Article: 中国城市社会企业家初探

热点关注：中国城市社会企业家初探

2006-09-28 胡刚 张菁 杨国琼 点击: 3119

一 概况 （一）社会企业家、社会企业的定义 到目前为止，社会企业还无统一的定义。英国是社会企业兴起较早的国家，将社会企业定义为：“企业主要追求的是社会目的。其盈利主要用来投资于企业本身或社会，而非为了替股东或企业持有人谋取最大利益。”（香港特别行政区政府扶贫委员会政府资讯中心）。 社会企业借鉴和利用一般企业的原理，借助市场的力量，调动社会各方面的积极性和力量，实现包括消除贫困、解决就业、扶弱救残和社区发展等内容的社会公益事业大规模、高效率和可持续的发展。 社会企业的三个特点： （1）其目的是解决社会问题。社会企业设立的目的是为了解决某个社会问题，而非赢利； （2）有经营活动并且经营收入是主要收入来源。社会企业不同于传统NPO的主要区别就在于资金来源。传统NPO主要依靠筹款而持续，独立生存的能力相对较弱，而社会企业能够自给自足，其经营收入是主要资金来源，但是也不排除募集资金； （3）所得利润不得用于分红。社会企业也是NPO的一种，这便是社会企业不同于一般企业实现企业社会责任的地方。社会企业的利润不可以用来分红，而必须投入到企业的发展中去。 （二）中国大陆社会企业家/社会企业简况 依据上述社会企业的定义，社会企业应该是非营利组织。根据中国民政部民政事业统计信息管理系统提供的2005年民间组织统计数字显示：截至2005年底，全国各类民间组织有31.5万家，其中社会团体16.8万家；民办非企业单位14.6万家；基金会999家。现实中，还有许多在该统计数字之外的以工商注册的形式存在的民间组织。 “社会企业”在中国大陆还是一个新概念。目前，大多数民间组织比较缺乏经营意识，习惯于通过募款而非经营创收的方式获取资金支持。因此在NPO信息咨询中心数据库里面的1000多家民间组织中，能找到符合社会企业特点的为数不多。它们主要分布在养老、民办学校、职业教育、社会服务等领域。例如，由方嘉珂先生发起设立的天津鹤童老年福利协会，1998年在社团管理部门登记，是一家拥有四座专业老人护理院和包括居家老人照料公司、老年病医院、老人护理职业技能培训学校、国家职业技能鉴定所、清洁管家公司、老人营养餐配送公司以及老年用品公司等一系列机构的社会组织，其90%以上的收入来源都靠自身的服务收费和经营收入。另外一家典型的社会企业上海市妙心家政公司在工商注册，成立于2003年，主要致力于下岗失业人员再就业、再培训的工作，并且特别重视辅导对象的道德教育和心灵启迪。目前，其主要收入来源全部依靠自身经营。 虽然到目前为止，完全称的上“社会企业”的机构并不多，但是可以看出，有一些民间组织已经存在向社会企业转化的趋势。这里可以分为两种类型。 一 种是提供专业社会服务的机构。这类组织可能是直接为社会弱势群体提供符合他们购买力的产品或服务；也可能是所提供的产品和服务涵盖社会弱势群体，然后通过 分级收费来服务于弱势群体。比如南宁的安琪之家是一家专门为脑瘫儿童提供专业服务的机构，他们收取的服务费远远低于同类服务机构的最低标准。目前安琪之家 的经营收入大概占总收入的三分之一，如果他们打破统一最低收费标准，采用分级收费，用高收入家庭所支付的服务费来补贴低收入家庭，将来就很有可能转变成一 个社会企业，使其可以通过经营收益自给自足。 第二种是通过发展公益产业来支持机构运转。鉴于目前民间组织的经济压力，一些机构开始尝试在服务范围之外开拓一些经营的产业。比如为服刑人员子女提供服务的北京太阳村特殊儿童救助中心，2005年开始购买了一片枣树林，通过爱心认购的方式，购买者可以在枣树成熟的时候来采摘。目前这一收入已经达到40多万，将近占到机构收入的四分之一。这一方式还处于试验阶段，如果成功的话，他们还将继续发展这种公益产业以支持机构的发展。另外还有青海的吉美坚赞福利学校，也正在探索通过发展颇具当地特色的奶酪产业来支持学校的运作。 除 了上面这些民间组织以外，还有一些公益性很强的企业，比如北京金色啄木鸟节能环保中心。该企业致力于节能环保产品的开发、生产和使用，并推动垃圾分类、再 生资源回收和推广使用再生纸等惠及社会的工作。随着目前中国大陆经济的飞速发展，也有一些极具社会责任感的个人，用经营公司的方法来解决某些社会问题。公 司的目的并非完全为了追求利润的最大化。 相信随着对“社会企业”理念的逐渐理解和认识，不仅可以为那些具有创收潜质的非营利组织指明或者说探索出一条可持续发展的路子，还可能使一些有经验的实业家们找到一个比捐钱更合适的回馈社会的途径。 （三）社会企业家在中国大陆发展前景 （1）资金来源单一和运行经费没有保障，已经成为困扰中国NPO的最重要的问题。社会企业的经营理念将会给中国NPO注入一种新的可持续发展的活力。 2001年由NPO信息咨询中心组织的“中国非营利组织培训调研报告”显示，公益性非营利组织以捐赠为主要资金来源渠道的，占58.4%； 政府拔款和会费次之；有偿服务等比较少。这一资金来源结构的后果，是NPO在资金方面过分依赖于其他部门，从而形成了发展的瓶颈。事实上，作为非营利机构并不等于不能盈利，只是收入所得不得进行成员间的分红，而必须用于公益事业。 （2）从法律角度看，我国很多草根NPO本身就是工商注册，他们具有企业化运作的先天的法律条件，所以，为什么不扬长避短呢？ 非营利组织的概念在中国兴起也不过十余年，因而我国的民间组织登记管理制度和免税制度目前还很难使很多草根组织得到合法身份和免税资格。很多草根组织都是在工商登记的，所以从法律地位上看，它们都是企业。为了保障机构的公益性、非营利性，这些NPO很少开展具有创收意义的经营活动，但是又无法被法律认可为公益机构而获得捐赠上的免税。这种身份上的缺陷恰恰为它们开展经营活动带来了便利。社会企业概念的提出正好可以解决这个复杂的身份问题。工商登记的身份将更有利于他们向“社会企业”转变。 可能存在的风险：中国社会长期形成的观念，可能会使非营利组织的经营活动有一个慢慢被接受的过程。如果公益组织做经营活动，就很可能使公众怀疑它的公益性。同时，如何保证这种工商注册的社会企业做到不分红，也是需要继续探讨的问题。 