With the recent rise in China’s philanthropic activities, and the increased questions of transparency, China has reached a critical stage in civil sector development and participation.

Historically fueled by large corporate donation drives, during times of disaster or as part of government relationship building, the post 5.12 earthquake era has seen a seismic shift in why, where, and how donations are being made by individuals and corporations.  It is a time where tens of billions of RMB have been brought into the system, into a system that wasn’t ready for to account for such large sums of money easily. A dynamic which has forced senior government officials and NGO leaders to publicly address issues of transparency and program efficiency, and has opened a window to 3rd parties focused on accountability and transparency.

To understand more about how these dynamics were impacting donors and influencing their decisions, and identify the existing gaps, we undertook a number of surveys recently to study the viewpoints of donors.  Studies meant to understand the knowledge base, how donation decisions are made, and their thoughts on celebrity involvement.

It was a study that started with students at one of Shanghai’s top universities due to the historically high rate of student participation in social causes, environment and otherwise, as well as from a desire to understand how students were engaging in this issue.  It included 150 people over two separate survey periods, and the big findings we found were:

1. Student donations are largely linked to on campus campaigns in the aftermath of natural disasters.  These donations are largely collected by student leaders, and donors may not know the organization the money will ultimately be given to.
2. Prior to the earthquake, donation decisions were based on the reputation of the NGO and believing the donation would have an impact, but after the earthquake the reputation of the NGO was not as important as having an impact became the focus of donors.
3. Child health and education were the two issues that donors were most concerned with environmental causes being a close third
4. Celebrity involvement in philanthropy was viewed very favorably, however a large number of respondents saw their efforts either as image building exercises or were unsure of how to measure their effectiveness. 
5. Donors, and their donations, are highly mobile, and only a minority of donors are not inclined to give to the same organization or cause twice.

Working to develop platforms with students as the base is perhaps one of the most important, and difficult, things to fully accomplish.

It is a group that we have been engaging with on a number of levels, and through our experiences we have come to understand requires a completely different approach and motivated by very different things, but that if you can effectively develop a program that engages students you can build a strong base of support that becomes a source of scale for impact and programs.