October 30, 2006 McKinsey & Company, along with several leading multinational corporations and professional services firms in China, has joined hands with two of China's most prominent governmental nonprofit organizations to launch an innovative venture philanthropy foundation, Non-Profit Partners (NPP).
At a press conference in Beijing, the China country heads of McKinsey, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ogilvy & Mather, Novartis, Jun He Law Offices, and Motorola, joined the leaders of the China Youth Development Foundation and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, where they discussed the mission and objectives of the NPP.
NPP's mission is to promote the development of China's non-profit sector by bringing together the resources of major multinational and domestic companies and international and domestic non-profit foundations, to provide support to non-profit organizations in China in three primary areas: 1) providing professional services on a pro bono basis in the areas of management, finance, accounting, law, and marketing; 2) multi-year financial support dedicated to capability-building based on the grantee's performance; and 3) fund-raising assistance.
In addition to pro bono professional support of selected non-profit organizations in China, Founding board members cover all operating expenses of the foundation. 100 percent of all other donations not needed to cover expenses are given to the nonprofits that NPP is supporting.
According to NPP Managing Director and Senior Advisor to McKinsey, Mark Yu-Ting Chen, "while limited financial resources remains a major issue facing China's non-profit organizations, they also lack the basic management skills they need to succeed. In addition to providing financial support, the corporate sector in China can play an even greater role in helping non-profits by donating their professional expertise in critical areas such as project planning management, accounting, and fund-raising."
According to Chen, "this innovative approach gives the corporate sector an opportunity to have a significant and tangible impact on China's non-profits, in addition to writing a check. At the same time, it will upgrade the overall quality of the sector by instilling accountability among grantees, giving corporate donors a greater measure of control over how their resources are actually used."
NPP hopes to see 20 to 25 non-profit organizations in China become the standard-bearers for the sector: "Through these organizations, we expect to see an overall lifting of the standards and reputation of China's non-profit sector in the eyes of the general public, as well as the corporate sector, over the next five years."