二 案例 ——上海妙心家政及创办人黄绮军先生 众 所周知，中国经济正在经历着持续二十多年的快速发展，中国社会发生了巨大变化。在为成就欣喜的同时，困难和挑战也接踵而来。东部发达地区与西部欠发达地区 之间以及城市与乡村之间的贫富差距迅速拉大。农村涌现出大量剩余劳动力，城市下岗失业人口激增。就业和再就业已成为包括各级政府在内的全社会广泛关注的重 大问题，并且给中国经济发展和社会稳定带来巨大压力。 妙心家政总经理黄绮军曾在慈善机构服务多年，深切感受到农村及城市贫困群体缺乏知识、缺乏教育、缺乏机会的状况。2003年3月，他在上海创建了上海妙心家政服务有限公司（http://www.mopa.cn/），在全国20多个贫困或经济落后地区招募家政服务人员，希望通过心灵建设、教授技能、提高自信、帮助就业等手段，促使农村及城市的贫困群体改善生活。 妙心家政是集企业、学校、公益为一体的事业体，它的使命为：将利他精神带入千家万户，帮助农村失业人口和城市下岗人员再就业。企业文化为“给人欢喜，给人希望，给人方便，给人信心”。 妙心家政现有4家分店，员工8人，累计对约750位家政服务人员进行过培训；现有家政服务师约200名，登记会员客户约2000位。妙心家政的目标是在5年内通过连锁方法在华东地区开办100家社区分店（社区生活中心），并安置3000个农村与城镇下岗妇女就业。 作为一家公益企业，妙心家政在成立之初采用了工商注册的形式，目前正在申请NPO的资质。妙心家政通过自筹资金创建并运行至今，目前已经收支持平并有微利。出于创办的公益宗旨，妙心家政目前所获得的利润都投入到了企业运行之中，未来可能获得的盈利也将沿袭目前的做法。为了扩大扶助范围并提高扶助能力，妙心家政下阶段希望通过筹款计划扩大资金投入。 妙 心家政把家政服务人员称为“家政服务师”，为他们提供完整的家事技能培训课程，同时提供在职技能进修和提高，是目前上海唯一的“体验培训”。在培训中，妙 心家政注重家政人员的人格塑造和道德培养，注重中国传统文化和道德礼仪的熏陶，希望以改变学员的心灵来改变他们的生活，强调启发学员，以培养他们包容、感恩的心灵，并通过教授技能以增强他们的自尊、自信。 38岁 的家政服务师王红梅来自河北省一个小城镇，十几年前成为了单身母亲，而企业的不景气又让她不得不面对下岗失业的窘境。通过当地政府的介绍，王红梅来到上 海，进入妙心家政工作，不料对新环境的担忧和对女儿的挂念使她一到上海就病倒了。妙心家政和黄绮军资助她求医问药，病愈后又帮助她适应新的城市、新的环境 和新的工作。现在，她已在妙心家政工作了一年多，她的女儿也由此获得经济支持而复学。王红梅说：“感谢黄绮军先生，感谢妙心家政给我再就业的机会，感谢妙 心家政这方净土让我栖身。我爱妙心家政，就像爱我相依为命的女儿。它使处于困境中的母亲们舒展了眉头，使失学的孩子重拾课本。我爱妙心家政，因为它是我真 正的娘家”。 作为一家家政服务企业，妙心家政为了使它的服务覆盖更广的地区，惠及更多需要帮助的人，充分运用现代信息科技手段，推出了家政服务师网络视频介绍、多媒体网上家政学校（http://jzol.cn）等特色服务，给予客户以印象深刻的使用体验，具有较强的市场竞争力。 妙心家政在实践中创建了社区生活中心的模式，并以它作为主要的经营形式。目前，妙心家政共有4个社区生活中心正在运行中，运行半年以来，成效显著，广受欢迎。 社区生活中心是在城市小区附近租下100-150m2的住宅，供不超过15位家政服务师居住，并配备 1-2名 管理人员，向附近区域居民提供服务。这个模式在不影响服务的前提下，为家政服务人员和雇主提供了更充分的个人空间，一方面大幅改善了家政服务人员的生活环 境和心灵感受，显著降低了家政服务人员的流失，另一方面也显著提高了雇主的满意度和信任度。社区生活中心推出后受到了服务人员和雇主两方面的好评和欢迎。 社区生活中心的模式易于推广复制，具有良好前景。妙心家政计划继续推广应用连锁这一模式，在5年内在华东地区开办100家社区生活中心。 妙 心家政创建至今遇到的困难主要在于：第一，作为一个非营利性的组织，资金支持仍然不够，因此无法在基础设施、师资力量建设以及社会宣传方面加大力度，导致 难以广泛、高效、高质量地拓展培训业务；第二，由于社会企业的概念在中国尚不普及，难以吸引到合适的管理人员参与企业运作，导致企业管理混乱，资源浪费， 效率低下，影响了公司的健康发展。这两点也将是妙心家政未来发展的两个瓶颈。 在 访问中，黄绮军表示，这是他首次接触到社会企业——社会企业家的概念。交流之后他表示，就他的理解，社会企业应该兼具公益性质和企业运作形式；社会企业家 应该具有利他心，有投入公益事业的热情，有管理能力，能够组织、领导团队工作。这两点使它有别于义工、慈善家和企业家。 他表示：随着经济增长，中国的公益领域将发展迅速。随着公众精神需求的增长，中国社会精英群体投身入公益领域的数量渐增。在他看来，虽然资金经常是摆在眼前最明显的问题，但只是影响中国社会企业家出现和成长的主要困难之一。目前中国社会企业家面临的困难和挑战还有两个： （一）是否有坚定的信念，能否抵住现实的种种诱惑而不动摇。 （二）外部社会环境尚不成熟，不能提供足够的扶助。 谈到自己，黄绮军认为他选对了方向，希望能够为己为他人继续努力，让人生不遗憾。 三 建议 在中国，非营利组织面临着许多问题，其中筹集困难、资金严重不足是最突出的问题之一。“社会企业家”的概念和方法，对目前中国非营利组织解决资金来源问题，是一个十分有意义且现实可行的思想和方法。 “社会企业家”不仅对拓展中国非营利组织的发展思路具有积极的启示作用，而且，为那些有意愿在公益领域有所作为的企业提供了一种新的现实可行的选择。因此，“社会企业家”对推动中国公益事业，从而对促进中国社会进步将起到十分积极的作用 “ 社会企业家”作为一个概念在中国还是比较新鲜的，但同时，中国拥有供其实质内容生根发芽的广袤土地。从初步的判断来看，“社会企业”在中国应该具有良好的 发展前景，所以，建议在中国开展相关的研究和宣传推广工作——近期目标：在中国非营利领域及企业界介绍、推广“社会企业”概念和方法。长远目标：使中国非 营利组织及企业广泛参与到社会企业实践中来，并且影响中国政府在政策法规方面支持“社会企业”在中国的发展。

