A report on China’s online philanthropy produced by the China Philanthropy Research Institute and the College of International Charity of Beijing Normal University was officially released this Tuesday in Beijing. According to the authors, the report on China’s Online Philanthropy Development in 2017 marks that China’s online philanthropy has moved into its third phase. In this phase, the innovation inherent to the internet and the kindness of philanthropy are combined to promote the development of online philanthropy.
In addition to summarizing the achievements of China’s online philanthropy in 2017, the report provides seven suggestions for its future development, which are listed below.
- Technical innovations, especially blockchain technology, provide the possibility to enhance the transparency of the sector. The Charity Law emphasizes the improvements of feedback mechanisms for donation information, so philanthropic organizations need to improve their abilities in project management, financial management and organizational management to make sure of their legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
- Although there are significant differences between the officially designated online fundraising platforms, all these platforms will continue to flourish if they can discover their own development patterns.
- There will be unavoidable contradictions in several areas, such as the data of individual donors and the use of enterprises’ resources, along with the rapidly growing relations and cooperation between philanthropic organizations and online fundraising platforms. Therefore, maintaining a positive interaction between philanthropic organizations and online fundraising platforms will be one of the most important things in the future.
- The Charity Law can be seen as a top-level design which aims at solving the existing problems. It is thus important to improve the relevant measures to make sure of their efficiency in the area of online philanthropy.
- Some controversial events, such as the “you with the same birthday” online fundraising initiative and the Luo Er case, have exposed some of the problems of online public fundraising. It is thus urgent to establish a national management committee for online fundraising.
- There is a need to build a bridge between online finance and online philanthropy, and make better use of the internet and finance to explore the unique mode of China’s online philanthropy.
- Since there are more and more good cases of innovation in online philanthropy, the government needs to play a leading role to improve the incentive system and strengthen promotional efforts.
