been giving citizenship in Guangdong. One drawback is that people may need to give up ownership of rural land to get their new hukou.

Chinese Grassroots Nonprofits Struggle with Scarce Funding: An article translated from the Chinese discusses the catch 22 for grassroots nonprofits in China—“ Currently, both foundations and the government refuse to cooperate with grassroots NGOs based on the excuse that NGOs are slow to develop.” For more info on this topic see our recent article here.

Chinese Foundations Can’t Spend Their Budgets: Foundations with specific fields of granting can’t find enough NGOs to grant money to, according to CCTV.

Sustainability Trends: A prediction of the world’s top sustainability trends for the next ten years including increased biking, drought from climate change and the end of cheap oil.

VSO China: Inspiring Volunteerism to and from China

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) first started sending youth from the UK to developing countries for teaching stints in the 1950s. Today the organization has expanded to more than 50 countries where volunteers work to advance development through a variety of initiatives. VSO has had a presence on the Mainland since 1981 and is currently in the process of introducing several new initiatives. I spoke with Assistant Country Director Simon Brown and Country Director Li Guozhi about VSO China’s past, present and future.

Social Venture Group: How did VSO International get started?

Simon: VSO was actually started 52 years ago in the UK by the Bishop of Portsmouth. He had this great idea of sending volunteers, very young people—pre-university, university students to Commonwealth countries to teach. Later VSO became a British charity and has since then expanded hugely to now be recognized as an international development organization.

On average, we have about 1600 and 1700 volunteers placed in more than 40 countries. All of those volunteers on average spend about two years in their placement.

SVG: VSO came to China relatively early compared to other nonprofits. How were they able to establish a presence so quickly and what type of work have they been doing since then?