Love Fundraising (爱心筹), Raindrop Fundraising (水滴筹) and Fun in Funding (轻松筹), three major online platforms where people with serious illnesses can fundraise from the public, have jointly released two documents on how their platforms should self-regulate. A “self-regulation proposal” and a “self-regulation convention” for “individual appeals for help with serious diseases on online platforms” were both released on October 19.
China’s online platforms for serious illness fundraising emerged due to the inability of some families, especially in rural areas, to afford the medical bills for relatives affected by serious diseases. These platforms help patients to spread information about their predicaments through their websites and to raise money from well-wishers. According to incomplete statistics, thousands of families have received help through these online platforms, and around 200 million donations have been made. However, due to the scale and the limited accountability of these platforms, there have been numerous cases of people posting fake information.
In order to promote the healthy development of online platforms for serious illness fundraising and to help patients in genuine need, the three platforms have now committed to self-regulation. The main points in the two documents released include initiating cooperation with public philanthropic organizations, improving information auditing, constructing an information publicity system, resisting fake information and establishing a blacklist.