Young and Restless China

CHINA 2024 brings together 114 of the best and brightest Chinese MBA graduates from the top business schools in the United States and China. These emerging leaders will have unprecedented opportunities and challenges. They represent a critical generation. For the next 20 years, we will closely watch their progress and development.

The PBS FRONTLINE documentary, "Young and Restless in China" explores what it means to be coming of age in China today. Starting in 2004, the film tracks four ambitious MBA graduates who are 2024 members as well as a media savvy hip hop artist, two migrant workers living precariously on society’s edge, a dedicated medical resident and a courageous environmental activist.

What happens along the way is surprising: some of those featured in the film find themselves torn between traditional culture and tantalizing new opportunities; several begin the heady ride to wealth and power. Some find love and resolve family conflicts, and others seem likely to crash and burn along the way.

As we watch these young people work, hang out with family and friends, sing karaoke or launch their first business, we come to know them in a rare, intimate way. In unusual detail, YOUNG & RESTLESS IN CHINA captures the highs and lows of coming of age in this time of China’s extreme transition and change.

The documentary will air nationally on PBS in June 2008. Visit the PBS website for the documentary at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/youngchina.

Developing China's Nonprofit Sector

By Mark Yu-Ting Chen, Lincoln J. Pan, and Hai Wu
McKinsey Quarterly， August 2006

Like most segments of China's economy, the nonprofit sector has grown at a heady pace over the past few years, expanding from roughly 6,000 registered groups in 1999 to about 150,000 in 2005. (1) While this growth is remarkable, weak management skills and a lack of resources are making it hard for nonprofits to meet the rising demand for their services. Multinational corporations in China can help by targeting their donations to improve the organizational performance of nonprofits and by offering training and expert counseling. At the same time, China's nonprofits must create an infrastructure to strengthen the sector, in part by channeling corporate aid more effectively.

Nonprofit organizations were almost nonexistent in China before the onset of economic reforms, in the 1980s. As the sector grew, corporate philanthropy focused on funding primary education, programs to alleviate poverty (such as microfinancing for farmers), and health initiatives. These efforts helped nonprofits to acquire physical assets, such as school buildings and clinics, but programs and physical assets alone are not enough to support a nonprofit's long-term development. To achieve the most impact, corporate philanthropy must combine more flexible financial support with a hands-on effort to teach nonprofits the skills critical to running organizations effectively.

Beyond giving corporations more control over how their contributions are used, this new approach would help them demonstrate a greater commitment to improving China's social welfare, make them more attractive to potential recruits, and perhaps strengthen their relations with the government. It would also allow them to become more knowledgeable about social issues, such as the environment, that are likely to influence business decisions in China over the coming years.

To date, corporations have made little progress in understanding China's nonprofit sector, despite their interest in establishing a philanthropic track record. To help determine the causes for this problem we examined more than 100 nonprofit organizations in China and undertook an in-depth analysis of more than 40 of them. We talked to hundreds of stakeholders, including donors and nonprofit leaders, as well as current and former government officials.

The evolution of China's nonprofit sector

These nonprofits couldn't cope with the variety of new social issues resulting from China's rapid economic growth, however. The cost of medical care and higher education, for instance, has risen beyond what many Chinese citizens can afford. In addition, issues such as HIV/AIDS, rural unemployment, and pollution are putting even more strain on existing public services.

These concerns led to the emergence of a second wave of nonprofits, including a growing number of independent grassroots organizations. Few of these groups are more than five years old and most have only one full-time employee. Nevertheless, they play an increasingly significant role in Chinese society.

Initially, many grassroots groups came under heavy scrutiny from the government, which feared that they could be politically destabilizing. While the government continues to monitor some groups - particularly those with religious and political leanings - it offers support to an increasing number of nonprofits.

In late 2004, for example, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced a new framework to recognize the foundations that finance charity in China and to offer them a variety of tax deductions, including exemption from stamp duty. Legislation institutionalizing the framework is currently under review. Officials have also initiated discussions on a comprehensive philanthropy law that would create a certification process for nonprofit organizations and provide tax deductions for individual and corporate donors.

Today the main obstacle to the nonprofits' development is neither government scrutiny nor the level of demand. Rather, nonprofits in China face unique challenges arising from the sector's immaturity and from a development path that has neglected social issues and grassroots organizations because it's guided largely by the government. The most pressing challenges - a weak funding base and a lack of resources to support critical training and counsel - are both exacerbated by the unprecedented growth in demand for nonprofit services.

Hurdles for nonprofit development

Chinese nonprofits face funding shortfalls and a skewed distribution of resources. In 2005, charitable contributions in China, including funds given to the government for disaster relief, totaled some 0.05 percent of the nation's GDP, compared with 0.09 percent in India, 0.84 in the United Kingdom, and nearly 2 percent in the United States. Very little overall contributions come from domestic sources: we estimate that international organizations and corporations account for 80 percent of all donations to Chinese charities. (4) (That figure is just 0.5 percent in the United States.) Donations from domestic companies are particularly low: a sampling of the leading ones indicates that, on average, they contribute less than 0.3 percent of their posttax income to charity, compared with more than 2 percent for most Fortune 500 corporations.

Domestic giving is likely to increase as the country's affluent class matures and charitable organizations become more established. In the meantime, the dearth of funding makes life particularly difficult for grassroots organizations. Government-affiliated nonprofits absorb 85 percent of all available resources, leaving little for the burgeoning number of smaller groups. In addition, most charitable giving in China flows through large nonprofits and government-organized NGOs based in Beijing and Shanghai - areas where nonprofits cluster, information about them is more easily obtained, and corporate efforts are more visible. Organizations outside these huge urban centers tend to be left out.

The nonprofit sector also lacks training programs and resource centers to support the development of its business skills. The dominance of government-established NGOs, which tap government resources to build these capabilities, has forestalled the formation of a strong independent support network. A growing number of grassroots organizations - particularly those operating outside the biggest cities - will require such an infrastructure to get the resources and training they need.

Many nonprofits have relied on their entrepreneurial ability and the unwavering commitment of their founders to overcome the hurdles and create innovative, sustainable programs. These organizations will doubtless grow stronger in response to legal and regulatory measures intended to develop the sector. We estimate that from 500 to 800 high-caliber nonprofit organizations in China have the scale, impact, and expansion potential to benefit greatly from the increased managerial skills and other kinds of support that corporations could provide.

One example is the Sherig Norbu Jigme Gyaltsen School, in Qinghai province. Qinghai's public schools provide only a modern Chinese education, in Mandarin, while the region's Tibetan monasteries don't have the resources to teach students modern sciences and languages. To serve Qinghai's large population of Tibetan children better, Jigme Gyaltsen founded the Sherig Norbu in 1994, using personal savings of 3,000 renminbi ($400) and about 13,000 renminbi in borrowed money. The school combines a traditional Tibetan education, which includes logic and debating techniques rooted in Buddhism, with a modern Chinese education taught in Mandarin and English.

The school operates several for-profit businesses, including a Ragya yak cheese factory, which accounts for a significant part of its annual income (27 percent in 2004). Despite Sherig Norbu's success, it could benefit from corporate support - rudimentary management skills, for example, could help improve the sales and distribution of its cheese.

The corporate challenge

In 2004 multinational corporations in China donated $50 million to $75 million to the country's NGOs. While financial support is always welcome, these companies would make a greater impact by directing their money more effectively and by complementing their financial support with help in developing the nonprofits' management and operating skills - making experienced staff available, for example.

In-kind services with intellectual muscle

In some countries, nonprofit organizations have access to paid and pro bono networks of accountants, consultants, lawyers, and trainers. The Boston-based group New Sector Alliance, for example, coordinates the activities of a variety of volunteers (including professionals, MBA students, and undergraduates) to advise and train nonprofits. Only a handful of organizations have initiated comparable training programs for China's nonprofits, despite the glaring need.

Corporations can help fill this gap by, for instance, funding research into social issues or allowing employees to dedicate a specific number of hours each year to help Chinese nonprofits, which, unlike their counterparts in more developed economies, need training in basic business skills such as accounting, management, marketing, and logistics and distribution. Corporations can teach these skills effectively through long-term volunteer projects.

Such projects offer companies two benefits that funding alone cannot. First, the direct transfer of skills and services gives donors greater control over the outcome of their philanthropic efforts. Second, by creating a window into the nonprofits' operations, this kind of interaction will enable companies to tailor their future donations.

Consider the potential impact of the corporate presence at a grassroots organization that provides housing and psychological counseling for children of incarcerated parents. In 1998 Zhang Shuqin established Sun Village at Xian, in central China. The organization now has four centers serving more than 400 students, as well as a solid base of corporate donors. It also solicits donations for planting jujube trees on its land and then sells the fruit, used in Chinese medicine, to generate additional revenue.

