The value of giving has been rooted in Chinese culture for thousands of years. For both Confucianism and Buddhism, benevolence is a core value. Traditionally, “helping and caring for others” is highly revered by the Chinese. With continued economic growth and social diversification, philanthropy in China is moving towards a new era of greater maturity and rationality.
At the end of 2020, a two-year research report entitled Everyday Giving in Chinawas released, covering 4,404 valid questionnaires in six provinces. It gave us a comprehensive picture of the current public donations in China, answering questions like who is giving, how giving happens, to whom. After that, a group of high school students from the Dominos Youth Fund enthusiastic about social impact also surveyed the giving behaviors of people around them (91 valid questionnaires from 16 provinces and cities). Although the sample size of Dominos Youth was relatively small and could not represent the full picture of public donation, the surveyed participants represented a different set of individuals from those in the published report in terms of educational background, donation frequency, focus area, etc. Comparing these two surveys which have different perspectives, we can pry out the future trend of public donations in China.
1. With the improvement of education, citizens have more charity awareness and social responsibility.
The respondents of Everyday Giving in China were widely distributed in 72 villages/communities in 6 provinces and cities. 67% of them said that they had not donated in the past 12 months. The survey of Dominos youth, on the other hand, was conducted mainly in urban areas. 37% of them graduated from college, 40% graduated with a master’s degree or above, and 84% of them had donated money in the past 12 months. It is clear from these statistics that the higher the level of education, the stronger the charity awareness and sense of social responsibility of citizens.
2. Individual donations will play an important role in the future and the amount of donation has a large room for growth
Despite the explosive wealth accumulation, charitable giving in China is lagging far behind the U.S. According to the Giving USA Foundation, the total amount of charitable Giving in 2019 in the US had reached $449.6 billion, while in China it was just over 150 billion yuan ($23.2 billion). In the United States, individuals accounted for 69 percent of donations, while corporations accounted for only about 5%. In China, enterprises had always been the main force of China’s charitable donations. According to the 2019 China Charitable Donation Report, more than 60% of the country’s donations came from enterprises, while individual contributions accounted for only 26%. Consequently, one might jump to the conclusion that the charity consciousness of Chinese citizens is relatively weak.
But the survey data of Dominos Youth gave us great confidence: due to the high economic level and educational level of the surveyed groups, the enthusiasm and generosity of individual donations were significantly higher than the national average. The number of gifts between 5,000 and 10,000 Yuan (between $775 and $1,550) accounted for 5%, those over 1,000 yuan ($155) accounted for 30%, and those over 500 yuan ($77.5) accounted for 51%. It is foreseeable that the path of charitable donation in the future will not only be a one-way street for enterprises, institutions, and some celebrity philanthropists but also become a major trend for the public.
3. The field of individual giving will gradually transition from relief to development and become increasingly diversified.
Both surveys show that Chinese donors are more focused on addressing immediate social needs, as opposed to long-term issues. The vast majority of donations – more than 85 percent – have been directed to urgent needs, including health care, disaster relief, education, and poverty alleviation.
However, if we take a closer look, we can see that donations in the field of education only accounted for 10.8% in the research report Everyday Giving in China, while in the survey result of the Dominos Youth donations in the field of education reached 31%. At the same time, according to the research data of Dominos Youth, contributions in the areas of culture and art, sports activities, scientific research, public advocacy, etc., were also higher than the data in theEveryday Giving in China report.
In addition to the changes shown in the data, we can also perceive from a series of donation reports in recent years thatthe focus of individual giving in China has gradually shifted from relief to development as the poverty standard has increased with economic growth and as the society has progressed.
Since our cohort at the Dominos Youth Fund decided to focus on environmental issues, we paid special attention to environmental giving. In the two questionnaire reports, we found that only about 2% of the donations were invested in the ecological environment. It is understood that the number and resource input of environmental nonprofit organizations in China are seriously insufficient, and the amount of environmental donations is relatively small. As environmental and ecological problems in China become more and more prominent, environmental protection is bound to receive more attention.
4. As philanthropy becomes more mature, citizens will pay more attention to following up the use and result of the donations. Transparency is a key element for NGOs to achieve sustainable development.
According to Everyday Giving in China, 51.1% of people didn’t pay particular attention to where their donations go. Only 6.8% cared about the operation of recipient organizations. In comparison, 56.58% of respondents from the Dominos Youth survey were concerned about how the money was spent, and 53.95% were concerned about whether the situation of the beneficiaries was improved. There were also 23.68% of people concerned about the operation of the recipient organization.
Meanwhile, we also noticed that for the ways of donation, Everyday Giving in China showed that the majority of donations were made through crowdfunding platforms for individuals with serious diseases (55.5%) and directly to beneficiaries (32.4%). In the Dominos Youth survey, the most popular ways of giving money were to donate to nonprofit organizations (68.42 %) and through online help or support platforms (53.95%), while only 12 percent gave directly to beneficiaries. Donating money to nonprofit organizations rather than directly to individuals is also a trend of more rational philanthropy.
These two sets of data undoubtedly reflect that the donation pattern of tracking process and watching effectiveness is closely related to the education level of the participants. With the improvement of people’s cultural literacy and civic awareness, people’s awareness of charity will become more mature.
5. Social media is an effective Chanel for the public，and internet fundraising may become an important form of public donation.
In recent years , the Internet has provided a more convenient way for the public to participate in philanthropy. Both reports show that the most effective information channel is “social media.”
The new fundraising method based on mobile social networks enables every citizen to become a participant and evangelist of social good. There is an automatic snowball effect among participants. From the traditional manner of being centralized and authoritative, charity is gradually moving to a stage where everyone can voluntarily play a part.
At the same time, another advantage of Internet fundraising is the development and application of big data on donor information, within the scope of ethical compliance. Through the analysis of big data, NGOs can better serve donors and further promote donations.
According to the analysis of the series of data above and the cases around us, we can feel that time is changing, technology is changing, but people’s original aspiration to do good has never changed. As the pioneer of the youth grantmakers, we will focus our vision on environmental issues, launch fundraising activities through the Internet, and make a grant to qualified NGOs to promote the sustainable development of the community environment.
References：
- 图解 | 《中国公众捐款》定量研究关键数据. (2021, February 7). Sohu.
- Yong, W. (2020, September 22). 中慈联发布《2019年度中国慈善捐助报告》 我国慈善捐赠的主要来源依然是企业. China Philanthropy Times.
- Giving USA Foundation, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
- 北师大中国公益研究院. (2017, February 21). 重磅 | 6年持续观察，看中国大额捐赠趋势-行业观察-NGO新闻-NGO信息中心-中国发展简报网站. China Development Brief.
- CDB Team. (2016, June 22). The 2016 China Charity Ranking: An Analysis of Charitable Donations in 2015 – China Development Brief. China Development Brief.