The recently released <Transparency Report of China Grassroots Philanthropic Organizations (2015)>（《中国民间公益组织透明度发展研究报告(2015)》) has provided some interesting facts regarding the development of Chinese NGOs. Launched by the Union of Self-Disciplinary Organizations (USDO), the report includes 1738 philanthropic institutions, covering 17 domains of activity. The average score given by the 2015 China Grassroots Transparency Index (GTI) was 32.44, which represents a big progress compared to the previous year’s 27.87. Even so, there is still a long way to go. The institutions that scored highest are those that focus on the handicapped, while those that scored lowest are the ones active in the field of labour and rights, which received an average score of 25.08.
A regression was observed in the area of financial information (财务信息), while progress has been registered in other second level indexes—basic information (基本信息), management information (治理与管理信息), and project information (项目信息). The lack of competition among philanthropic organizations and the capability issues of some institutions have contributed to this problem, says Wang Liang from NFriend (恩友财务). Moreover, according to Hu Xiaojun, the deputy dean of the School of Philanthropy, Sun Yat-Sen University, the organizations are prone to be more transparent towards institutions of power rather than the public, which has lowered their social credibility.
(The average GTI of Chinese grassroots organization from 2013 to 2015)
