China Philanthropy

Help Us Win 100,000RMB!

Our newly launched China Charity Gifts website (more info here) has been chosen as a finalist in the Chinese Charity Innovation grant contest but we need your vote to move to the next round!

 

We're up against 16 other ogranizations in the Technological Application category with a chance to win 100,000 RMB (15,000USD) towards expanding China Charity Gifts.

 

Voting is open from now til March 24 (Beijing Time). Only one catch...the website is in Chinese, but never fear. Just follow the instructions below (we've even got a picture). Please help us spread the word.

1. Go to http://gongyi.sohu.com/ s2011/xinshijie/.
2. Click on the check box next to vote for a project in each of the 4 categories. (You have to choose a project in each category for the vote to be accepted). The heading of each category is the small yellow logo, with blue writing that begins ‘2011...’ 
3. Make sure to vote for China Charity Gifts is in the third category, highlighted in red!
4. Click the button (outlined in red) at the bottom to submit your vote.

Japan Earthquake: How to Give

Japan’s catastrophic 9.0 earthquake and the resulting tsunamis and aftershocks have left 350,000 people homeless and 15,000 people missing, according to the latest reports. As the world mourns this event, many are looking to give money to help with relief efforts. The SVG team has been closely following the disaster and our mourning the loss of so many lives. While our work is exclusively in China, we wanted to compiled a short list of organizations and resources to aid our readers who are interested in giving to relief efforts. (Please note the following organizations are offered for your reference but are not endorsed by SVG.)

Charity Navigator: The charity ranking site features a list of organizations participating in relief efforts as well as helpful tips to consider before giving.

Doctors Without Borders (Médicines Sans Frontières): Medical professionals are on the ground running mobile clinics and conducting assessments of needs. They have not set aside a discretionary fund for the Japan earthquake but donors can give to their general fund.

Give2Asia: Our friends at Give2Asia have set up a Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Fund that will work to meet immediate and long term needs. Local advisors in Tokyo are helping them assess the disaster from the ground.

Global Giving: Global Giving is working with organizations on the ground including Save the Children and International Medical Corps to provide relief aid. Their Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund will disburse donations to their partner organizations. Updates will be sent to donors via email.

Recommendations on Giving: The Give Well blog recommends waiting to give to relief/recovery efforts and explains why based on lessons from the Haiti earthquake and Japan’s economic situation. 

Save the Children: Existing staff and staff from across the globe are working with children and families, with a particular emphasis on the needs of children.

World Vision: World Vision will distribute relief supplies to quake and tsunami survivors and will focus on responding to the emotional needs of children.

China Charity Gifts Officially Launches

Social Venture Group is proud to announce the official launch of our China Charity Gift catalog!

Our charity gift catalog is the first of its kind in Mainland China and offers a way for everyday people to give to good causes in China. Each gift can also be given in the name of a friend or family member.

The Chinese version of the site went up today (don't worry the English version is coming!) and features six nonprofits and 14 projects with gifts ranging from a RMB 18 (US $3) for the daily necessities of a child with cerebral palsy to a RMB 1,145 (US $175) micro-grant for a farmer in Western China.  More projects will be added as the year goes on and as projects are completed. Currently all payments must be made through Alipay.

Each donation goes through Shanghai United Foundation, which is legally allowed to distribute funds to the grassroots organizations featured on China Charity Gifts. Additionally Social Venture Group (that's us) will provide regular updates on the status of the projects

Committed to innovative & responsible philanthropy!
The SVG Team

 

Links That Make You Go Hmmm…for the week ending March 4

5 Myths of Microcredit: Kentaro Toyama explains some of the common misconceptions regarding microcredit for the Atlantic Magazine.

Microblog Helps Parents Find Abducted Children: An estimated 20,000 children are trafficked in China each year. In January a man named Yu Jianrong started a website to help reunite abducted children in China with their parents. Encouraging citizens to take photos of begging children and post it to the blog, Yu’s initiative has already reunited five children with their parents.  For more on the story, click here.

Billing for Charity: One restaurant-goer finds a mandatory charitable contribution on his bill and asks if this is really the way to engage customers in philanthropy.

Does Crowdfunding Work?: A look at the rising popularity of crowdfunding and its effectiveness, including the nonprofit funding site Kickstarter.

Crowdfunding for Social Enterprises: 33Needs is a new Kickstarter-esque site through which users can invest in social enterprises around the world. The sites focuses on six “Big Need” categories—the planet, education, community, health, opportunity, and sustainable food. What do you think? Is this a good way to invest in the social sector?

China’s Charity’s Suffer from Low Salaries: A recent survey reports that 90 percent of China’s NGO employees earn less than 5,000 yuan (US$750) a month. One NGO leaders says, "when interviewing job applicants, we tell them clearly that they cannot rely on the salary to feed a family or live a decent life." Several experts suggest that more private foundations, which can raise funds for and support NGOs, would contribute significantly to the development of grassroots NGOs. For more on the subject see our post on nonprofit workers and social development.