Sun Village has been slow to expand, despite adequate funding and increasing demand for its services. Instead of adding new ones or building new centers, it has become overly focused on day-to-day operations. Zhang continues to make nearly every organizational decision - from setting funding targets to determining how the van is used. Corporate volunteers could help by coaching managers in how to set strategic goals, raise funds, and delegate responsibility.

Corporate executives should also seek seats on the advisory boards of nonprofit organizations. Until recently, these boards often didn't function well, since the benefits of organizational governance were not fully understood. Our discussions, however, show that nonprofits are slowly recognizing the need for greater corporate participation and are increasingly open to extending the invitation to private-sector executives. Board representation not only allows a company to ensure that its donations are used wisely but also gives it the opportunity to improve the governance and professionalism of nonprofits and to enhance their performance in the vital areas of marketing and strategic planning.

Funding human resources and training

In addition to providing volunteers, corporations should rethink the way they distribute charity to nonprofits. Most organizations direct their donations toward program expenses (such as the operating costs of a school or a women's center) but not the costs of administration, fund-raising, or staff development. Further, many donors focus on issues that are high on the government's list of priorities (and therefore widely publicized), such as the environment, vocational education, and improving rural villages. As a result, many nonprofits amend their programs merely to increase the donations they receive - even if in doing so they neglect their core mission. Because funds for environmental problems were available, for instance, one of China's larger, education-focused organizations developed side projects to address them; another nonprofit, which operates orphanages, has started a number of vocational-education projects purely to attract donors. Diversification would be appropriate if these organizations had the right skills, but given their tight resources and narrow capabilities they would be better off focusing on their core mission.

To encourage nonprofits to deepen their program expertise and expand their core capabilities, corporations can supply funds to improve the way they develop, recruit, and retain employees. Providing the resources to build and staff a school is helpful, for instance, but corporate support of teacher training - directly or through third-party organizations - will go further toward sustaining nonprofits in the longer term. At Sun Village, for example, a corporation might consider paying for programs to train employees in psychological counseling or providing them with child care.

Corporations should also provide more multiyear grants. Donors in China generally offer support for only one year at a time, on the theory that the annual reapplication process is the best way to motivate and assess a nonprofit's performance. However, this practice creates significant administrative burdens. A typical midsize organization with 5 to 15 workers, for example, may write more than 25 grant proposals a year, expecting to receive funds for perhaps 5 to 12 of them. Multiyear grants, which would lighten this administrative task, could be made conditional on meeting specific performance targets, reviewed regularly.

Creating a new nonprofit infrastructure

While the private sector's participation is critical to developing nonprofits in China, they themselves must initiate reforms aimed at building skills and resources. China needs to develop national organizations, similar to the International Red Cross, that can direct funding and services to grassroots nonprofits, for example. With government-established NGOs absorbing most of the available funds, the current allocation of resources is inefficient. Large NGOs are not always best placed to respond to society's changing needs, whereas smaller, more nimble grassroots organizations may be better able to tailor services to local conditions. In Shanghai, for instance, an organization called MOPA Housekeeping not only employs and trains migrant workers so they can perform basic housecleaning services but also provides cultural centers and group homes to help them manage the difficult transition from rural to urban life - a need that larger nonprofits have overlooked. The creation of Chinese foundations focused on supporting small, grassroots nonprofits would make resources more widely available.

Some government-affiliated NGOs have the capacity and scope to organize national foundations. Their strengths include good relationships with the Chinese government, networks of volunteers, stable international and domestic financial support, and experienced managers. The China Youth Development Foundation, for example, is in a good position to take on this challenge: it channels resources to smaller nonprofits that concentrate on rural education and youth-centered projects but that work in ways (or areas) that the foundation's own efforts don't cover.

A network of domestic foundations could help spur the development of national resource centers to provide nonprofits with advice, teach them fund-raising skills, and perform research services. Currently, the one-year-old NPO (Nonprofit) Development Center, in Shanghai, and the six-year-old China NPO Network, in Beijing, plan to offer some of these services. But there is room - and need - for more. Corporations could ally themselves with large NGOs to finance both domestic foundations and national nonprofit resource centers, particularly in the interior and western regions where China needs them most.

Finally, China's leading nonprofits can set and publicize governance standards for themselves and others in the sector. The China Youth Development Foundation, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, and the NPO Network, for example, have begun discussions to create an initiative to build public trust, attract donors, and establish nonprofit standards, including audited financial statements, functioning boards of directors, Web portals, and appropriate organizational structures. Nonprofits that meet such standards would receive formal recognition as "higher-quality" organizations. While this initiative is a good first step, it must be implemented fully and effectively to serve as a catalyst for change, and similar efforts should be established at the national level.

Increased government and private-sector efforts will be critical to ensuring that China's nonprofit organizations can respond effectively to the growing demand for their services. Corporations can choose from a variety of tactics beyond monetary donations in order to provide China's proliferating nonprofits with the most useful resources - financial and beyond - and to supplement the government's efforts to help these groups build a sustainable future for the country.

Mark Yu-Ting Chen is an alumnus of McKinsey's Taipei office of and adviser to McKinsey; Lincoln Pan is an alumnus of the Hong Kong office; Hai Wu is a principal in the Beijing office.

This article was originally published in the McKinsey Quarterly.

Citizens' groups step up in China; wary rulers allow role in quake aid

By:Maureen Fan

Keyword: earthquake civil society NGO

Grass-roots organizations and informal networks of private citizens are playing a vital role in getting supplies to rescue workers and survivors of this month's devastating earthquake in China. The government, in a notable shift, appears content to let them do so.

Officially, nongovernmental organizations in China must register with the government; the larger groups are as rigid and controlled as their official sponsors. Authorities remain deeply suspicious of smaller, independent groups.

Now, however, aided by the proliferation of online bulletin boards, blogs and on-the-ground coordination centers, unregistered grass-roots organizations are essentially functioning as legitimate earthquake-relief NGOs, operating for the first time without having to look over their shoulders and helping to manage a crisis whose death toll could surpass 80,000.

Here in this ruined town, about 40 miles from the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake, a ragtag group of citizens -- a shopkeeper from Guizhou province, his friends and a volunteer worker who knew the way -- emerged the other day after a four-hour trip.

They had placed homemade signs in their vehicles' front windows that said "food and medicine." With miniature video cameras in hand, the group's members looked like tourists. But in delivering medical gloves, antibiotic cream, and fresh cucumbers and cabbages to the front, they had done more to get replacement supplies to rescuers than government troops had managed.

"Fantastic! We've got shortages. We really need fresh vegetables," said Wu Jun, head of a military university hospital, meeting the convoy in a camouflage T-shirt and carrying a sheaf of papers. "Our supply units went to the vegetable wholesale market in Chengdu, but there was nothing left."

The volunteer who had led the civilian convoy to Yingxiu was actually a member of the Chengdu Urban Rivers Association, which has set up a makeshift coordination center at its office to aid relief efforts. Xia Lu knew that the road here, littered with grisly car wrecks and fallen boulders, had recently reopened. She also knew which supplies were needed, having made the same trek only five days earlier and talking with soldiers.

Since the earthquake, the coordination center has fielded hundreds of calls and e-mails, using staffers who were already in the field just before the quake as well as other contacts and volunteers.

"We operate like a traffic-control center," Tian Jun, executive director of the river association and head of the coordination center, said as she juggled meetings and phone calls last week. "We get information from the front, either from our own staff or from others, and post it online. Volunteers then buy or bring in supplies, and we direct the supplies to where they're needed."

Alternatively, volunteers and other grass-roots organizations call Tian to tell her what they have in their cars. She then calls contacts in quake-affected towns to see what they need. "In either case, we will supervise the whole process to make sure the need is real and properly satisfied," Tian said.

In a room down the hall -- stocked with donated boxes of milk powder, disinfectant, soap, peanuts, sterile gauze and bags of rice -- two newly arrived volunteers waited for an assignment.

"We're retired, and we really hurt in our hearts when we saw what happened here," said Zhang Liying, 50, who rode a train for 38 hours from the coastal city of Tianjin to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan province. "We want to help the soldiers to cook. Whatever help they need, we will do it."

Mu Wenzhi, the shopkeeper from Guizhou, had the same reaction. He said he and his wife cried while watching TV news reports about the earthquake. He had never volunteered for anything before but, right away, he asked his wife to mind the store. He and six friends pooled their money to buy food.

"We arrived in Dujiangyan on May 14 at 2 a.m., after a 15-hour drive," Mu said, describing his three trips to the earthquake zone, as his four-car convoy waited for other vehicles to pass on the narrow road to Yingxiu. "We were resting in our van when suddenly a group of retired soldiers knocked on our window. They said there was an emergency in Xiang'e town and asked us to unload our supplies and drive them there."

In Xiang'e, an old woman watching Mu eat biscuits turned out to have barely eaten. "She had only drunk two bottles of water and eaten three packages of instant noodles for the past three days," Mu said. "That's when we realized that people were in urgent need of supplies. We went back to Xishui on May 16, organized four cars, bought several truckloads of food in two hours and drove straight back."

Mu and other volunteers are getting tips from television news and people they meet in the earthquake zone, not from government bureaucrats. "No one from the government told us what to do," said Tian, of the river association. "In this urgent situation, we decided to share some of their responsibility."

Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project and a Chinese media expert at the University of California at Berkeley, said some smaller, unregistered NGOs had teams of volunteers in the quake zone almost as fast as the military had troops there.

"Many self-organized social networks are not formal organizations, but altogether their numbers, resources and role in society is much larger than what the government has officially allowed in the past," Xiao said.

So far, authorities seem pleased with the mobilization, which includes many first-time volunteers and members of social groups such as car clubs and outdoor sports organizations.

"The Chinese people, who have always been criticized for only being good at infighting, have been surprisingly united and therefore powerful in their togetherness," the state-run Beijing Youth Daily editorialized Tuesday. "Grass-roots organizations, which were considered weak due to their lack of a supportive environment, have shown effective organizing and enforcing abilities in the rescue work and proven themselves as healthy and positive forces in society."

No one expects Beijing to relax the rules governing NGOs, and there's no sign that officials will make it easier for grass-roots groups to organize or raise funds, particularly in the politically sensitive period leading up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games.

In fact, authorities have stepped up their surveillance of AIDS activists in the capital and pressured Beijing-based human rights lawyers not to meet with visiting U.S. representatives this week. On Wednesday, Communist Party loyalists hacked into and shut down a Web site run by a leading Tibetan writer and critic of government policies toward Tibet.

"The government will not automatically be more open toward NGOs," said Guo Hong, a Chengdu-based sociology professor and volunteer at the makeshift earthquake coordination center in Chengdu. "But I hope they will establish a system for NGOs where they address what kind of social organizations will be allowed to help develop society and what kind of participation will be allowed."

In the long run, another volunteer said, the policy toward NGOs will be more open, but that doesn't mean it will just get easier. "It's like the earthquake. There will be aftershocks, but you don't know when and you don't know how big," said Gao Guizi, director of the Sichuan Social Development Research Institute.

"From this disaster, the government has come to realize the power of the grass roots," Guo said. "This power will be helpful in establishing and managing a real civil society. But the problem is how to allow the grass-roots groups to take part in an orderly way. Taxi drivers used to be considered the least-educated and least-civilized group, but they were the first to respond to the disaster, organizing themselves to drive the injured to hospitals."

Date Posted:2008-5-29 Date Published:2008-5-29 Source:Washington Post

Thursday, May. 22, 2008

China: Roused by Disaster

By Simon Elegant/Beijing
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1808638,00.html

The highway leading to Yingxiu, a small town near the epicenter of China's May 12 earthquake, is rent by fissures big Publish Postenough to swallow a child and is choked with smashed trucks and enormous rocks. Near the town's outskirts, just past a car that has been crushed by a boulder, a landslide cuts off the road entirely. A mother who walked into the mountains beyond to bring out her 12-year-old son says he's been scarred by what he's seen. The landscape they are leaving behind is hellish, she says--putrefying bodies, collapsed schools, buried roads and rows of wrecked houses. But the situation doesn't faze two friends who have traveled here by train, car and, finally, on foot to help victims of the Wenchuan earthquake. Dressed in white T shirts reading I [heart] CHINA, the men are determined to reach the core of the devastation. "After we saw the news of the disaster, we decided we had to help," says Wu Guanglei, a 36-year-old high school physics teacher from Zigong, a town 186 miles (300 km) to the south. "We Chinese people are growing closer and closer together," says Wu Xiangping, 28, who took a leave from his job at a Beijing advertising firm to join the relief effort. "And because of that, the country's morality is rising too."

These simple observations, stated with a tinge of hope and pride, crystallize much of what China as a nation has learned about itself over the past two weeks. The 8.0-magnitude quake, the country's worst natural disaster in more than 30 years, has probably killed at least 50,000 and has left more than 5 million homeless, according to official sources. Horrific videos from the disaster zone--the twisted bodies of children layered like fossils in the sediment of a pancaked concrete schoolhouse, the desperate decision to amputate the legs of a dying girl pinned in rubble--forced the Chinese people to look into the abyss. And reflected was the image of a more compassionate nation than many had perhaps expected, where tens of millions of Chinese lined up for hours to make sure their donations of cash or food or clothes were accepted and where tens of thousands of others like the Wus left their jobs and families and rushed to aid their compatriots. The roads to the disaster zone were jammed with cars carrying banners that read RESIST THE QUAKE: PROVIDE RELIEF and WHEN ONE HAS DIFFICULTY, EIGHT ASSIST. The traffic was so overwhelming that authorities had to close the roads and turn back volunteers. So many clothes were contributed that they were piled in mounds six feet (two meters) high in some devastated towns. Within days, contributions from the country's private companies, not known for their charity, had hit a billion dollars and were still rising.

The outpouring of support has been a revelation. For years, China's citizens couldn't watch the evening news without being reminded of their darker side, of the grasping, reckless self-interest that has characterized China's headlong rush to become wealthy and powerful--stories of slave labor and child-kidnapping rings, rampant government corruption, counterfeit products, tainted food, dangerous toys and, lately, the brutal crackdown on dissent in Tibet. But from a monstrous humanitarian crisis has come a new self-awareness, a recognition of the Chinese people's sympathy and generosity of spirit. The earthquake has been a "shock of consciousness," as Wenran Jiang, a China scholar at the University of Alberta, puts it, a collective epiphany when the nation was suddenly confronted with how much it had changed in two decades of booming growth and how some changes have been for the better.

Of course, when the national emergency abates, much of China will revert to its familiar ways. But something fundamental has changed. There is a new confidence in the ability, even duty, of ordinary Chinese to contribute to building a more virtuous society and a willingness to press the government for the right to do so. Most of those volunteering were doing so for the first time, for example, and many said they were eager to do more community work in the future. Says Jiang: "It's a major leap forward in the formation of China's civil society, which is vital for China's future democratization process." That doesn't mean the Wenchuan earthquake will lead directly to elections in the next few years, but the complex and shifting relationship between the Communist Party and increasingly vociferous Chinese citizens will probably evolve into some form of compromise between autocratic control and Western-style democracy.

It's not just China's self-perception that has changed. The quake has altered, at least temporarily, the world's perception of China, whose growing economic and military might is viewed with suspicion and fear in many quarters. China's relationship with the democratic West has been particularly strained of late, after March's bloody demonstrations in Tibet and the chaotic protests that dogged the Olympic-torch relay. But the quake, coming just 10 days after Cyclone Nargis ripped into Burma, has cast the Chinese government in a different light. By blocking foreign aid, Burma's paranoid military junta demonstrated just how impotent and callous to the suffering of its citizens a repressive autocracy can be. But even Beijing's critics expressed admiration for China's swift response to the quake.

In turn, some of China's most xenophobic bloggers have expressed astonishment at the sympathy shown for China by the rest of the world, the donations of cash and goods and the dispatch of foreign search-and-rescue teams, doctors and other personnel. The outpouring of international goodwill "has changed everything," says a senior Western diplomat based in Beijing. "Now many people will be cheering for the Chinese and hoping they pull off a good show at the Olympics. That will be pivotal for China's self-confidence and its perception of its place in the world."

A Nation's Agony

If the crisis had a defining moment, it came on May 19 at 2:28 p.m., exactly a week after the quake. That was when the entire country paused for three minutes. Traffic came to a halt, flags were lowered to half-mast, and Chinese everywhere stood in oft tearful silence to honor the victims of the Wenchuan quake, named for the county at its epicenter. Drivers honked their horns, and factories sounded their sirens in a collective wail of agony. The ritual marked the start of three days of national mourning, during which Internet activities like online gaming were halted and all TV channels except those broadcasting news were blacked out.

This cathartic outpouring of national grief helped put to rest the notion that China lacks civic spirit. Academics have long argued that Confucian ideals, which emphasize duty to family, have mutated over the millenniums into a national mentality that views contributions to nonrelatives as a waste of precious personal resources. This trait was exaggerated by the beggar-thy-neighbor capitalism that has been Chinese society's driving force for the past two decades. Charitable donations from individuals and businesses in China amount to about 0.09% of the gdp, compared with 2% in the U.S.

But in the space of a few weeks, China has shown that not only do its people know how to grieve but they also know how to give. And the charity isn't coming from just private companies and wealthy citizens; many of those donating are poor Chinese making enormous sacrifices. Waiting patiently in line at the Red Cross Society of China office in Beijing on May 19 was Liang Baoying, a 63-year-old retired teacher. Clutching an envelope containing the equivalent of $287--her monthly pension--Liang tearfully said she could no longer watch news of the quake on TV because it was too sad. "I believe this is a national tragedy, so we have no choice but to give. I'm sure the Red Cross will use the donation properly."

Thousands are doing even more. The China Youth Daily reported that an estimated 200,000 citizen volunteers from all over China have descended on the quake zone, providing food, shelter and medical treatment, their convoys of vehicles sometimes causing traffic jams on the narrow mountains roads of Sichuan province. Private aid takes many forms--beef trucked from Inner Mongolia, sleeping bags shipped from Shenzhen, building materials from Chongqing, millions of bottles of water and packets of instant noodles. Volunteers are working in areas overlooked by government relief efforts. In the village of Yongan, south of the devastated city of Beichuan, quake victims, from the very young to the very old, line the road, waiting for the citizen cavalry to arrive. "We're counting on volunteers to bring us food," says Wang Shaoqing, 82. As he speaks, children run up to the cars of volunteers, who stop and hand them food and water bottles through the windows.

The dedication of the volunteers has been covered in the state media with almost the same enthusiasm that's been given to the performance of the 120,000 People's Liberation Army troops and paramilitary police officers in the disaster area. The normally muzzled Chinese press has been freed by the information ministry to saturate the airwaves with quake coverage. The leash on the Internet was also loosened. Popular blogs have been uncensored; commentators posting to mainstream discussion forums were even allowed to criticize the government's handling of some aspects of the relief--the failure to use helicopters for the first three days after the quake, for example.

As surprising as the freedom is the sophistication of the coverage. It's on television and radio round the clock, and newspapers have put out special editions. An anchor even dressed down a reporter on air for broadcasting from the comfort of her hotel room rather than venturing into the field. "Three to five years ago, both the state media and the online world simply wouldn't have had the energy, experience or skill to do coverage on this scale," says Xiao Qiang, a Chinese-media expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's going to progress just as much in the next three to five years too. It's not going to be total media freedom, but it is a big step in the empowerment of China's civil society."

Unlikely Hero, Familiar Villains

One of the most widely praised aspects of the relief operation was the speed and scale with which the government responded. And to Chinese and foreigners alike, the man primarily responsible for that was the country's Premier, Wen Jiabao, 65. Within two hours of the earthquake, Wen was on a plane to the disaster area, and for the next four days, Chinese TV was flooded with images of the increasingly exhausted-looking leader as he rallied the relief forces, offered succor to survivors and even choked up.

Wen has long been the human face of the Communist Party. Netizens responded rapturously. "I couldn't help crying when I saw the pictures of Premier Wen in the stricken region," wrote a poster in a typical comment. "I feel very safe to have a wonderful leader like this." The praise will reassure the party hierarchy. Having long since discarded their Marxist-Leninist ideology, China's leaders are increasingly dependent on the approval of the public for their legitimacy; the survival of the party may ultimately depend on its handling of crises.

Wen's star turn notwithstanding, the real danger to the party comes from its rotten base: the county and township officials whose corruption and venality have had the greatest impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese. There's sure to be a backlash over the number of children killed by the quake, buried in their classrooms as shoddily built schools collapsed around them. In the days following the quake, blogs and online message boards teemed with demands for answers as to why so many schools were destroyed. In one structure alone--the three-story Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan--at least 600 students died. "It was built out of tofu," says Hu Yuefu, 44, of the building that collapsed and killed his 15-year-old daughter Huishans. He holds local government officials and building contractors responsible. "I hope there is an investigation," Hu says. "Otherwise, there are a thousand parents who would beat them to death."

Corruption has proved an inflammatory issue in the past--it was one of the driving forces behind the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989--and mixed with student deaths, it could be explosive. Beijing's first instinct will be to sweep the schools scandal under the rug. Much of the online anger over the collapsed schools has been deleted, and all discussion of the topic has been banned. But the University of Alberta's Jiang says that as China's civil society develops, leaders know they must adapt. "It will be extremely tempting for the control types and ideologues to use the earthquake to glorify the party and to direct this new openness toward reporting only good news," he says. "But that will be one step backward out of two steps forward--no more."

It's hard to see how Beijing can stifle the civic impulses of the millions of Chinese who have been stirred into action by the humanitarian crisis. The earthquake has exposed how much China has changed and given a fleeting glimpse of what might be. The political and cultural aftershocks will roll on for years after the ground has ceased to tremble.

With reporting by With Reporting by Austin Ramzy, Lin Yang/Yingxiu

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China's Citizen Sector Rises through Earthquake

The Earthquake has brought China NGOs from the Dark and Grey Area to the Bright. Chinese Government is Being Open and Tolerant to Them. (By Asia Week published in Hong Kong in Chinese)

China's citizen organizations, web-groups, either officially registered or not, have played a major role in earth quake relief efforts, to be reckoned with by the government. Their power of mobilization and coordination, once given the platform (recognized and accepted by the government) can play an important role in the society. The earthquake has helped proved that. (xh)


中国地下NGO地震之后见天日 政府采取宽容态度 亚洲周刊

《亚洲周刊》朱一心／中国NGO在灾后成立救灾平台，大批‘地下NGO’积极救灾，得以见天日，而政府也采取宽容态度。香港NGO以专业及良好的管理，配合大陆NGO的网络，协调统筹救灾。

汶川大地震发生后一小时，雷刚抱着电脑坐在街头，两脚仍在发抖，他找到一个消防栓，把电脑放上去，打开，上线。‘太好了！网络没中断！还有很多人在线上！ ’他立即向‘爱白成都青年同志中心’服务的一百多个QQ群发出救灾讯息：请大家立即查看所在城镇的伤者及惊惶失措的人们，为他们作出心理干预（心理辅 导），并开放自己的家居作临时避难所。

同步发生的，是深圳、广州及北京等大城市以及香港NGO（非政府组织）干事及志愿者，都第一时间往成都进发。而零三年首个获中国政府批准注册的成都NGO -成都城市河流研究会秘书长田军，以及香港NGO社区伙伴项目统筹何德贤，临时被推举为救灾NGO的指挥官。一边有动员能力，一边有管理能力，两边结成网 络，协调统筹，立即就行动起来。

一场惨痛的灾难，一夜间令大部分中国地下NGO都站到亮处，承担救灾义务，而政府也对他们包容，让一直‘发育不良’的地下NGO得见天日，政府各部门还提 供方便，为NGO建构庞大救援空间。这大批无偿的义务民间组织，过去十年来在中国散播人道关怀和培训志愿者的种子，使得这次救灾工作一呼百应。

雷刚是爱白中心的项目协调员，爱白每年均与香港及本土十多个NGO，联手为四川省培训志愿者，把种子撒播大地，大灾像一声春雷，民间的‘种籽’迅即发芽， 带动更多志愿者走上救灾之路。地震发生后二十三小时，五月十三日中午一时半，爱白向外发布一百个QQ群救灾行动的简报，并迅速与二十多个成都基地的本土及 国际NGO联合，建立‘五一二民间救助服务小组’（十五日再成立五一二中心），与另一个NGO平台‘NGO四川救灾联合办公室’，成为这次八级大地震救灾 工作的两大NGO平台。

走进成都东城根街的河流研究室，墙上贴满大张分工表，写着天涯网络三十吨物资运到、国际小母牛几十吨的物资来了……‘这么多年来，各个NGO互相合作，建 立了一个极大的草根网络，可以接触灾区很远很孤独的小村，甚至只有十余间房子，灾后没人理的农村，我们尽力转介，并尝试援助药物及物资。’来自香港、正在 研究室指挥救灾工作的何德贤，边忙着审批项目，边跟亚洲周刊记者说。走在她身旁商量工作的田军，也在多个房间穿梭忙碌。来自成都的田军说：‘我们这里什么 专家也有；NGO这东西比较复杂，政府一直很担心我们的活动会影响稳定，但现在我们有的是灵活性和有经验的志愿者。’

以公司注册名义生存了九年的爱白，平时擅长心理辅导，来自全国各地的注册心理治疗师一下子就组成了四组心理辅导组，每组分配八至十五人，负责整合及培训灾 后辅导人员，再由他们到前线工作。田军不远处，正是忙着在电脑上工作的雷刚，这位资深义工平时是位旅游从业员，他说：‘五一二平台现在已召集了一千多名志 愿者，这个民间平台很棒。’

提供有序救援工作

五一二平台的一千人是‘非常义工’，他们是在各方面有NGO工作经验的人员或专业人士，能负责带队，到灾区及医院统筹工作。何德贤又像一阵风般掠过，跟记 者补充说：‘但愿这次的NGO平台提供一个有序的志愿者救援工作，不添乱子、不滥用资源。我举个例子，我们派出其中两个团队，每组八人，到不同的医院做志 愿者管理，一所医院就有几百人报名要来当志愿者，若不管理分流，再加上不停走进医院问病情和打听亲人的生还者，前线医护人员的压力就很大，也会阻塞绿色通 道，阻碍救援。说实在，我们的小组管理效果不错，我们是替政府做“细眉细眼”的救援工作。’

葵丽、牛可佳和莎莎等三位大学生，是另一本土NGO Green SOS成员，虽然没有加入两大平台，却在大学召集义工。救灾不仅是在镜头前抬出一百小时后的生还者，还是在没人看到的政府支援的缺口把讯息和物资第一时间 传达给最需要的人。莎莎和可佳说：‘我们到了华西医院，安排志愿者工作，例如围起消毒区，帮忙需要消毒的人。’Green SOS跟其他平台上的本土NGO，大部分不获政府注册，包括专门关注流动人口和农民工的尚民社会发展研究所；北京农家女文化发展中心；擅长野外工作及登山 的Ci -山水；四川省农民工法律援助工作及曙光社区发展等，以至香港及大分份国际的NGO，都只能在中国设立办事处，而不能成立基金会，包括这次在五一二平台上 的嘉道理农场社区伙伴成都办事处、宣明会昆明办公室。

难能可贵的是，每天都有救灾的新NGO诞生。Green SOS的葵丽便与其他NGO组织者成立了山水自然保护中心，投入的是灾后重建及地震援助讯息平台，成员有建筑师及大学生。他们游离于政府组织，又有别于满 腔热血冲进灾场及医院的个别志愿者，他们其实是志愿者之母，多年来不断培训志愿者，在灾难来临前，已不停警告河流污染、树木砍伐、水库危机、社会问题等静 态灾难。

从汶川地震救援工作可看出中国政府关注人性的一面，同时注重灾后的心理辅导，但中国的大学社工系才刚起步，学生并没上实习课程，也缺少处理灾难的心理辅导 经验，爱白和无国界社工刚好填补了这块空缺。来自香港的无国界社工和四川大学华西医院心理卫生中心连成一线，香港的六位资深社工拥有南亚海啸的救灾经验， 带动社工系学生到灾区进行哀伤治疗，还有三位香港心理学家到成都培训哀伤治疗的志愿者。

震灾后，中国成为一个充满志愿者新手的国家，很多新手走到前线慰问伤者，竟哭得比伤者更伤心，哀伤治疗其实不是这回事。已在灾区工作多天的无国界社工庞志 成说：‘我们会分四个阶段处理，有宣泄悲伤、探知悲伤、肯定抗逆能力和逐步重建生活和朋友网络等，社工会凭经验配合不同活动。大海啸后，我们在印尼及泰 国，由于辅导要透过翻译，我们就有拥抱行动，烧饭聊天，是渗透式的。’他举了一个成功的例子，他们在景秀镇服务灾民，跟一个学校的小朋友做了两天活动，小 学生告诉他，晚上真的可以睡着了。

化解忧伤防止自杀

一个地方在灾难后，自杀率往往会提高，问题不仅在开解忧伤，也在把被诱发的忧郁症根源找出来，避免成为社会问题。其实，震后纷纷亮相的草根NGO，也像灾后抑郁的人们，长期潜伏，就像沱江及泯江浇灌着成都的地下水，一直淌着却没有声影。

直到五月二十日早上，地震第八天，仍不断有来自全国各地的NGO加入五一二平台和NGO四川救灾联合办公室，仍不断有新NGO成立，如果政府善用NGO资源，在这场大灾难里，将能更恰当地分配和管理志愿者，更快令灾民解除震痛。

‘大地震救灾，是中国NGO对政府的一次大型示范。’田军说。

The First Province-Level Federation of NPOs Established in Beijing

我国首家省级慈善公益组织行业联合会上月正式成立
范继辉 千龙网 / 2008-01-02
我国首家省级慈善公益组织行业联合会?D?D首都慈善公益组织联合会于2007年12月26日在北京正式宣布成立。 北 京市副市长丁向阳宣布首都慈善公益组织联合会成立并致辞。他说，首都慈善公益组织联合会成立是北京市慈善公益事业发展的大事，标志着北京的慈善事业进入一 个新的发展阶段，是从封闭、弱小走向公开、合作的新历史进程。“今后，首都的慈善事业发展将本着‘政府宏观管理、行业自律管理、机构微观管理、社会监督管 理’的目标进行。作为政府，要把慈善事业发展列入经济社会发展规划，制定和完善加快慈善事业发展的政策措施。” 北 京市民政局副局长吴文彦表示，这是全国第一家省级慈善公益组织行业联合会。“它的职能是连接政府、慈善组织和社会三方的桥梁和纽带，具有服务、协调和管理 的职能。‘联合会’将在制订慈善公益组织行业规范、培训民间慈善组织成员、监督救助项目的实施、协调资金支持等方面发挥作用，促进慈善公益事业持续、快 速、健康、有序发展。” 据记者了解，首都慈善公益组织联合会（英文名称为CAPITAL PHILANTHROPY FEDERATION，缩写为BPF）由北京市行政区域内的慈善公益组织自愿联合发起成立，是经北京市社会团体登记管理机关核准注册的非营利性社会团体法 人。其宗旨是，受政府主管部门的委托，为政府和慈善公益组织提供双向服务，发挥桥梁和纽带作用，协调政府与各会员单位之间的关系，组织各会员单位开展全市 性慈善公益活动，发挥慈善公益组织行业的指导、服务、协调的作用。首都慈善公益组织联合会成立后，将履行“制定行业规范、实施行业监督、开展协调服务、加 强公益宣传、提供信息平台、规范捐赠市场”等六大职责。 首都慈善公益组织联合会将于2008年全面展开工作，拟围绕奥运主题，重点在环境保护、助学、助残等项目上开展联合募捐和大型慈善公益宣传活动。 （转自千龙网，2007年12月26日，转载时内容有所删动）

Philanthropy's New Frontier: China

Philanthropy's New Frontier

Once reviled, charitable giving is growing in China, thanks to a new generation of wealthy individuals

By Ian Wilhelm

http://philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i23/23000701.htm

Mao Zedong formed the People's Republic of China in 1949 after a long and bloody civil war. Among

ALSO SEE: ARTICLE: Building a Spirit of Generosity ARTICLE: Scrutiny by Chinese Officials Dampens Hopes of Charitable Groups ARTICLE: American Grant Makers Seek to Deepen Their Involvement in China ARTICLE: Big Philanthropists in East Asia: a Sampling of Their Key Donations OPINION ARTICLE: In Asia, a Different 'Art of Asking'

the revolutionary leader's many victims was philanthropy.

In the communist nation he established, the government oversaw citizens' welfare from cradle to grave, while private giving was reviled as a symbol of elitist wealth and an affront to the classless society Mao preached.

Six decades later, Chinese philanthropy is re-emerging.

Thanks to its state-run capitalism, China is experiencing massive economic growth. New millionaires are being created at roughly the same pace as in the United States. While many of the affluent are known for their lavish way of life, members of this growing generation of wealthy Chinese are developing a taste for charity.

From 2003 to 2006, mainland China's five most-generous individuals gave at least $640-million to charitable causes, says the Hurun Report, an Asian personal-finance magazine that creates an annual list of the country's biggest donors.

Perhaps the best-known philanthropist is East Asia's wealthiest man, Li Ka-shing. Mr. Li, who lives in Hong Kong, which is part of China but operates under different laws, has donated more than $1-billion during the past four decades in hopes of inspiring a "culture of giving" among Chinese.

"I respect anyone who is willing to contribute his time, energy, and resources to helping the needy," he said in an interview with The Chronicle.

Cultural Differences

The rise of Chinese giving has piqued the interest of American fund raisers. While almost all foreign charities are barred from soliciting within mainland China, U.S. universities and other large nonprofit institutions are sniffing out opportunities to inspire Mr. Li and other Hong Kong tycoons to support their work.

The University of California, for example, in August announced that it had established a fund-raising arm in Hong Kong, to allow Asian donors to receive tax benefits for gifts to any of the system's campuses.

But while such efforts have borne fruit, experts in Asian philanthropy caution that charities need to be savvy about the cultural differences between East and West before expecting windfalls.

Within China itself, the government has gingerly promoted giving and charity work to help close the gap between the haves and the have-nots. While the nation has a growing rich upper class, about 10 percent of its 1.3 billion citizens continue to live on less than $1 a day.

To encourage antipoverty work and other efforts, in the past few years the government has set up regulations to govern nonprofit activities. In 2004, the government ordered homegrown foundations to donate at least 8 percent of their assets each year — U.S. law requires 5 percent — and in January the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation set the requirements that a "nonprofit public-welfare social association" must meet to receive tax-deductible donations.

China, however, is wary of giving too much financial and political independence to the country's nonprofit groups, which number around 340,000, though other estimates place the number around two million.

'Mother-in-Law Rule'

The largest and most high-profile nonprofit organizations often are run by retired government officials, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs requires charities to be sponsored by a different government agency to apply for nonprofit status. The regulation, known informally as the "mother-in-law rule," often serves as a barrier to receiving state recognition.

"You need to find a supervisor first, before you can register. But many government organizations will refuse to supervise you," says Yiyi Lu, an expert on Chinese charities and a researcher at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London.

Red tape is not the only obstacle facing philanthropy in China.

Other problems include the lack of public information about nonprofit groups, the perception that some donations are bribes to government employees, and the view that wealthy individuals make gifts to benefit their business interests.

Despite these challenges, the Asian nation's economic success and emerging status as a global superpower mean it will have a huge influence on the nonprofit world.

Indeed, some financial analysts predict that China will surpass the United States as the world's largest economy in 20 years. And if the country's cultural and bureaucratic obstacles to charity fall, Chinese philanthropy in the future may someday overtake the storied generosity of the West

What Experts Say about Situation in China

Social Entrepreneurs in China?

by Global X — last modified 2006-10-31 10:22

Today at the Skoll World Forum, Joshua Ramo (with Kissinger Associates), reminded us that 400 million people have already escaped from poverty. But to further raise rural income and improve overall life conditions, China must go through a major urbanisation phase. He also mentioned that the Chinese authorities are very pragmatic: genetically modified food is widely accepted, in large part because food security was still an issue in the recent past, and everything is done to avoid facing the famines of the 19th and 20th centuries.

He Fan, an economist, likes to say that “there are a lot of similarities between raising a five-year old and advising the Chinese government.” One has to be patient and make them feel comfortable and confident in their own capabilities so that they can reach adulthood (in the case of his son) or join the international community (in the case of China). But it is important to move slowly: sometimes, the Chinese authorities are not sure whether N.G.O.s are not in fact A.G.O.s –Anti-Government Organisations.

Considering the social upheaval that China is currently facing (massive urbanisation and globalisation), there is no doubt that social entrepreneurs have a major role to play there. Karen Tse, whose organisation concentrates on criminal law in China, reminded us that the word for ‘crisis’ in Chinese is both ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity.’ The perfect mantra for a social entrepreneur…